AI startup Cohere valued at $6.8 billion in latest fundraise, appoints new executives
The funding round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from existing investors AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, among others.
Unlike most AI companies like OpenAI and Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Llama, which are focused on broad foundational models, Cohere builds enterprise-specific AI models.
In January, it launched North, a ChatGPT-style tool designed to help knowledge workers with tasks such as document summarization.
The company said it will use the new funding to advance agentic AI that can help businesses and governments operate more efficiently.
Alongside the fundraise, Cohere appointed Joelle Pineau, former Vice President of AI Research at Meta, as Chief AI Officer, and Francois Chadwick, former CFO at Uber and Shield AI, as Chief Financial Officer.
The fundraise comes amid a broader surge in AI financing, as private equity and Big Tech channel capital into startups in pursuit of strong returns from innovative AI products.
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NHS patients to be discharged using AI notes for the first time
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BBC News
3 hours ago
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Ex-Debenhams store in King's Lynn could become homes in £20m plan
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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
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I used to go to Vegas four times a year like clockwork - there are two reasons why the city is dying
A former Las Vegas regular has revealed why they believe Sin City is dying amid falling tourist numbers. Vegas tourism is down 11 percent and overall visits to Las Vegas are down more than 6 percent this year, figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show. This week the oldest casino - The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino - announced a huge sweeping change. It will no longer have live table dealer games and instead replace human dealers with electronic games. A former Vegas regular took to Reddit explaining they believe the tourist boycott is down to two things; 'the pandemic' and 'corporate greed'. 'I booked a trip and was on the strip the day some of the casinos reopened (after the pandemic) and it was dead, of course, but it was on it's way back,' the user wrote. As companies attempted to claw their way back into the green following the Covid-19 shut down, the user blamed the city's decline on corporations relying on 'the common man' to recoup their losses. 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'Now you find a rare low minimum table anywhere on the strip and most have jumped to 25-50 minimum.' But the gambling tables came with another issue as staffing numbers were also reduced, according to the user. With fewer staff comes slower service, which they said is a 'huge problem' when gambling. 'Most gamblers like to take advantage of the free drinks, but if they have to wait 20 minutes or more for a waitress to even come by and notice them, then another 20 for her to make it back around, that's a problem,' they wrote. Yet, even if gambling is not your cup of tea, other forms of entertainment have also seen a prices 'skyrocket'. 'Shows and events, prices have just skyrocketed for shows,' the user wrote. 'Prices everywhere have gone up but most people can't justify paying 2-300 a ticket for a show per ticket.' They also noted that parking fees can cost a driver around 30 to 50 dollars per day if they wanted to 'park at hotel where they were actually staying.' After having spent the last 20 years going to Vegas 'four times a year like clockwork', the user has since cut their trips down to two and even considered skipping their second trip for this year. 'People need to just avoid Vegas until they realize they have to adjust prices that reflect what middle America are willing and able to pay,' they said. Another frequent visitor said they had been 'five times since 2012, always for business', but agreed that corporate greed was a major issue. 'The first time I came, I was pleasantly surprised that I could just wander from casino to casino, having a beer here and there and some nice food in between. Enjoy the spectacle, hang out with colleagues and watch the crazy people,' they wrote on the Reddit thread. 'And at the end, I wasn't completely broke, or maybe even won a couple $$. Now, it seems like the only reason to go to a certain casino is if you have a hankering for a specific restaurant. 'Everything else is generified and looks the same. The prices for food are astronomical... the corps have realized that people will pay anything, because once they are on the Strip for an event, they have no other options.' Another user chimed in and agreed that corporate greed has been one of the biggest factors keeping Vegas from coming back to life. 'I live in Vegas... this is 100 percent what I've heard the locals say is the problem too,' they said. '[Big companies] talk about how they're optimizing for the high rollers now but [there] just aren't that many. And as they lose money they continue to raise prices to make up the difference but that just locks out even more people.' But Vegas has not only struggled financially following the pandemic, but also due to a steady decline in tourism which has been attributed to the president's rigorous immigration efforts. The same user claimed that 'Trumps anti immigrant stuff is really hurting international tourism'. 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But the employees are not the only ones feeling the loss of tourism, as companies are also reporting major losses. Caesars Entertainment, which runs eight casino resorts and one non-gaming hotel on the Strip, reported a 3.7 percent year-over-year decline in net revenue in the second quarter of 2025, according to SEC filings. From April to June, the company brought in $1.054 billion in Las Vegas, down from $1.095 billion in the same time period in 2024.
