March 02, 2025: Robust AI Data, But NASDAQ Falters

Last week, Dow Jones rose 0.95%, S&P 500 lost 1%, and Nasdaq composite fell 3.5%, despite Friday’s bounce. Both Nasdaq and S&P 500 have almost given up their post US election gains. General Catalyst, the powerhouse venture capital firm, is reportedly considering an IPO. Shein’s profits dropped by more than a third last year, adding to the Company’s challenges ahead of a long-planned London IPO. Stripe struck a deal with investors to finance a tender offer for current and former employees to sell shares at a US$91.5 billion valuation. Stripe’s valuation had fallen to US$50 billion in March 2023. Anthropic is finalizing a US$3.5 billion fundraising round that values the company at US$61.5 billion. Nvidia projected 65% revenue growth in its April quarter on strong chip orders. Apollo Global is in talks to lead a US$35 billion debt financing by Meta to build data centers in the U.S. Meta is also planning to launch a standalone AI app. Microsoft said its plan to spend US$80 billion on data centers “remains on track”. Alibaba will spend US$53 billion on cloud and AI over next three years. Apple plans US$500 billion in US investment, 20,000 research jobs in next four years. Figure will reportedly start ‘alpha testing’ its humanoid robot in the home in 2025, earlier than expected. In Canada, Cohere’s annualized revenue hit US$70 million, up more than 3x since last March. In news, pertaining to Sophic clients, Boardwalk announced a Non-Brokered Life Offering, for up to $1.5 million. The Company also recently reported Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 financial results. The Company’s pipeline continues to scale with several engagements in the latter stages; and cost savings initiatives are tracking ahead of guidance. Kraken received $34 million of SeaPower battery orders. Plurilock launched new offerings to strengthen cyber resilience. American Aires teamed up with former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy’s Apogee Schools to create first US-based EMF-friendly schools.

Cohere annualized revenue triples as startup mulls employee share sale.

Cohere, one of the earliest venture-backed developers of artificial intelligence models, has grown significantly in the last year, despite competition from OpenAI and Anthropic and the proliferation of cheap, open-source alternatives like DeepSeek. Annualized revenue hit US$70 million at the start of this year, more than tripling since last March. Meanwhile, Cohere executives have told some potential investors they are considering allowing for a sale of employee shares, according to two people who have spoken with the company. Such a sale could offer a window into what investors think the company is worth in an increasingly crowded enterprise AI software market. Some potential investors expect it could follow that sale by raising a Series E primary round soon. https://tinyurl.com/2p98cmuz

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) announces Non-Brokered Life Offering.

Boardwalktech Software Corp. announced, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”), that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to C$1,500,000 (the “Offering”) pursuant to the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the “LIFE”) of National Instrument 45-106 – Prospectus Exemptions (“NI 45-106”). The Offering will consist of up to 11,538,462 units of the Company (each, a “Unit”, and collectively the “Units”) at a price of C$0.13 per Unit (the “Offering Price”). Each Unit will be comprised of one Common Share (each, a “Common Share”, and collectively the “Common Shares”) and one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a “Warrant” and collectively the “Warrants”). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one Common Share at a price of C$0.25 per Common Share for a period of 12 months from the closing date of the Offering. There is an offering document related to the Offering that can be accessed under the Company’s profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Company’s website at https://ir.boardwalktech.com/form-page. https://tinyurl.com/9cj52rad

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 financial results.

