Asia Tech Wire (June 5) -- The global corporate venture capital arm of U.S. tech giant Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO: NASDAQ) on Tuesday launched a $1 billion artificial intelligence investment fund to support the startup ecosystem and expand the development of artificial intelligence solutions.

As part of the new AI fund, Cisco will make strategic investments in companies such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI.

So far, Cisco has taken out nearly $200 million from the $1 billion investment fund.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Tuesday that Canadian AI startup Cohere has raised $450 million in funding from investors such as Nvidia, Salesforce Venture, Cisco and others.