Cohere opens Series E targeting up to C$7 billion, leans on neocloud providers for compute

The Toronto AI company closed the first tranche of a record Canadian funding round at a C$35.7 billion valuation and is weighing more neocloud partnerships Cohere has closed the initial tranche of a Series E round that aims to raise up to C$7 billion, or approximately $5.13 billion USD. The first close came on October 29, 2026, at a post-money valuation of C$35.7 billion. If the full amount comes in, it would be the largest funding round ever for a Canadian technology company. The Toronto-based AI firm also has a clear plan for much of the money: more computing power, and more of it in Canada. Cohere is also considering partnerships with neocloud providers to expand its AI computing capacity. Who is writing the checks The Schwarz Group is leading the round. The Government of Canada is in. So is Bell Ventures. Nvidia, which sells the chips everyone in AI is fighting over, is back as a returning supporter. The federal government’s piece is the most interesting. Ottawa has committed to an equity stake of up to C$1.6 billion. That money depends on Cohere making infrastructure investments. The neocloud angle Cohere has already signed multi-year agreements for GPU clusters with BUZZ HPC ...