Cohere Raises $100 Million, Reaches $7 Billion Valuation and Partners with AMD
Key Points
- Cohere raised an additional $100 million, raising its valuation to $7 billion.
- The company signed a partnership with AMD to run Command‑family models on Instinct GPUs.
- Cohere continues to support Nvidia GPUs alongside the new AMD compatibility.
- Co‑founder Aidan Gomez, a transformer paper author, highlighted the focus on enterprise AI sovereignty.
- New investors include the Business Development Bank of Canada and Nexxus Capital Management.
- The announcement was delivered at a TechCrunch event in San Francisco.
Enterprise AI model maker Cohere announced a $100 million extension to its recent financing, pushing its valuation to $7 billion. The company also unveiled a partnership with AMD, enabling its Command-family models to run on AMD Instinct GPUs while maintaining support for Nvidia hardware. Co‑founder Aidan Gomez, noted for his role in the original transformer paper, highlighted the focus on enterprise customers seeking AI sovereignty. New investors include the Business Development Bank of Canada and Nexxus Capital Management. The announcement was made at a TechCrunch event in San Francisco.
Funding Extension and Valuation Milestone
On Wednesday, Cohere disclosed an additional $100 million raise, increasing its post‑money valuation to $7 billion. This funding follows an oversubscribed $500 million round announced in August that valued the company at $6.8 billion. The new capital comes from both existing back‑ers and fresh participants, reinforcing Cohere’s financial footing as it scales its enterprise AI offerings.
Strategic Partnership with AMD
In a notable shift, Cohere signed a partnership agreement with AMD, one of its investors. The deal allows the full suite of Cohere’s Command‑family models—including vision, translate, and reasoning variants—to operate on AMD’s Instinct GPU platform, a direct competitor to Nvidia’s GPUs. AMD will also adopt Cohere’s models internally as a customer. Cohere emphasized that it is not abandoning Nvidia support; the partnership simply broadens hardware compatibility for its enterprise clients.
Positioning Within the Competitive Landscape
While OpenAI recently secured an investment of up to $100 billion from Nvidia and Anthropic achieved a $183 billion valuation, Cohere’s focus remains on the enterprise market where AI sovereignty—keeping data and models under local control—is a priority. The company’s origins trace back to 2019, when it was co‑founded by Aidan Gomez, a co‑author of the seminal “transformer” paper that underpins modern generative AI. Cohere’s strategy targets organizations that prefer on‑premise or private‑cloud, differentiating it from consumer‑oriented rivals.
New Investor Participation and Public Reveal
The latest round introduced the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Nexxus Capital Management as new investors, expanding Cohere’s capital base across North America. The announcement was made at a TechCrunch event held in San Francisco, slated for October 27‑29, 2025. Cohere’s leadership framed the financing and AMD partnership as critical steps toward delivering enterprise‑grade AI solutions that remain hardware‑agnostic while preserving data independence.