Berlin Becomes Dual HQ for New AI Powerhouse Cohere
From left to right: Evan Solomon, Canadian Minister for Artificial Intelligence, Aidan Gomez, Co-founder and CEO of Cohere, Federal Minister for Digital Affairs Karsten Wildberger and Samuel Weinbach, Co-CEO of Aleph Alpha.
Canada's Cohere and Germany's Aleph Alpha are joining forces, and Berlin is set to become one of the new company's two headquarters. According to the company's press release, the combined business will operate globally as Cohere while staying firmly rooted on both sides of the Atlantic, with R&D centers and leadership roles split between Canada and Germany.
The plan builds on a partnership the two companies first announced back in April. Once the deal closes, which still requires regulatory approval, Cohere's headcount will grow past 1,000 people. The company will be dual-headquartered in Berlin and Toronto, while Aleph Alpha's Heidelberg office stays on as a research hub.
Two Aleph Alpha leaders are moving up. Co-CEO Ilhan Scheer becomes Cohere's Chief Operating Officer, steering the company's global operations, and co-founder Samuel Weinbach takes over as Chief Research Officer, continuing his work on language model training and explainability.
The companies frame the merger around "sovereign AI," meaning AI systems that meet the data protection and control standards of both Germany and Canada. As part of that push, Cohere is also deepening its partnership with Schwarz Digits to bring sovereign AI to STACKIT, the sovereign cloud platform run by the Schwarz Group.
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said the goal is to give organizations powerful AI without forcing them to give up control over their technology. The deal is expected to close later this year.