Toronto-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) startup Cohere plans to build a multibillion-dollar AI data centre in Canada with the support of the federal government.

The feds have committed up to $240 million CAD towards the effort in what marks their first investment through the recently unveiled $2-billion Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy.

The Government of Canada said this new facility will provide computing power to Cohere and other Canadian technology companies.

BetaKit has confirmed with Cohere that the company is partnering with American cloud computing firm CoreWeave to build this facility. Its exact location has yet to be determined, and no further financial details have been released at this time.

Founded in 2019 by former Google researchers, Cohere builds large-language models that power chatbots and other generative AI applications. Unlike some of its rivals, which include OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and Google, Cohere caters exclusively to businesses. 

Earlier this year, Cohere closed $500-million USD in Series D financing at a $5.5-billion valuation, making it one of Canada’s most valuable tech startups.

Developing…

Feature image courtesy Cohere.

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