Ottawa to invest up to $1.6 billion in Canadian AI company Cohere

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that the federal government will invest up to $1.6 billion in Canadian artificial intelligence company Cohere. He announced the investment in Montréal while welcoming European Union leaders to a summit aimed at forging closer ties.

“We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don’t know or by whom we don’t trust. We’re building it right here in the right way,” Carney said.

In April, Cohere announced it would merge with Germany’s Aleph Alpha and said the combined company would be “anchored in” Germany and Canada. Carney called the partnership a concrete example of what Canada and Europe can build together, and said Cohere would remain Canadian under the agreement.

Carney said the government was making the investment on a commercial basis alongside private investors, including Nvidia, Bell and Germany’s Schwarz Group. Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said at the announcement that the company, founded seven years ago, is now “one of the very few companies in the world building frontier AI technology at a global scale.” He also described it as the largest AI company outside the U.S. and China.

A government news release issued Thursday said the funding would be provided in stages, with regular reporting on the company’s commitments. Those include creating at least 1,000 “new high-paying Canadian technical jobs” and investing at least $1.7 billion in more computing infrastructure by 2030.

The government also said Cohere would maintain its Canadian headquarters and incorporation, invest in research partnerships, create opportunities for students and graduates, and continue working with the Canadian AI Safety Institute. The release said the investment would allow Cohere to develop more advanced models and products, expand its computing infrastructure and grow its Canadian workforce to serve more businesses and governments in Canada and around the world. Building that capacity at home, it said, would give Canadian businesses and governments more choice in adopting AI and greater control over sensitive information.

The government announced in 2024 that it would provide up to $240 million to Cohere to boost its computing capacity. In 2025, Ottawa signed an agreement with the company to identify areas where AI could improve public service operations. Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has often cited Cohere as part of Canada’s AI strength, saying Canada is one of only a few countries with a large language model.