Oracle’s Answer to the Microsoft-OpenAI Alliance: Cozying Up to Cohere

Oracle has invested in Cohere, an artificial intelligence startup that competes with OpenAI, the startup said on Thursday. What Cohere didn’t say: Oracle plans to make the startup a centerpiece of its strategy to catch up to bigger cloud rivals that sell services powered by large-language models.

Steve Miranda, a senior Oracle executive, has told employees the company plans to sell access to Cohere’s LLMs, similar to the way thousands of Microsoft cloud customers purchase access to OpenAI software that can automate tasks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the comments. Miranda told the employees Oracle also plans to use the startup’s software to add AI features to its own human resources and supply-chain management apps, similar to how Microsoft uses OpenAI software to power automation features in Office 365 apps, according to the person.