Boardwalktech reported its financial results for the three-month period ended December 31, 2024 (“Q3-FY25”). All figures are reported in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. Financial Highlights: Revenue for Q3-FY25 was $1.29 million, a 1% increase from $1.28 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2024 (“Q2-FY25”) and a 12% decrease from $1.47 million for the three-month period ended December 31, 2023 (“Q3-FY24”). Including two previously disclosed non renewals, arising from customers’ internal reorganization actions, revenue would have been near $1.5 million. Annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) is a non-IFRS measure, which the Company calculates as the recurring revenue expected based on annual license subscriptions and recurring services on a trailing three-month basis. ARR at December 31, 2024 was $4.2 million. Gross margin for Q3-FY25 was 88.4%, down slightly from 88.6% in Q2-FY25 due to slightly higher hosting expenses sequentially, and down from 89.1% in Q3-FY24 due to lower revenue levels. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3-FY25 was a loss of $(0.29) million, a 21% improvement from the $(0.37) million loss in Q2-FY25 and a 26% improvement $(0.39) million loss in Q3-FY24. Non-IFRS net loss for Q3-FY25 was $(0.4) million ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share) versus a $(0.5) million non-IFRS loss ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share) in Q2-FY25 and the $(0.4) million non-IFRS loss ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share) in Q3-FY24. “Calendar 2024 was a pivotal year for Boardwalktech as we repositioned our go-to-market strategy, signed early adopters of Unity Central, expanded our Velocity implementation at a top 5 U.S. bank with our partners, launched our first major business processing outsourcing (BPO) client, and closed a $4 million line of credit,” said Andrew T. Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of Boardwalktech. “Our ‘land and expand’ strategy continues to be a key growth driver as evidenced by our 39% compounded annual growth rate over the past 3 years from SaaS license recurring revenues; our pipeline continues to scale with several engagements in the latter stages; major global enterprises have validated our solutions and the value they deliver; and our partners have introduced us to new prospects and markets. We have also already recognized over $0.9 million of savings year-to-date in Fiscal 2025, at the higher end of the $600,000 to $800,000 range we previously disclosed. All of these achievements give us reason to be optimistic about Boardwalktech’s prospects in the upcoming year and beyond.” https://t.co/cZMx5GuxEf

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) receives $34 million of SeaPower battery orders.

Kraken Robotics received orders totaling $34 million for SeaPower™ pressure tolerant batteries from three clients. In addition, Kraken has signed a lease to open a new battery production facility in Nova Scotia to meet rising defense market demand for uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs). “With the emergence of new larger classes of UUVs and greater adoption of these platforms in naval fleets, reliable subsea power requirements are increasing,” said Greg Reid, President and CEO of Kraken Robotics. “These new orders illustrate the robust customer demand we have for Kraken’s SeaPower batteries across the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific.” One order, totaling $31 million, represents Kraken’s largest battery order to date. The client, who cannot be named at this time, provides UUVs to the defense industry. Two commercial clients with UUVs also placed orders totaling $3 million. “We have new battery form factors that will be released in late 2025 that are generating strong interest across several vehicle manufacturers,” said Mr. Reid. “This will allow us to address a segment of the market that we have not previously had solutions for – small and medium-sized UUVs. Once completed, our new facility will allow us to triple our current battery production capacity.” Kraken’s new manufacturing facility will provide approximately 60,000 square feet of office and production space and is expected to be operational toward the end of 2025. With this new capacity, Kraken will be in an improved position to meet growing customer demand in the subsea power domain with manufacturing from both Canada and the original facility in Germany. https://t.co/ccWQOcHuRv

Sophic Client American Aires (WIFI-CSE, AAIRF-OTCQB) teams with former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy’s Apogee Schools to create first US-based EMF-friendly schools.

American Aires Inc., a pioneer in cutting-edge technology designed to protect against electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation and optimize human health, has teamed with Apogee schools to create the first known US-based EMF-friendly school environments. To help support the physical well-being of Apogee students and educators, Aires will donate EMF protection products to Apogee schools and provide special student discounts for those individuals and families who want to purchase additional Aires products. The collaboration is part of Aires’ strategic efforts to raise market awareness beyond the Company’s sports-related partnerships by aligning the brand with exposure opportunities that involve connecting with and positively influencing the lives of everyday people that represent the larger mass market of consumers. ” https://t.co/yhp8I02OdH

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) launches new offensive security offerings to strengthen cyber resilience.

Plurilock announces the launch of new offensive security offerings designed to help organizations identify and remediate threats in real time while meeting heightened regulatory requirements. These solutions, available directly and through Plurilock’s alliance partners, provide continuous assessments and actionable security intelligence, helping customers reduce risk, strengthen compliance, and enhance cybersecurity resilience. Traditional penetration tests provide a static snapshot of security risks. Plurilock PTaaS delivers ongoing attack surface evaluation and automated testing as new tactics, threats, and vulnerabilities emerge. https://t.co/TdEvdu2x70

General Catalyst is reportedly weighing a potential IPO.

