FEATURED HEADLINE
Mark Carney’s government is putting up to 1.6 billion of taxpayer money into Cohere, a Toronto AI company, as part of a big funding round that could value the firm at about 35.7 billion. This was announced at a Canada-Europe summit where they were talking about tighter ties with the European Union. Cohere says it will stay Canadian and spend 1.7 billion building computer infrastructure here by 2030.
Dominic Barton, the man Carney just put in charge of the agency that is supposed to bring investment into Canada, is also a partner at Radical Ventures. That firm put money into Cohere early on, so when the government now buys a big stake it makes those early investments look a lot more valuable. Big Canadian pension funds that manage people’s retirement money are also invested in Radical Ventures, so public pension cash is tied up in the same company the government is now propping up.
On the computer side, Cohere works with companies that build and run the massive data centres needed for AI. One of those, 5C Group, has already raised hundreds of millions, with a big chunk coming from Brookfield. Carney used to hold a senior job at Brookfield, so the same circle that stands to make money from building those data centres is connected to the politician who just decided to spend public money on the AI company that needs them.
A German company that owns the Lidl grocery stores is leading the funding round after it already had a stake in a German AI firm that combined with Cohere. The whole thing is sold as protecting Canada’s independence in AI, but the timing of Barton’s new government job, the early money from his venture firm, the pension funds, and the Brookfield link means taxpayer cash is helping raise the value of investments held by people and companies already close to the government.
LIKE OUR WORK?