November 09, 2025: No One Said Bull Markets Were Easy

Last week, Dow Jones was down 1.2%, S&P 500 lost 1.6%, and Nasdaq Composite fell 3%, in its worst weekly performance since April. Markets staged a bit of a recovery towards the end of Friday, on hopes of a deal to end the US Federal government shutdown. With a lacklustre IPO window, private mega-rounds of over US$1 billion are outpacing similar sized IPOs YTD. OpenAI announced additional multiyear cloud commitments (including AWS) and reiterated long-term revenue ambitions, despite some unfortunately worded management comments. Banks are lining up a ~US$18 billion loan for the Stargate data-center project. Anthropic projects steep revenue and margin improvement into 2028. Palantir’s U.S. commercial revenue grew 121% y/y, blowing the rule of 40 out the water, once again. However, the stock fell, possibly on the “big short” investor Michael Burry disclosing a large bearish AI position. Microsoft broadened capacity via >US$10 billion deal with third-party cloud server deals. The Semi space remains active, SoftBank could be interested in buying Marvell. Policy risks rose as China barred foreign AI chips in state-funded data centers.In Canada, Shopify posted Q3 revenue growth of +32% to US$2.84 billion and FCF US$507 million. Shares dipped on higher AI/hosting costs and margin mix. Xanadu will list on Nasdaq/TSX via a US$3.6 billion SPAC, targeting up to US$500 million gross proceeds. Toronto based Beacon raised US$250 million Series B for an AI roll-up of “Main Street” software. 1Password surpassed US$400 million ARR while remaining FCF-positive. Montréal’s Flare added US$30 million in equity and debt, citing >160% ARR growth and global expansion. Volatus announced a $20.0 million bought deal at $0.60 to scale manufacturing, R&D, and defense initiatives. MDA Space invested $10 million in Maritime Launch, becoming both equity owner and strategic operational partner for Spaceport Nova Scotia. EdgeTI struck an all-share deal with Austal’s Digital Advanced Technology Division. Austal will own 9.9% of EdgeTI and subcontract initial work (~A$4.1 million ARR). In news pertaining to Sophic Clients, Cybeats raised $1.4 million via a non-brokered placement at $0.12 with IFCM MicroCap Fund. Boardwalktech, and Plurilock expanded client relationships, supporting revenue growth.

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) announces $1.4 million Non-Brokered Private Placement with U.S. Microcap Fund.

Cybeats announces a $1.4 million non-brokered private placement with IFCM MicroCap Fund LP, which is managed by Intelligent Fanatics Capital Management (the “Private Placement”). The Company intends on issuing 12,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.12 per common share for aggregate proceeds of $1,440,000. The Private Placement is expected to close in the next 30 days. The common shares to be issued in respect of the Private Placement will be subject to a hold period of four (4) months and a day from closing in accordance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The Company intends to use the proceeds raised from the Private Placement for sales and marketing and general corporate purposes. https://t.co/OM6oqXzsjR

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) renews and expands business with key global customers.

Boardwalktech announces several contract renewals and expansions increasing recurring revenue across multiple major enterprise customers. The world’s largest social media company has renewed its services agreement with Boardwalktech for another year, extending the partnership and expanding the scope of work. This renewal underscores the customer’s continued confidence in the value and performance of Boardwalktech’s technology and represents continued recurring revenue growth for the Company. A large global multinational IT services firms, both a Boardwalktech customer and partner, has also expanded its engagement. The firm has increased the number of users and extended the functionality of its primary pricing application built on the Boardwalk Platform, further embedding Boardwalktech’s technology into its enterprise operations and driving deeper adoption. A leading global chemical manufacturer continues to expand its use of Boardwalktech’s Unity Central product to improve supply chain visibility and enhance AI-driven information management. This expansion is helping the customer optimize its order management processes, providing greater transparency, efficiency, and predictive capabilities across its global operations. “These customer expansions highlight the growing trust global enterprises are placing in our Digital Ledger platform,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Boardwalktech Software. “Our technology continues to deliver tangible results across diverse industries, from social media to chemicals and enterprise IT, by addressing critical challenges in data management, workflow automation, and compliance. As these relationships deepen, we are seeing strong momentum, driving organic growth in recurring revenue and our long-term growth objectives.” https://tinyurl.com/4rmr6sua

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) announces US$624,000 software and services contract with major U.S. state law enforcement agency.

