Freshfields advises Federal Ministry on merger of Aleph Alpha and Cohere

Global law firm Freshfields advises the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernisation (BMDS) on the establishment of an sovereign, global AI champion comprising the Heidelberg-based company Aleph Alpha and the Canadian company Cohere.  The parties have signed a definitive business combination agreement, the completion of which remains subject to regulatory approvals. The combination is regarded as a decisive step toward the technologically sovereign future of Germany and Canada. For further information, please see the press releases from Cohere and the BMDS.

Aleph Alpha researches and develops specialized language models with its international team of scientists and engineers. Cohere is a leading provider of sovereign AI for enterprises and public sector clients, developing foundation models and end-to-end products designed to solve real-world business challenges.

Operating globally as Cohere, the combined company will be dual-headquartered in Berlin and in Toronto, with research and development centres in Germany and Canada, and will operate as a transatlantic AI company with more than 1,000 employees . It will develop competitive AI solutions that operate within the applicable legal and regulatory frameworks across German, European and Canadian jurisdictions. Sovereign offerings will also be delivered together with Schwarz Group on its sovereign cloud platform STACKIT.

Freshfields' advice included matters of digital sovereignty.

The Freshfields team is led by Partners Carsten Bork (Frankfurt) and Simon Schwarz (Frankfurt/Hamburg), with support from Associate Steffen Blume (Hamburg, all Corporate/M&A) and further comprised:

Partners: Juliane Hilf (Regulatory, Düsseldorf), Andreas von Bonin (Brussels), Martin McElwee (London), Jérôme Philippe (Paris), Aimen Mir (Washington, all Antitrust), Christoph Werkmeister (Data Protection, Düsseldorf),

Counsel: Petya Katsarska (Paris), Sarah Jensen (London, both Antitrust)

Principal/Senior Associates: Vera Ibes (Data Protection, San Francisco), Bola Ajayi (Antitrust, London)

Associates: Yvonne Wolski (Data Protection, Düsseldorf), Marie von Armansperg (Regulatory, Berlin), Theresa Schmid (Brussels), Kate Applegate (Washington, both Antitrust)