General Catalyst, the powerhouse venture firm, is considering an IPO, Axios reported Friday morning, citing “multiple sources.” A question Axios asks — and it’s a good one — is whether GC will be the very first venture firm to go public. It’s not only a question of whether the firm decides to move forward, but whether the mere talk of an offering speeds up the plans of other heavyweight firms like Andreessen Horowitz, which seem to have their eyes on the same prize. https://tinyurl.com/ye3jhbf2

Shein profits slump in fresh challenge to long-planned London IPO.

Shein’s profits dropped by more than a third last year, adding to the fast fashion group’s challenges ahead of a long-planned flotation that would be one of the biggest on the London stock exchange this decade. The Singapore-based group’s net profit shrank by almost 40 per cent to $1bn in 2024 as it suffered a difficult final quarter and battled competition from rival Temu, two people with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times. Sales for the full year increased by 19 per cent to US$38 billion, according to the people, one of whom added that the figures were from internal projections ahead of finalised accounts. As a private company, Shein does not publish profit guidance but the 2024 figures were far lower than the US$4.8 billion in net profit and US$45 billion in sales the company had projected for 2024 in a presentation to investors in early 2023, which was seen by the FT. Shein was valued at UD$66 billion during its most recent funding round in 2023 but some investors and other stakeholders are pressuring the group to cut its valuation to about UD$30 billion, according to two people familiar with the situation, a move that could help it to complete an initial public offering in the first half of this year. A delay to the IPO into the second half of the year would force the company to refile fresh documents with UK regulators. Shein filed confidential IPO paperwork with British regulators last year before the introduction of new UK listing rules. However, a transitional period for completing IPO processes that kicked off before launch of the new rules is set to end in July. Refiling would be a largely procedural step, said three senior UK corporate lawyers, but the prospect that the company would miss the window for relying on its original filing highlights how its efforts to list have dragged on. https://tinyurl.com/57yhtkay

Stripe confirms employee tender at US$91.5 billion valuation.

Payments processing firm Stripe said it had struck a deal with investors to finance a tender offer for current and former employees to sell shares at a valuation of US$91.5 billion valuation, only a little way from its peak valuation of US$95 billion reached in 2021. Stripe’s valuation had fallen to US$50 billion in March 2023, after rising interest rates dampened growth of its business. But its business had shown signs of recovery. Stripe also published an update on 2024 results, reporting that its payment volume rose 38% last year to US$1.4 trillion, putting it a little behind PayPal which reported US$1.68 billion. Stripe keeps a small share of that payment volume. The company said it was profitable last year and expects to also make money this year. It noted that it ploughs back its profits into R&D. https://tinyurl.com/yxzvc39j

Anthropic reportedly ups its next funding round to US$3.5 billion.

Anthropic’s next funding round is reportedly growing larger. Anthropic, which makes the AI chatbot Claude, is finalizing a US$3.5 billion fundraising round that values the company at US$61.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Anthropic initially set out to raise US$2 billion, but investors have now agreed to a larger tranche, per the WSJ. Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX are said to be in talks to participate in the coming round. Should it top out at US$3.5 billion, it’d bring Anthropic’s total raised to around US$18 billion. Anthropic, which this week released a new flagship AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, recently hit about US$1.2 billion in annualized revenue, according to the WSJ. But it’s still losing money. The company intends to put the proceeds from its next round toward developing more capable AI technologies. https://tinyurl.com/5ekyr9mt

Nvidia projects 65% revenue growth in April quarter on strong chip orders.

Nvidia on Wednesday said revenue rose 78% year-over-year to US$39.3 billion in the quarter ending in January, continuing a streak of more than two years of beating its own revenue growth projections. The company had projected 70% growth for the quarter three months ago and on Wednesday forecast 65% revenue growth to US$43 billion in the current fiscal quarter, as demand for its artificial intelligence server chips continues to be strong. Despite the results, shares were flat in after-hours trading, though they rose 3.5% in regular trading. Shares are down about 5% so far this year after a remarkable climb in the past two years. Nvidia said its gross profit margin in the January quarter decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 73% compared to the October quarter due to its “transition to more complex and higher cost” server chip systems. The company projected gross margins to fall another roughly 2 percentage points in the current fiscal quarter. Free cash flow rose 38% to US$15.5 billion in the January quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago but fell 7% compared to the October quarter. Nvidia said US$11 billion of the January quarter’s revenue came from sales of its latest flagship chip, Blackwell. Nvidia chief financial officer Colette Kress said in a prepared statement that the revenue represents the “fastest product ramp in our company’s history.” Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta Platforms have each placed Blackwell server rack orders of more than US$10 billion apiece, The Information has reported. OpenAI, working with Oracle, has planned to rent large numbers of the chips as well. https://tinyurl.com/57em6zp4

Salesforce growth stalls despite AI push.

