We’re not waiting for others to decide the future of AI. We’re building it here, the right way.
Yesterday in Montréal, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that the Government of Canada will commit to making an equity investment of up to $1.6 billion in Cohere, a Canadian company founded in Toronto that builds secure, sovereign AI for businesses and governments.
This is a commercial investment, made alongside private investors including Bell, NVIDIA, and Schwarz Group. Canada has secured strong terms, and Canadians will own a stake in Cohere and share in its growth. The deal means at least 1,000 new high-paying jobs and at least $1.7 billion in new computing infrastructure in Canada by 2030.
Why it matters – trust, opportunity and sovereign control.
Trust: Cohere builds practical, efficient AI that organizations can run on their own systems. That keeps sensitive data in-house and brings costs down. Canada’s largest banks and telecom companies already rely on Cohere, and the federal public service is already using it to serve Canadians better.
Opportunity: Canada helped pioneer modern AI – Geoffrey Hinton in Toronto, Richard Sutton in Edmonton, Yoshua Bengio in Montréal. Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez helped write the paper behind today’s large language models while he was a student at the University of Toronto, then came home to build here. For decades, Canadians backed that research, but too often the companies and the value they created grew somewhere else. This investment helps make sure Cohere grows here, builds here, and creates good jobs here.
Sovereign control: When the AI that runs our economy and public services is built in Canada, Canadians decide how it works and who it answers to. Canada is investing in the ability to build AI, not just buy it, and keep more of the jobs, infrastructure, and benefits at home.
What Canadians get – as part of the investment, Cohere will:
Create at least 1,000 new high-paying technical jobs in Canada by 2030;
Commit at least $1.7 billion to additional computing infrastructure in Canada by 2030;
Keep its Canadian incorporation and a Canadian headquarters;
Invest in research partnerships in Canada and create opportunities for students and recent graduates;
Keep working with the Canadian AI Safety Institute on the safe development and use of advanced AI.
The investment will be made in stages, with regular reporting on Cohere’s progress, including jobs and investment in Canada. That keeps the company accountable for delivering for Canadians. Cohere’s recent merger with Germany’s Aleph Alpha brings together Canadian and European AI expertise and opens new markets in Europe. It’s a concrete example of what Canada and Europe can build together.
AI is the next great transformation. This is the moment that decides where it is built, how it is governed and whom it serves. Canada is choosing to build it here.
