Toronto-based Cohere Inc. and Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha GmbH signed a definitive merger agreement on September 16, 2026. The combined business will operate under the Cohere name, with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin, while Aleph Alpha's Heidelberg office will focus on research, and Aleph Alpha co-chief Ilhan Scheer will become chief operating officer of the combined company. The agreement follows an initial announcement of intent to merge on April 24, 2026, in which the companies described plans to form a "transatlantic AI powerhouse" combining Cohere's model scale with Aleph Alpha's European institutional relationships. Multiple outlets reported the transaction is structured so Cohere shareholders retain roughly 90 percent of the combined entity and Aleph Alpha shareholders roughly 10 percent, though this split has not been confirmed in either company's own disclosures and is sourced to secondary reporting citing Handelsblatt. Financial terms of the merger itself have not been disclosed by the companies. The deal is tied to a capital commitment from Germany's Schwarz Group (parent of Lidl and Kaufland) into Cohere's Series E financing round, reported at approximately $600 million (or €500 million, per differing outlet conversions), via Schwarz Digits' STACKIT cloud platform. The transaction remains subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.