Salesforce on Wednesday said revenue rose 8% to US$10 billion in the January quarter, mirroring the growth it posted in the prior two fiscal quarters. The result highlights the challenges facing the enterprise software vendor as it reorients its business around selling artificial intelligence. Salesforce projected revenue growth of 7% to 8% growth in the current fiscal year, which ends January 2026. Shares fell around 2% after normal trading hours and have been flat over the past year. Salesforce has been leaning on AI to boost its fast-growing data storage business, which is generating revenue at a US$900 million annual run rate, the company said. That figure implies US$75 million in monthly revenue. Salesforce primarily makes revenue from customer relationship management software and other business apps. Revenue for the January quarter came in at the midpoint of the range the company forecast in December. Free cash flow rose 17.2% to US$3.8 billion, compared with a 30.2% year-over-year increase in free cash flow in the prior fiscal quarter. https://tinyurl.com/ts78wtmf

AppLovin stock falls as short-sellers question firm’s Ad tactics.

Shares of mobile gaming ad firm AppLovin fell 15% on Wednesday after two short-selling firms published detailed reports slamming the sustainability of the company’s surging ad business which lifted the stock 712% last year. The high flying stock has now fallen 38% in the past two weeks and is down slightly for the year to date. One report, from The Bear Cave, said the company’s revenue growth was “low quality,” flowing from “ads that are deceptive, predatory and at times unreadable or unclickable.” The other, from Culper Research, criticized the company’s ecommerce efforts—which has made its ad platform popular with direct to consumer brands—as a “smoke and mirrors game.” AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi said in a blog post the short-sellers were “making false and misleading claims aimed at undermining our success.” AppLovin reported earlier this month that its 2024 ad revenue rose 75% to US$3.2 billion thanks in part to its success in diversifying out of gaming ads into ecommerce. As we reported in December, some commerce marketers had found the return on ads bought on AppLovin was comparable to what they earned on ads placed on Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, raising the prospect that AppLovin could take share from Meta. https://tinyurl.com/496ha5hz

Apollo in talks to lead US$35 billion financing of Meta’s AI data centers.

Apollo Global Management is in talks to lead a US$35 billion debt financing by Meta Platforms to build data centers in the U.S., according to a Bloomberg report. The move comes as Meta discusses building a large data center campus, which could total US$200 billion given the size of the project and its power requirements, The Information reported Tuesday. An Apollo spokesperson declined to comment. Meta’s financing of AI data centers through firms like Apollo is somewhat unusual, given Meta has hefty cash holdings it could use for such projects. The largest buyers of Nvidia graphics processing units for AI data centers, such as Amazon Web Services, Meta and Microsoft, have been using their balance sheets for such endeavors. Meta has already told investors it plans to raise its capital expenditures this year by around 70% to as much as US$65 billion, in part for AI data centers. During the recent AI boom, debt financing for data centers has largely been raised by startups or smaller AI data center developers such as CoreWeave, and the financing they’ve raised has been geared toward specific sites and chip purchases, costing several billion dollars apiece. OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, however, are in the process of raising financing for their Stargate data center joint venture, which would likely require a minimum of tens of billions of dollars of debt. https://tinyurl.com/yvvzemtj

Microsoft says data center spending isn’t falling despite reports of cancelled leases.

Microsoft said its plan to spend US$80 billion on data centers in the fiscal year that ends in June “remains on track” despite a report from the investment firm TD Cowen last Friday saying the company was cancelling leases with data center operators. The report did not specify when the leases were cancelled or the reasons, but it implied there was less demand for generative artificial intelligence than Microsoft initially forecasted. The move also came after Microsoft said last month that it was pausing construction on a multibillion-dollar data center in Wisconsin to evaluate “scope and recent changes in technology.” One of Microsoft’s biggest customers, OpenAI, has recently secured computing from other cloud providers. Microsoft declined to comment on the TD Cowen report directly but said in a statement that customer demand continues to outplace supply, and that “while we may strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions.” Last week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company was closely tracking AI demand to pace its data center buildout, and said Microsoft is using data center leases as a way to hedge against building too many facilities. He added that Microsoft would negotiate lower prices on leases as companies across the U.S. build more data center capacity in the coming years. https://tinyurl.com/mx99fybe

Alibaba to spend US$53 billion on cloud and AI over next three years.

