AI startup Cohere in talks to raise roughly $500 million to $1 billion

Cohere, a Toronto-based startup developing artificial intelligence for businesses, is in talks with investors to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in new funding, according to a person familiar with the matter. The fundraising effort comes as AI startups continue to attract significant investment, following a surge in interest sparked by the popularity of AI software applications like ChatGPT.

Cohere, which was founded in 2019, has already raised $270 million in funding, and is now valued at $2.2 billion. The company's technology focuses on business applications of AI, such as helping professionals to be more efficient at their jobs. For example, Cohere has helped one specialist business customer to simplify the process of searching for infectious disease information.

In an interview with Reuters, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said that the company is using the new funding to develop its AI technology, recruit talent, and grow its sales activities. Gomez also said that Cohere is working to provide its technology through multiple cloud platforms and has avoided taking financing in the form of credits for its own cloud usage.

The fundraising effort comes at a time when executives are increasingly looking to AI as a way to improve their businesses. At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos this week, executives told Reuters that they are eager to determine how to make money from AI.

Cohere is not the only AI startup that is looking to raise money. Anthropic, another AI startup, is reportedly in talks to raise $750 million in a funding round led by Menlo Ventures.

The surge in investment in AI startups is being driven by a number of factors, including the increasing availability of data, the development of more powerful computing hardware, and the growing popularity of AI applications like ChatGPT.

It is still early days for AI, but it is clear that the technology has the potential to transform a wide range of industries. Cohere and other AI startups are at the forefront of this revolution, and it will be interesting to see how they use their new funding to shape the future of AI.