Cohere raises $500M to beat back generative AI rivals

Cohere, a generative AI startup co-founded by ex-Google researchers, has raised $500 million in new cash from investors including Cisco, AMD and Fujitsu. Bloomberg says that the round, which also had participation from Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and Canada’s export credit agency EDC, values Toronto-based Cohere at $5.5 billion. That’s more than double the startup’s valuation from last June, when it secured $270 million from Inovia Capital and others, and brings Cohere’s total raised to $970 million. Josh Gartner, head of communications at Cohere, told TechCrunch that the...