Plurilock announces a one-year US$624,000 software and services contract with a large, state-level law enforcement agency in the United States. Under the agreement, Plurilock will provide software solutions and dedicated engineering support to strengthen the agency’s security posture and ensure continuous protection of sensitive law enforcement and public safety data. The customer, the state’s largest employer of law enforcement officers and operator of correctional and parole systems, is an existing Plurilock client. “This agreement strengthens a longstanding relationship with one of the largest and most complex public safety agencies in the country,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “As an existing customer, this agency has seen firsthand the value our team delivers in mission-critical environments, and we’ve established a strong foundation for future collaboration as the agency advances its cybersecurity modernization initiatives.” https://t.co/GzMMoPKoKn

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) announces US$868,600 in Critical Services contracts with Nasdaq listed Semiconductor manufacturer.

Plurilock announces that it has been awarded follow-on contracts totaling US$868,600 with an existing NASDAQ-listed semiconductor client to provide Security Operations Center (“SOC”) services under its Critical Services business unit. The contracts include an eight-month US$676,000 direct services engagement and a six-month US$192,600 resell services expansion, further solidifying Plurilock’s role as a trusted partner in safeguarding the client’s complex, global infrastructure. Under these agreements, Plurilock’s Critical Services (“PLCS”) and Security Operations (“SecOps”) teams will design, implement, and operate a 24/7 SOC delivering continuous threat detection, proactive defense, and rapid incident response. The engagement expands Plurilock’s presence in the semiconductor and high-technology manufacturing sectors, which face heightened cyber risks due to their strategic role in national infrastructure, defense supply chains, and innovation ecosystems. “Our Critical Services business continues to deliver for enterprise clients that demand trusted, always-on cybersecurity operations,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “This award highlights the strong performance of our expanding SecOps practice and the deep confidence that large, publicly traded organizations place in Plurilock to protect their most sensitive assets.” Plurilock’s collaboration with a leading cybersecurity technology partner played a key role in enabling these contracts. By integrating advanced endpoint detection and response (“EDR”) capabilities into the Company’s service delivery model, Plurilock delivers faster, more accurate threat detection and automated containment across client environments. “Our integrated technology partnerships amplify the value we deliver,” continued Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “This engagement exemplifies how we build long-term client relationships, earning trust through performance and expanding into larger, re-occurring service opportunities over time.” https://t.co/I4u0AamOo3

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) CEO and Chairman Patrick Black recently took part in the Starting 5 Virtual Defense Conference by MS Microcaps and Atrium Research.

Listen to his presentation to get an overview of the company and an update on their outlook. https://tinyurl.com/3k6dyy34

Volatus Aerospace Inc. (FLT-TSXV) announces $20 million bought deal public offering.

Volatus entered into an agreement with Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. (the “Lead Underwriter”) to act as lead underwriter and sole bookrunner on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters to be confirmed (together with the Lead Underwriter, the “Underwriters”) pursuant to which the Underwriters have agreed to purchase from treasury, on a bought deal basis, 33,350,000 common voting shares (the “Offered Shares”) in the capital of the Company at a price of $0.60 per Offered Share (the “Issue Price”) for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of $20,010,000 (the “Offering”). The Company has granted the Underwriters an option (the “Over-Allotment Option”), exercisable in whole or in part at any time and from time to time for up to 30 days following the Closing Date (as defined below), to purchase up to an additional number of Offered Shares (the “Additional Shares”) equal to 15% of the number of Offered Shares sold pursuant to the Offering at a price per Additional Share equal to the Issue Price to cover overallotments, if any, and for market stabilization purposes. The Company intends to use the net proceeds for development of the Company’s Mirabel Manufacturing Hub, research and development of drone technologies to support the defense sector, potential acquisitions related to the defense sector, capital expenditures and for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Company has agreed to pay the Underwriters a commission of 6% on the gross proceeds of the Offering. https://tinyurl.com/ktyt9edk

MDA Space (MDA-TSX) makes $10 million investment in Maritime Launch (MAXQ-CBOE) becoming an equity owner and a strategic partner.