Alibaba Group said Monday it plans to invest at least 380 billion yuan (US$53 billion) over the next three years in cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The amount is larger than the company’s total cloud and AI spending over the past decade. Alibaba is betting on the increasing adoption of AI models and applications in China to fuel its next stage of growth, as its e-commerce business plateaued. Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said on an earnings call last week that the company’s cloud business, the largest in the country, offers the clearest path toward translating AI demand to revenue. Alibaba last week reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter through December, thanks in part to its cloud computing division, whose revenue grew 13%. Alibaba said higher demand for AI-related products among cloud customers contributed to the solid revenue growth. The company is also planning to launch a new reasoning model in what could be the Chinese tech giant’s answer to the recent success of DeepSeek. https://tinyurl.com/yc7du7wn

Tesla sales in Europe fall by half in January.

Tesla’s sales in Europe fell by about half in January, according to data released on Tuesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, even as electric vehicle sales overall grew 34%. Including the UK, Tesla’s sales fell 45%. The stunning slump suggests Elon Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s far-right political party AfD alienated many car buyers. Tesla’s stock price, which has been sliding all year, fell 9% on Tuesday amid a broader market selloff. Tesla stock is now down 25.6% for the year so far, according to Koyfin data. The collapse in Tesla’s sales in January is sure to reinforce growing questions about the impact on Tesla’s business of Musk’s growing political profile, including as an advisor to Donald Trump. https://tinyurl.com/mr2dht8d

Apple plans US$500 billion in US investment, 20,000 research jobs in next four years.

Apple on Monday said it plans to help bring online a quarter-million-square-foot factory in Texas by 2026 to build artificial intelligence servers and will add about 20,000 research and development jobs across the U.S. Apple said that it plans to spend US$500 billion in the United States over the next four years, though that figure includes everything from purchases from U.S. suppliers to U.S. filming of television shows and movies for its Apple TV+ service. The company declined to say how much of the figure it was already planning to spend with its existing U.S. supply base, which includes firms such as Corning, which makes glass for iPhones in Kentucky. The move comes after media reports that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met with President Donald Trump last week. Many of Apple’s products that are assembled in China could face 10% tariffs imposed by Trump earlier this month, though the iPhone maker previously secured some waivers from China tariffs during the first Trump administration. https://tinyurl.com/mwdw8dw4

OpenAI announces GPT-4.5, ChatGPT’s largest and best model for chat.

While GPT-4.5 excels in a number of areas including accuracy and emotional intelligence, OpenAI emphasizes that GPT-4.5 is not its most advanced model for now. GPT-4.5 is smarter, warmer, and not yet available for everyone OpenAI knows that its various models and model names are confusing. GPT-4.5 isn’t here to help. In fact, while GPT-4.5 is the newest model release, OpenAI says that its o3 reasoning model remains its most powerful. It describes GPT-4.5 as a research preview and not a frontier model. Later this year, OpenAI expects to introduce GPT-5 as a single model that handles quick chat requests and more intensive reasoning requests without switching models. For now, GPT-4.5 is here to replace GPT-4o with more accuracy, fewer hallucinations, and higher emotional intelligence. The latter quality is something Anthropic’s Claude chatbot has been praised for, especially when compared to ChatGPT’s less natural responses before now. Starting today, GPT-4.5 is available to Pro subscribers in the US$200/month plan, but the new model is coming to more users starting next week. OpenAI says it will start rolling out GPT-4.5 to ChatGPT Plus (US$20/month) and Team subscribers next week, followed by Enterprise and Edu users the following week.. https://tinyurl.com/yxfya6nm

Anthropic releases new AI model, coding assistant.

