last month that Cohere was in talks to raise money at a US$2-billion valuation. A source familiar with the matter said the latest round values the company between US$2.1-billion and US$2.2-billion. The Globe is not naming the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal.
While some have cautioned that AI is caught in a hype cycle, many investors are nevertheless buying in. Nvidia, which supplies chips for data centres used to train and power AI systems, has seen its shares soar about 170 per cent this year. Its current market cap is just shy of $1-trillion. Inovia partner and chief technology officer Steve Woods was working at Google when he crossed paths with Mr. Gomez and Mr. Frosst, and has been talking to Cohere for at least a year about investing. Part of the attraction, he said, is the high barrier to building a company such as Cohere. “All you need is a time machine, a billion dollars, a hundred of the best researchers in the world, and access to a lot of specialized compute resources,” Mr. Woods said.