Aleph Alpha is a German AI company founded in 2019 in Heidelberg, focused on developing sovereign, specialized large language models (LLMs) and AI solutions for enterprises and public sector institutions in Europe. Its flagship product, Kolibri — a 78-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model released in October 2026 — is purpose-built for mission-critical applications in public administration, industry, and regulated sectors, with deep German-language optimization and on-premise deployment capabilities.

The company offers an end-to-end sovereign AI ecosystem encompassing foundation models, an enterprise platform, domain-specific solutions, and forward-deployed services. Key use cases include AI assistants for government agencies, document intelligence for global chipmakers, and requirements engineering support for automotive suppliers — with documented productivity gains of 40–90% for customers. Aleph Alpha's approach emphasizes data sovereignty, EU AI Act compliance, and full customer control over infrastructure.

Originally positioned as "Europe's OpenAI," Aleph Alpha raised over €500M in equity and grant funding, backed by a consortium that includes Schwarz Group (Lidl owner), Bosch Ventures, SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Deutsche Bank. In April 2026, Canadian AI company Cohere announced plans to acquire Aleph Alpha in a deal valuing the combined entity at approximately $20 billion, with a definitive agreement signed in September 2026 — pending regulatory approval. The merged company will operate globally under the Cohere brand with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin, and Heidelberg as a research center.