Anthropic on Monday released its latest artificial intelligence model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and Claude Code, a coding assistant that aims to compete with similar products from Anysphere and Replit. Those companies’ coding assistants are powered by Anthropic software, meaning that Anthropic is essentially competing with its customers in a bid to generate more subscription revenue. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is a hybrid reasoning model, meaning that users can control how much computational resources it uses to answer a question. This is different from the approach that OpenAI has used in the past, where its GPT and “o” reasoning model lines are separate, though the company recently said it similarly hopes to combine them into a single model. The Information first reported on Anthropic’s efforts to develop hybrid models earlier this month. Though access to Anthropic’s coding assistant is currently limited to a select number of customers, the company has beat out larger rival OpenAI in releasing a standalone coding product. OpenAI has also been working on an AI product to help senior software engineers handle more complex programming tasks. Code generation has emerged as one of the most popular applications of conversational AI; Anthropic recently said that coding questions make up between 15% to 25% of conversations with its Claude chatbot. Anthropic’s new model and coding assistant could help it as it looks to raise a new round of funding at a US$58 billion pre-investment valuation and grow its revenue to as high as US$34.5 billion in 2027. https://tinyurl.com/2e5p5ufz

Meta planning App for Meta AI assistant.

Meta Platforms is planning to launch a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot in a bid to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, CNBC reported, and also plans to test a paid subscription version. Launching a separate app would put Meta on a level playing field with its rivals in artificial intelligence. Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI have each released apps for their AI chatbots. Google also integrates its Gemini chatbot in products such as Gmail. Meta has so far relied on putting its Meta AI into its social media apps but creating a standalone app could increase the chatbot’s usage. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects Meta AI to be the “leading AI assistant.” A new Meta AI app may not be the only new app Meta introduces this year. The Information reported on Wednesday that Instagram was considering launching an app for its short-form video feature Reels. https://tinyurl.com/48642kuj

Figure will start ‘alpha testing’ its humanoid robot in the home in 2025.

Figure is planning to bring its humanoids into the home sooner than expected. CEO Brett Adcock confirmed on Thursday that the Bay Area robotics startup will begin “alpha testing” its Figure 02 robot in the home setting later in 2025. The executive says the accelerated timeline is a product of the company’s “generalist” Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, called Helix. Adcock’s comments arrive one week after Figure announced the machine learning platform. Helix is designed to process both visual data and natural language input to accelerate the speed with which the system can pick up new tasks. Earlier this month, Figure revealed that it was breaking off its highly publicized partnership with OpenAI in favor of its own proprietary AI models like Helix. Other humanoid robotics firms like Apptronik and Tesla have expressed their own interest in bringing these systems into the home. Along with a range of household tasks, robots have long been viewed as a way to address aging populations in countries like Japan and the U.S. The assistance provided by these systems could help older people continue to live independently outside of care facilities. Norwegian startup 1X is one of a very small number of companies that have prioritized the home. It’s a difficult path. In addition to pricing questions, homes vary a good deal from one to the next. People leave messes, and homes have uneven lighting, various floor surfaces, stairs, and often pets and small humans running around. Figure’s 2025 plans for the home aren’t entirely clear, but “alpha” certainly implies that home testing will remain in the very early stages for the remainder of the year. https://tinyurl.com/ymnfeh88

YouTube says it now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers of podcast content.

Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. But now YouTube — the world’s biggest video platform — might be the biggest platform for podcasts. According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide. In 2024, users watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on living-room devices. In the U.S., about 31% of weekly podcast listeners choose YouTube as their preferred service, over Spotify (27%) and Apple Podcasts (15%), per Edison Podcast Metrics research released last October. With 1 billion monthly podcast users, YouTube would be far bigger than Spotify, which all told had 675 million monthly active users at the end of 2024. https://tinyurl.com/4tunvxsr

Robinhood says SEC dismissed crypto unit investigation in latest sign of easier regulation for industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is dropping its investigation into Robinhood’s crypto arm, the company revealed Monday. Robinhood said it received a letter from the SEC’s enforcement division on Friday, detailing in a blog post that the agency has closed its investigation into the crypto business with no intention of moving forward with an enforcement action. The news comes three days after Coinbase similarly announced that the SEC has agreed to end its enforcement case against it. Shares of Robinhood initially rose on the news but closed lower by 3.2% amid a broader pullback in stocks from the day’s highs. In May 2024, Robinhood received a notice warning that it could be charged for potential violation of securities law within its crypto unit after previously being subpoenaed for its cryptocurrency listings, custody and platform operations – despite “years of good faith attempts to work with the SEC for regulatory clarity including our well-known attempt to ‘come in and register,’” Dan Gallagher, the company’s chief legal, compliance and corporate affairs officer, said at the time. The SEC’s dismissal of the Robinhood and Coinbase cases is an early sign of the regulatory sea change for the crypto industry promised by President Donald Trump during his election campaign. Nearly half of Robinhood’s US$672 million transaction-based revenue in the fourth quarter came from a 700% rise in revenue tied to crypto trading, as bitcoin rallied toward US$100,000 for the first time ever on hopes of more favorable policies under Trump. https://tinyurl.com/3etkseps

Microsoft asks Trump to reverse Biden-era chip export rules.

