The funding is designed to help Cohere attract other investors to put in money to complete the construction of the data centre, which is targeted to be online next year.DADO RUVIC/Reuters
The federal government is providing up to $240-million to help Toronto-based artificial-intelligence company Cohere Inc. build a new multibillion-dollar data centre in Canada that will power AI models, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Friday.
The project is the first that Ottawa has backed through its $2-billion AI infrastructure program, which was announced in April. The funding is designed to help Cohere attract other investors to build the data centre, which is targeted to be online next year.
“The government is absolutely committed to providing the support that you need to attract private capital, to cut through any red tape that you are encountering in getting these data centres built,” Ms. Freeland said to an audience of Cohere employees at its Toronto office.
A spokesperson for Cohere, which was recently valued at US$5.5-billion, declined to provide further details, including about the company’s own financial contributions.
Building and running AI models requires graphics processing units (GPUs) and other pricey infrastructure. Canada has fallen behind in providing this equipment, referred to as “compute,” to public-sector researchers, while businesses have faced difficulties accessing compute at affordable prices. The government is trying to address these issues through its AI infrastructure strategy.
Cohere and other Canadian companies will be able to access the new data centre. The location of the facility was not disclosed, nor were any details provided about its capacity.
Cohere co-founder and chief executive Aidan Gomez said on Friday that the facility will use GPUs from Nvidia Corp., the world’s biggest supplier of chips for AI.
“The cutting-edge infrastructure will allow us to train our next models here in Canada,” he said. “It’s crucial that we help Canada retain our world-class talent and our intellectual property by creating an environment where AI companies not only grow, but thrive.”
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CoreWeave Inc., an AI data-centre company based in New Jersey, will also be involved in building the new Canadian facility. The company did not immediately return requests to comment.
Ottawa announced more details of its AI compute strategy on Thursday. About $1-billion will be used to build publicly owned supercomputing infrastructure, while up to $700-million will be set aside to subsidize building new data centres and expanding existing ones, in partnership with industry.
The remaining $300-million will be used to pay AI compute costs for small and medium-sized businesses, though that program does not launch until next spring and the details have not yet been made public.
Cohere was founded in 2019 by Mr. Gomez, Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang. The company builds large language models, the technology that powers chatbots and other applications.
Cohere has set itself apart from competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic by focusing on business applications instead of consumer products, and has worked with Oracle Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and McKinsey & Company.