Cohere Reaches $7B Valuation with $100M Raise and AMD Partnership
Cohere has secured an additional $100 million, lifting its valuation to $7 billion just one month after a $500 million raise in August. That earlier round, which was oversubscribed, had placed the company’s valuation at $6.8 billion. The rapid follow-up highlights strong investor confidence in Cohere’s strategy and technology. New backers in this extension include the Business Development Bank of Canada and Nexxus Capital Management, known for its network in Singapore.
Although Cohere’s valuation marks significant growth, it still lags far behind major competitors. OpenAI recently reached an estimated $500 billion valuation, while Anthropic rose to $183 billion earlier this month. Nevertheless, Cohere remains committed to carving its niche in enterprise AI, focusing on sovereignty and control over local data.
Strategic Partnership with AMD
Alongside the funding news, Cohere announced a partnership with AMD, which is also one of its investors. Through this deal, Cohere’s full Command-family of AI models including vision, translation, and reasoning can now operate on AMD’s Instinct GPUs. This move positions AMD as a competitive alternative to Nvidia, which dominates the GPU market. Furthermore, AMD will adopt Cohere internally as a customer, strengthening the collaboration. Importantly, Cohere confirmed it will continue supporting Nvidia GPUs, ensuring flexibility for enterprises that rely on different hardware platforms.
Enterprise Focus and AI Sovereignty
Founded in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, one of the authors of the landmark “transformer” paper, Cohere has consistently targeted enterprise applications of AI. The company’s strategy emphasises AI sovereignty, offering businesses the ability to maintain control over their data and models without relying on foreign entities. This approach resonates with global enterprises navigating regulatory pressures and privacy concerns. By combining fresh capital with strategic partnerships, Cohere aims to reinforce its relevance in a highly competitive AI landscape and strengthen its appeal among data-conscious enterprises.
