From left: Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, Cohere chief executive Aidan Gomez, Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation Karsten Wildberger, and Aleph Alpha co-founder Samuel Weinbach at ALL IN in Montréal on 16 September 2026 Credit: Cohere “No government or enterprise should have to choose between capable AI and control over their technology,” said Aidan Gomez, Cohere’s chief executive. Canada’s Cohere and Germany’s Aleph Alpha have signed a definitive business combination agreement, the companies said in their announcement on 16 September. The deal follows the planned combination they announced in April. It still needs final regulatory approval.
The combined company will operate globally as Cohere. The companies expect the deal to close later this year. Two headquarters, more than 1,000 staff Cohere plans to have two headquarters, in Berlin and Toronto. Aleph Alpha’s office in Heidelberg will stay open as a research centre.
The deal will take Cohere’s headcount to more than 1,000 people in North America and Europe. Both companies were founded in 2019. Aleph Alpha, based in Heidelberg, employs about 200 people at four locations in Germany. Cohere has raised about $1.6bn, according to the announcement.
Its investors include Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Oracle and Cisco. Gomez, who co-founded Cohere, said in the announcement: “No government or enterprise should have to choose between capable AI and control over their technology. That belief is exactly why we’re joining forces with Aleph Alpha to enhance the talent, infrastructure and institutional trust behind our mission. Together, we’ll move faster to meet the rising global demand for frontier AI that’s powerful enough to compete, but secure and governable enough to trust.” New leadership roles Two Aleph Alpha executives will join Cohere’s leadership once the deal closes.
Ilhan Scheer, Aleph Alpha’s co-chief executive, will become Cohere’s chief operating officer. He previously founded the data analytics company fable+, which Accenture acquired. Samuel Weinbach, Aleph Alpha’s co-founder and co-chief research officer, will become Cohere’s chief research officer. Scheer said: “Over the past twelve months, we have sharpened our focus on specialized language models for governments and regulated industries.
Cohere is a strong strategic fit for this work, bringing global reach and deployment capabilities that complement our research expertise. Together, we can bring what our team has built to more organizations worldwide. This strengthens our ability to deliver on our mission: giving organizations control over the AI they rely on.” “Digital sovereignty is not about going it alone” The companies say Cohere will be the first foundation model developer based on both sides of the Atlantic. It will offer AI that meets the sovereignty requirements of both Canada and Germany.
It will follow both countries’ rules on sensitive data and technology. Its structure includes safeguards and oversight mechanisms. Cohere will also expand its work with Schwarz Group, the owner of Lidl and Kaufland. The aim is to deliver sovereign AI on STACKIT, the cloud service of Schwarz Digits.
Christian Müller, chief executive of Schwarz Digits, said in the announcement: “Digital sovereignty is not about going it alone, but about strategically joining forces.” In July, it emerged that Airbus was moving its most critical apps off AWS to a French cloud. On 8 September, a Capgemini survey found that most large organisations think full digital sovereignty is unrealistic. Two days later, TNW reported that Nvidia and Palantir are selling a sovereign AI stack. On 15 September, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said Europe must build its own AI or risk being cut off.
A second Cohere deal the same day Earlier on 16 September, OpenText and Cohere announced a partnership at the ALL IN AI conference, according to OpenText’s announcement. OpenText will add Cohere’s North agent platform and its models to its own Aviator AI agents. It will also resell Cohere-supported products. The joint product targets governments and regulated industries.
OpenText expects it to reach customers in early 2027.
Leave a Reply