Toronto AI company Cohere to receive $240M from Ottawa to help get data centre built

By: Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press Posted:

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TORONTO - Artificial intelligence firm Cohere will receive up to $240 million from the federal government to boost its computing capacity.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/12/2024 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Artificial intelligence firm Cohere will receive up to $240 million from the federal government to boost its computing capacity.

The money headed for the Toronto company, which specializes in enterprise AI, is meant to help Cohere secure enough private capital to get its partners to build an AI data centre.

That centre is expected to be in operation in Canada by 2025.

Artificial intelligence firm Cohere will receive up to $240 million from the federal government to boost its computing capacity. Aidan Gomez, co-founder of Cohere, attends the Collision Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, June 18, 2024.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Artificial intelligence firm Cohere will receive up to $240 million from the federal government to boost its computing capacity. Aidan Gomez, co-founder of Cohere, attends the Collision Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, June 18, 2024.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

The government’s funding is part of a strategy it recently launched to invest up to $700 million to increase domestic AI compute capacity.

Canada has recently slipped several notches in global rankings meant to measure the country’s AI capacity, infrastructure and talent.

Experts have said reversing these trends will rely on Canada scaling up its energy capacity, data centres and chips to accommodate AI’s rapid advancement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.

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