Microsoft called on the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era rules that restricted the export of cutting-edge chips used to train and run AI models. The rules, which restrict the shipment of graphics processing units made by Nvidia and other leading chipmakers to certain countries around the globe, is impeding Microsoft’s plans to build datacenters in countries like Poland and India, company president Brad Smith said in a blog post on Thursday. The Biden-era rule enacted last year divides countries into three tiers, with the heaviest restrictions on chip exports placed on third-tier countries like China and Russia, and limits on how many chips can be shipped to second-tier countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. Smith said that Microsoft supports the restrictions on tier-one countries but decried that the rule “puts many important U.S. allies and partners in a Tier Two category,” arguing that the rules were hampering Microsoft’s ability to build data centers in those countries that would rely on materials exported from US manufacturers. Microsoft has been lobbying the Trump administration in recent months as it seeks fewer restrictions on building new datacenters to run AI applications. Microsoft plans to spend $80 billion on datacenters this year, with more than half of that spending in the US, the company has said. https://tinyurl.com/97yvcsyt

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company is ‘out of GPUs’.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that the company was forced to stagger the rollout of its newest model, GPT-4.5, because OpenAI is “out of GPUs.” In a post on X, Altman said that GPT-4.5, which he described as “giant” and “expensive,” will require “tens of thousands” more GPUs before additional ChatGPT users can gain access. GPT-4.5 will come first to subscribers to ChatGPT Pro starting Thursday, followed by ChatGPT Plus customers next week. Perhaps in part due to its enormous size, GPT-4.5 is wildly expensive. OpenAI is charging US$75 per million tokens (~750,000 words) fed into the model and US$150 per million tokens generated by the model. That’s 30x the input cost and 15x the output cost of OpenAI’s workhorse GPT-4o model. “We’ve been growing a lot and are out of GPUs,” Altman wrote. “We will add tens of thousands of GPUs next week and roll it out to the Plus tier then […] This isn’t how we want to operate, but it’s hard to perfectly predict growth surges that lead to GPU shortages.” Altman has previously said that a lack of computing capacity is delaying the company’s products. OpenAI hopes to combat this in the coming years by developing its own AI chips, and by building a massive network of datacenters. https://tinyurl.com/mrx39kfa

Sophic Client American Aires (WIFI-CSE, AAIRF-OTCQB) – How Growth Lowers Acquisition Cost.

The more you grow a company into a true brand, the less you pay to acquire customers…but that only happens once you reach a tipping point of scale and market share. As CEO Josh Bruni explains in this video, that’s why it’s critical that Aires continues to focus on growth. Because the more buzz there is about Aires from consumers, happy customers, and non-paid “earned” media, the lower our acquisition costs and the more we move toward profitability. https://tinyurl.com/5462vrxv

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) Code and Country Podcast Episode 6 – Shelly Bruce – Former Chief, Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE). In this episode of Code and Country, we dive into the high-stakes world of cybersecurity, national security, and geopolitical threats with Shelly Bruce, former Chief of Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE), Canada’s top cyber intelligence agency.

With more than 30 years at CSE, Bruce drove critical efforts in signals intelligence, cyber defense, and offensive cyber operations. She also led the creation of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security in 2018. Bruce shares insider stories on state-sponsored cyber threats like Volt Typhoon, lessons from Stuxnet, and the evolving cyber battlefield. She offers hard-won insights into how nations defend against cyber espionage and attacks targeting critical infrastructure. We also explore quantum computing risks, AI-powered cybercrime, and what businesses can do today to protect their systems. If you’re in cybersecurity, national defense, or simply fascinated by the digital frontlines shaping global power, this episode is a must-listen. https://tinyurl.com/mv764z7t