MDA Space announced a $10 million equity investment by MDA Space in Maritime Launch Services Inc. at a price of $0.223 per share. The MDA Space investment in Maritime Launch Services marks a key milestone in advancing Canada’s sovereign launch capability, strengthening the country’s domestic space value chain, with complete capability from ground to orbit. The equity investment will accelerate Spaceport Nova Scotia’s readiness for orbital launch operations, providing reliable domestic launch capability for commercial, civil, government, and defence clients in Canada. MDA Space expects to become an operational partner at Spaceport Nova Scotia, supporting the development and future operations of the spaceport. https://tinyurl.com/mrx6ucdn

EdgeTI (CTRL-TSV) announces highly strategic and accretive transaction with Austal Ltd. (ASB) by executing Definitive Agreements to acquire the operations of Austal Australia’s Digital Advanced Technology Division in an all share transaction at $1.00 resulting in Austal Ltd. (ASB) Owning 9.9% of EdgeTI.

Strategic Rationale & Highlights of the Transaction: EdgeTI to establish Western Australia subsidiary based in Perth, WA to hire and retain key employees of Austal Australia’s Digital Advanced Technology Division, creating Digital Solutions for Maritime, Naval and Airforce and Defence Customers. Austal to branch, transfer, and license advanced proprietary software assets to EdgeTI for continued development and further commercialization to defence, broader maritime, and asset intensive sectors. Austal to subcontract EdgeTI to undertake initial anticipated Statements of Work (SOWs) estimated to total AUD $4.1M ARR (estimated gross margin of approximately AUD $1.0M) related to the Software under Master Services Agreement (MSA). Additional yet to be contracted SOWs are projected to be transitioned to EdgeTI to potentially grow monthly revenues to AUD $840,000 by year-end 2026. Austal and EdgeTI to establish teaming approach to drive growth and expansions. In consideration for the acquisition, Austal Limited (ASX:ASB) to Receive Issuance of 9.9% of EdgeTI’s Publicly Traded Shares at $1.00 a Share on Closing. No warrants are to be issued in connection with the transaction. https://tinyurl.com/3eh8t4w8

Shopify (SHOP-NASDAQ, SHOP-TSX) continues to boost revenue, shares fall on increased costs.

Shopify said Tuesday revenue in the third quarter grew 32% from a year earlier to US$2.84 billion as the e-commerce software maker continues to add new merchants and expand its reach in newer markets like Europe and with brick-and-mortar retailers. Free cash flow grew 20% to US$507 million, though net income fell 68% to US$264 million due to increases in both R&D and sales and marketing. Shopify shares fell nearly 5% in premarket trading. CFO Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts that gross margin dipped slightly in part because of higher hosting costs to support larger transaction volumes, as well as increased costs due to higher AI usage. For the current quarter, which includes the all-important holiday shopping season for retailers, Shopify projected revenue growth in the mid-to-high twenties and for its free cash flow margin to be slightly higher than the third quarter. Shopify has been trying to win over more large retailers as customers for the past few years, though Hoffmeister said that in the third quarter, merchants with annual sales below US$25 million still generated the “significant majority” of Shopify’s gross merchandise volume. But Shopify has been growing in other sectors, including winning more international customers and more retailers with large numbers of brick-and-mortar stores. https://tinyurl.com/2danzr68

Xanadu to go public on Nasdaq and TSX in US$3.6 billion SPAC deal.

Toronto-based quantum computing firm Xanadu has struck a deal to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. Upon completion, shares of the business are expected to trade on both the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), which could make Xanadu the first Canadian technology company to debut on the TSX in more than four years. The transaction—which comes as quantum stocks have been soaring on the back of recent breakthrough claims by tech giants and quantum firms alike—is expected to raise gross proceeds of US$500 million. The deal lends Xanadu a pre-money rollover equity value of $3 billion and the joint business a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $3.1 billion, and a pro forma market capitalization of $3.6 billion. Private institutional and strategic investors have committed $275 million in new financing to Xanadu as part of the deal. New backers like chip giant AMD, the asset management arms of BMO and CIBC, MMCAP Ventures, Planet First Partners, and Polar Asset Management Partners are providing 90 percent of that amount. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Georgian Partners, and OMERS Ventures have promised the remainder. Xanadu could also receive up to $225 million through the merger with Philadelphia-based Crane Harbor. As SPAC investors can redeem their shares before business combination transactions close, it’s unclear how many investors will stay committed, or what the ultimate proceeds will be. This has created issues for others in the past, including Canadian-founded D-Wave, which initially hoped to raise up to $340 million but secured only a fraction of that amount, leaving it facing a cash crunch that it has worked to alleviate by selling $400 million in shares earlier this year. https://tinyurl.com/5b6a7mup

Beacon raises US$250 million Series B to buy and equip “Main Street businesses” with AI.

