Overview

• The agreement, signed in Ottawa on August 19 by ministers Evan Solomon and Joël Lightbound, formalizes exploratory engagement with the Toronto-based LLM developer.
• The government disclosed no pilot projects or deployments, and the document does not constitute a procurement commitment.
• Officials framed the move as part of a sovereign AI push to strengthen digital sovereignty and support a made-in-Canada ecosystem.
• The deal follows earlier public support for domestic capacity, including a reported $240 million to bolster Cohere’s compute needs and infrastructure partnerships in Canada with Bell and CoreWeave.
• Cohere is pitching its North platform for public-sector use with privacy and security assurances, and the company recently signed a similar exploratory agreement with the U.K. government.