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Canada's Cohere bet divides AI sector over public funding

The Globe and Mail's Decibel podcast examines whether backing one company can secure Canadian AI capability, or leave other businesses short of support.

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The Globe and Mail Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of The Globe and Mail's most watched videos since yesterday, with 3,495 views.

The government’s divisive billion-dollar AI investment

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4:09Hemmadi explains that Ottawa's investment buys equity in Cohere, rather than taking the form of a subsidy or loan.
6:06Cohere's commitments include technical jobs and investment in Canadian computing infrastructure.
10:38Cohere targets enterprise customers, emphasizing privacy rather than the broad consumer appeal of chatbots.
15:13Critics question concentrating public support in one company instead of widening access to computing resources.
20:14Hemmadi identifies profitability, competition, foreign acquisition and falling valuations as risks to the government's investment.
23:07Carney's strategic case is that Canada needs its own producer of large language models.

Canada wants an AI company of its own with the resources to compete internationally. Whether that requires concentrating public money in Cohere is the question dividing the technology sector, according to The Globe and Mail's latest Decibel episode.

Host Rachel Levy-McLaughlin and technology reporter Murad Hemmadi examine Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise to invest up to $1.6 billion in the company. This is an audio interview accompanied by a static title screen, rather than a filmed studio conversation.

Hemmadi explains that the government is buying an ownership stake, not providing a conventional subsidy or loan. In return, he says, Cohere has committed to creating a thousand technical jobs in Canada and investing in domestic computing infrastructure.

Cohere's intended customer isn't primarily someone asking a chatbot for holiday ideas. Hemmadi describes a business focused on enterprise AI, with privacy important to organizations using its models. That helps explain the government's strategic argument: Canada should retain an independent ability to build this technology, rather than depend entirely on foreign suppliers.

The disagreement concerns how to achieve that. Hemmadi outlines criticism that broader access to computing resources could help more Canadian companies, instead of directing so much support toward one firm.

He also identifies the financial risk: Cohere is not yet profitable and faces intense international competition. A foreign acquisition or a sharp fall in valuation could undermine the government's ambitions. His closing comparison draws a distinction between earlier public investments in cars or pipelines and this one: Ottawa is backing digital technology that will need continuing investment to succeed.

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