Cohere completes first close of funding round at $20.5 billion valuation

Bloomberg reports Cohere has completed the first close of a round expected to total up to $5 billion. Its $20.5 billion valuation is roughly triple its value a year ago. Canada's government has taken a C$1.6 billion stake, and Nvidia has committed funding. The Information quotes Cohere chief AI officer Joelle Pineau saying the company is looking at neocloud partnerships because building data centers is not its expertise.