The Walrus: Cohere Is Canada’s Biggest AI Hope. Why Is It So American?
Cohere, a $6.8-billion Canadian AI firm with more than 400 employees, is increasingly central to Ottawa’s push for “tech sovereignty,” even as it partners heavily with U.S. companies. Julie Sobowale notes that despite federal funding for a new data centre, much of the money will “flow to a U.S. company, which is just ridiculous,” as Cohere plans to rely on American infrastructure provider CoreWeave and maintains ties with U.S. analytics giant Palantir. Cohere is also facing a major copyright lawsuit from Canadian and U.S. publishers, which it has called “misguided and frivolous.” Sobowale notes that “to avoid a potentially problematic bind, the federal government could take its cue from the European Union’s AI Act,” otherwise, “the government could be risking the very data sovereignty it’s trying to defend.”
