Canada just bought a stake in its own AI champion

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on October 29 in Montréal that the Government of Canada will make an equity investment of up to $1.6 billion in Toronto-based Cohere, alongside private investors including NVIDIA, Bell and Schwarz Group, paid in stages with regular reporting on the company's progress.

In return Cohere will create at least 1,000 new high-paying Canadian technical jobs by 2030, commit at least $1.7 billion to additional computing infrastructure in Canada by 2030, maintain its Canadian incorporation and headquarters, invest in Canadian research partnerships, and keep working with the Canadian AI Safety Institute.

Carney framed it as sovereignty, not venture capital: “Canada's investment in Cohere is an investment in choice, in security, and in our ability to live our lives as we choose” — a government buying a slice of its own AI company so Canadian businesses and governments keep control of where their data is stored and used.