Cohere’s shareholders will receive approximately 90% of the combined entity; Aleph Alpha’s shareholders approximately 10%, making this effectively a Cohere acquisition in merger framing. The German government is set to become an anchor customer. Both digital ministers attended the Berlin announcement.

Cohere , the Toronto-based enterprise AI company, and Aleph Alpha , the Heidelberg-based German AI startup, announced on Friday that they have agreed to merge, creating what Handelsblatt described as a combined entity valued at approximately $20 billion.

The announcement was made in Berlin, with Germany’s Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger and Canada’s AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon both in attendance, a staging that underscores the extent to which this is a geopolitical deal as much as a commercial one.

The share split reveals the real structure.…