Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA: “The team at Cohere has made foundational contributions to generative AI.”

Toronto-based AI company Cohere has raised $270 million in a funding round led by Inovia Capital and featuring investors such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), Salesforce Ventures, and SentinelOne (NYSE: S). The funds will support Cohere’s language models used in chatbots, search engines, and other AI applications.

The company deliberately avoided taking a large investment from a single cloud company to maintain independence. Schroders Capital, Mirae Asset, Thomvest Ventures, and an investment arm affiliated with Deutsche Telekom also participated in the funding. (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

OpenAI, creator of AI chatbot ChatGPT, has a close relationship with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which invested $10 billion. Cohere’s valuation now stands at $2.1 billion to $2.2 billion, surpassing earlier reports of $2 billion.

The success of AI firms like Cohere comes amid a challenging time for Canadian tech startups. Investors recognize the potential of AI, with Nvidia shares rising by about 170% this year. Cohere, founded in 2019, has already raised $165 million.

Its language models are used by Spotify, Casetext, and LivePerson, and it has expanded to support over 100 languages. Cohere’s CEO and co-founder, Mr. Aidan Gomez, played a significant role as a co-author of a research paper in 2017 that introduced a novel approach for computers to generate and comprehend language. This technique has since become a standard in various generative applications.

The company focuses on close collaboration with enterprise customers, prioritizing privacy, security, speed, and cost-effectiveness.

Governments worldwide are working on AI regulations, and concerns are rising about AI’s impact. However, Cohere’s CEO advocates responsible AI development, highlighting its potential for improving healthcare and economic growth.

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