Cohere Raises CAD $7B, Valued at CAD $35.7B

Key Takeaways

• <ul><li>Cohere targets CAD $7 billion in Series E funding, valuing it at CAD $35.7 billion</li><li>Schwarz Group leads the round; NVIDIA, Government of Canada and others join or return</li><li>Cohere's North platform drives 165% YoY ARR growth in Q3 2026</li><li>Customer base grows 20x to 300</li><li>Grab partners with Meta and OpenAI to equip 30,000 drivers and merchants with AI tools</li><li>Amazon creates Velocity Labs and reports most developers now use AI agents for nearly all code</li><li>Alphabet reportedly in talks to acquire Howie AI for personal assistant technology</li><li>80% of merchants say AI visibility is a high or critical priority</li><li>Weverse Brain launches AgentMAX AI sales agent trained on 680 million utterances</li><li>S&P 500 rises 0.4% and Nasdaq gains 0.7% as AI stocks rebound</li></ul>

Cohere seeks CAD $7 billion to boost sovereign AI

Cohere announced the initial close of a Series E funding round targeting up to CAD $7 billion, which would value the company at CAD $35.7 billion. Schwarz Group is the lead investor, and the Government of Canada, Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital, NVIDIA and Inovia Capital also joined or returned. The funding is the largest private raise by a Canadian technology company and will support model development, vertical AI solutions for regulated industries and compute infrastructure. Cohere's North agentic AI platform drove 165% year-over-year ARR growth in Q3 2026, and its customer base grew 20x to 300.

Cohere opens Defence AI Accelerator in Singapore

Cohere launched a Defence AI Accelerator in Singapore to help defence organizations and sovereign customers move from AI experimentation to operational deployment. The hub will offer hands-on collaboration, secure testing environments, integration support, flexible on-premises and air-gapped options, and access to Cohere's North platform. It is part of Cohere's plan to quadruple its regional presence by the end of 2027. The accelerator aims to strengthen public sector collaboration in Singapore and support customers with high standards for privacy, security and transparency.

Alphabet reportedly in talks to buy Howie AI

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is in talks to acquire Howie AI, a startup focused on personal assistant technology. The deal would give Alphabet a stronger position in the personal agent market for consumers and businesses. No official announcement has been made, and the talks are still ongoing. The acquisition would provide Alphabet access to Howie AI's technology and is seen as a significant move in the competitive AI landscape.

Tracking AI visits could improve retail spending

A PYMNTS report based on a survey of 60 senior eCommerce decision-makers at U.S. merchants with $50 million to $1 billion in revenue found that 37% of merchants saw AI-originated visits but lost track before purchase. AI visibility is a high or critical priority for 80% of merchants, but only 62% focus on identifying AI-driven visits and purchases. The report says linking AI referrals to completed sales can help retailers compare investments, set budgets and evaluate partnerships. It also notes that 87% of merchants have taken steps to improve how their products appear in AI platforms.

AI is reshaping India's stock market

India's stock market is changing rapidly as millions of retail investors use apps to trade and track portfolios, while AI now influences trading, research and customer service. Indian IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra are building AI services through platforms like ignio, Topaz and ai360. Banks and fintech companies use AI for fraud detection, credit scoring, multilingual chatbots and personalized investment tools. The article says investors need to distinguish real AI capability from marketing claims and look for concrete evidence such as AI revenue and deal wins.

Grab Expands AI Tools as Revenue Grows 27%

Grab is embedding AI into its app and working with Meta, OpenAI, and others. The company plans to equip 30,000 drivers and merchants with AI tools. Grab also sees customers using multiple services, with food and grocery growth accelerating.

Security Playbook for AI-Generated Code

A new DevSecOps guide explains how to handle code written by AI agents. It recommends limiting agent access, checking packages, and scanning all AI-generated code before merging. The guide also calls for human review of high-risk changes and strong audit trails.

Amazon Updates Engineer Rules for AI Coding Era

Amazon revised its software engineering guidelines to focus on customer results rather than AI tool usage. It created a new team called Velocity Labs that releases open-source AI projects quickly. The company says most developers now use AI agents to write nearly all their code.

Wall Street Rises as AI Stocks Rebound

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Nasdaq gained 0.7% as AI stocks recovered. Chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Micron rallied. Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle also gained, while Apple fell on memory chip cost concerns.

South Korea's Weverse Brain Launches AI Sales Agent

Weverse Brain introduced AgentMAX, an AI agent platform that helps users take action. Its EDRA engine is trained on 680 million utterances and 10 years of sales data. The company also signed supply deals and reported 41.5 billion won in revenue.

Sources

• Cohere Targets CAD $7 Billion Series E Funding to Accelerate Sovereign AI
• Cohere Launches Defence AI Accelerator in Singapore to Advance Secure, Enterprise-Grade AI Deployment for Sovereign Customers  
• Alphabet in talks to acquire assistant startup Howie AI
• Connecting AI Visits to Sales Could Sharpen Retail Investment
• How Artificial Intelligence Is Shaping India's Stock Market
• Grab Gets AI Assistance as Revenues Rise 27%
• A DevSecOps playbook for AI-generated code
• Amazon rewrites its software engineering playbook for an era when AI writes the code
• Wall Street Closes Higher as AI Stocks Recover
• South Korea's Weverse Brain Unveils 'Persuasive AI' AgentMAX, Moving Beyond Language Learning Into AI Sales Market