Canadian AI company Cohere and German AI company Aleph Alpha have agreed to merge, Handelsblatt reported on April 24, citing government and industry sources.
A Reuters report citing Handelsblatt said the merged company aims to provide digital services to companies and public institutions as an alternative to U.S. tech companies.
Cohere shareholders will receive about 90 percent of the merged company, while Aleph Alpha shareholders will receive about 10 percent.
The merger announcement is set to take place in Berlin, Germany. German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger (카르스텐 빌트베르거) and Canadian minister Evan Solomon (에반 솔로몬) are expected to attend, the report said.
Aleph Alpha was once seen as Germany's OpenAI but gave up developing large AI language models like ChatGPT and shifted to specialised AI applications for businesses. Cohere is pursuing the same direction.
European leaders, raising concerns about reliance on a small number of U.S. tech companies, are fostering domestic AI firms as a way to secure digital sovereignty. Aleph Alpha and France's Mistral have been cited as Europe's representative AI companies in a market dominated by U.S. firms.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr