Cohere secures federal backing to build multibillion-dollar Canadian AI data centre

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.

Cohere is partnering with CoreWeave to build this facility, which is expected to come online in 2025.

The feds have committed up to $240 million CAD towards the effort. This marks the government’s first investment through its recently unveiled $2-billion Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, which is aimed at ensuring the country’s AI sector has access to the infrastructure it needs. The strategy includes $700 million to finance the construction and expansion of commercial AI data centres in Canada.

The Government of Canada said that Cohere’s new facility, which is expected to come online in 2025, 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.

This investment is designed to help Cohere draw in additional private capital to support this project, in which Cohere is also expected to make a significant investment.

“We’re proud the Canadian government is further investing in the AI industry to build a supercomputer in Canada,” a Cohere spokesperson told BetaKit over email. “This support will enable Cohere to continue to train and develop state-of-the-art AI technology that serves the needs of global enterprises.”

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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. Cohere’s backers include PSP Investments, Cisco, AMD, Export Development Canada, Fujitsu, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, and Oracle, among others.

In a letter to employees and investors this week, Cohere co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez said the firm plans to focus on building more tailored models for businesses as companies struggle to figure out how to adopt generative AI.

Feature image courtesy Minister François-Philippe Champagne via X.