Cohere Hits $6.8B Valuation with AMD, Nvidia, Salesforce Investment
Toronto-based Cohere has solidified its position in the fiercely competitive artificial intelligence landscape, announcing an oversubscribed $500 million funding round this week that propels its valuation to $6.8 billion. This significant financial injection marks a substantial increase from its $5.5 billion valuation just over a year ago, when it also secured $500 million.
Founded in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, a co-author of the seminal “Attention Is All You Need” paper that laid the groundwork for modern AI, Cohere was an early pioneer in large language model (LLM) development. While it might have seemed a “sleeper entrant” in recent times compared to the more consumer-facing giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, Cohere has consistently pursued a distinct strategy: providing secure LLMs tailored specifically for enterprise clients, rather than adapting consumer-grade models for business use.
This enterprise-first approach has resonated deeply within the corporate world, leading to high-profile partnerships with major players in enterprise technology, including Oracle, Dell, Bell, Fujitsu, LG’s consulting service CNS, and SAP. Financial institutions such as RBC are also among its clientele, and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan has joined its investor ranks in this latest round. Cohere’s commitment to security is a cornerstone of its market appeal, openly stating that it represents a “security-first category of enterprise AI that is simply not being met by repurposed consumer models.”
Beyond its technological advancements and strategic partnerships, Cohere has also been active in the ongoing AI talent war. The company recently made two significant hires, bringing in Joelle Pineau, a long-time research head at Meta, as its new Chief AI Officer. Additionally, Francois Chadwick, formerly a finance executive at Uber and CFO at Shield AI, has joined Cohere as its new Chief Financial Officer, transitioning from his consulting role at KPMG. These appointments signal Cohere’s intent to scale its operations and enhance its leadership in both research and financial strategy.
The latest funding round was co-led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital. Radical Ventures boasts a portfolio including companies like Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, Hebbia, and Writer, while Inovia is a prominent Canadian venture firm known for investments in Poolside and Neo4j. Crucially, the round also saw continued participation from existing strategic investors such as AMD Ventures, Nvidia, and Salesforce Ventures, underscoring the enduring confidence of major tech players in Cohere’s vision and execution.
Notably, while Oracle had previously backed Cohere in 2023, the database giant was not named as an ongoing participant in this latest funding round. This absence is particularly interesting given Oracle’s increasingly close ties to OpenAI, notably through its involvement in the massive “Stargate” data center building project. This dynamic highlights the complex and shifting alliances within the AI ecosystem, as major cloud and hardware providers navigate their relationships with various foundational model developers. Despite these broader industry realignments, Cohere’s substantial new funding and growing roster of enterprise partners reaffirm its distinct and valuable niche in the rapidly expanding world of artificial intelligence.