Cohere plans $4 billion AI investment in Canada by 2031
The Toronto-based AI company also plans to create more than 250 paid student positions by 2029.
TORONTO · Cohere will invest more than $4 billion in Canadian artificial intelligence infrastructure and research over the next seven years. The Toronto-based company also plans to create more than 1,500 jobs in Canada by 2031, including at least 1,000 technical roles in fields like engineering and product development. This spending plan includes investments that started in 2024. The company has set a goal of providing more than 250 paid positions for students by 2029.
Cohere says the student jobs will offer practical AI experience and help graduates build careers in Canada. The investment will support AI technology development and the underlying infrastructure across several provinces. To bolster research, Cohere plans to expand its university partnerships, starting with new collaborations at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto. These build on its existing relationships with Mila, Amii and Vector.
The company aims to translate Canadian research into AI systems that can be deployed across the economy. "A central aim is to help Canadian organizations progress beyond AI experiments and use the technology in production," according to Cohere. The company points to a significant adoption gap, citing data that only 12 percent of Canadian businesses used AI in their operations in 2025. It notes the Bank of Canada has identified wider AI adoption as a way to boost productivity, wages and investment.
Cohere's strategy aligns with national goals to increase GDP by 3 percent and create up to 250,000 AI-related jobs by 2031. The company says achieving these targets depends on businesses and public institutions using AI more extensively. Another objective is to retain more of the economic value generated by Canadian AI development within the country. This announcement follows the opening of Cohere's first Ottawa office on October 8, a move the company said was driven by the capital's technical workforce and research community.
With files from Technobezz