The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Canada's Cohere Inc. and Aleph Alpha GmbH in Germany announced a merger Friday to create an artificial-intelligence company that can better counterbalance the American technology giants that dominate the industry today. The Globe's Joe Castaldo writes that the combined entity will have its global headquarters in Toronto and its European headquarters in Berlin. The deal enjoys support from the Canadian and German governments. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is subject to approval by Aleph Alpha's shareholders. While both players are framing the arrangement as a merger, the combined company will bear the Cohere name and Cohere chief executive officer and co-founder Aidan Gomez remains CEO. The deal will give Cohere more access to the European market, where companies, governments and public institutions are looking at alternatives to American tech as part of a broader digital sovereignty push to ensure more control over crucial systems. The Schwarz Group, a German conglomerate, will invest $600-million (U.S.) as part of an upcoming financing round. Investors to date include Radical Ventures, Inovia Capital, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Nvidia.