Toronto-based Beacon Software has closed US$250 million in Series B financing to purchase smaller, niche software and services firms, embed artificial intelligence (AI) into them, and grow them over the long run. “Beacon is the anti-private equity firm.” The AI holding company claims that it has already acquired and partnered with dozens of software and services companies—across areas like education, finance, logistics, and recreation—since its launch last year. More than 30 percent of them have been Canadian. This group includes Saskatchewan’s Let’s Camp, an online platform to connect campers to campgrounds, Toronto digital sports registration and club management company PowerUp, and Ottawa-based Viefund, which sells back-office software to mutual fund dealers. Not to be confused with the Toronto and Montréal FinTech startup of the same name, Beacon’s AI rollup strategy is to target profitable software firms in sectors often overlooked by major tech investors and equip them with a new AI software stack. https://tinyurl.com/326vbr6s

“We could be public today”: 1Password crosses US$400 million ARR milestone.

Toronto-based cybersecurity software company 1Password has revealed that it surpassed US$400 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) this year, up from US$250 million in 2023. The company claims that it has managed to do this while remaining free cash flow-positive. The 1,400-person Canadian tech firm now serves over 180,000 businesses—including nearly a third of the Fortune 100—secures more than 1.3 billion human and machine credentials, and supports more than one million developers. In an interview with BetaKit, 1Password CEO David Faugno said the company’s current size and market position is “a great launching point” for it to “bring that trust layer” to the artificial intelligence (AI) era—something he said 1Password still has some work to do on before entertaining the idea of an initial public offering. https://tinyurl.com/3c8ebueh

Flare raises another US$30 million to fuel global cybersecurity expansion and acquisition plans.

Montréal cybersecurity software scaleup Flare has secured an additional US$30 million to advance its global expansion, product development, and merger and acquisition (M&A) plans. “Flare is uniquely positioned to shape the future of TEM.” This includes a US$15 million equity, primary capital Series B extension from existing backers Inovia Capital (which led through its Growth Fund), Base10 Partners, and White Star Capital, as well as another $15 million in debt financing from the Bank of Montréal. This raise, which closed in September, comes a year after the cyber threat monitoring tech provider closed a US$30 million Series B round to scale its presence globally. Since then, Flare has grown to support customers and partners in more than 50 countries, established a base of operations in the United Kingdom, and more than doubled the size of its business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Flare, which declined to share its exact sales, claimed its annual recurring revenue has grown more than 160 percent over the past year. https://tinyurl.com/49shfn9b

Number of billion dollar US IPOs Falls far behind private rounds.

There have been twice as many fundraising deals of US$1 billion or more this year for firms without a public listing than US IPOs raising that amount, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and PitchBook. With blockbuster private funding rounds for companies from OpenAI to Databricks sending their valuations soaring, a growing number are able to nab as much cash as they desire without a listing. All told, 21 deals have raised more than US$1 billion in US venture capital-led rounds this year, matching the pandemic-era peak, raising US$108 billion in aggregate, according to PitchBook data through Nov. 4. That compares to 10 such US IPOs this year, bringing in just US$13.3 billion in volume, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The activity is in stark contrast to the pandemic era when any company seen with a good idea went public. In 2021, the number of US IPOs raising US$1 billion or more jumped to 32, compared to 21 private rounds of that size. The current preference among many startups to remain private is driven in part by the willingness of investors to fund a company’s growth before they make a profit. It’s also been helped by an increasing number of privately-organized stake sales, giving long-term backers and employees the chance to take profits before an IPO. For firms raising more than US$1 billion in US IPOs, performance has been mixed. While the weighted-average return sits at 40%, more than doubling returns for the S&P 500 Index, four of the stocks have fallen below their issue price. The performance for the cohort has been carried by stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc.’s 265% surge and CoreWeave Inc., whose shares have nearly tripled. https://tinyurl.com/2k7jba5f

OpenAI’s revenue could reach US$100 billion in 2027, Altman suggests.

OpenAI’s revenue could reach US$100 billion in 2027, Sam Altman said on a podcast published Friday (last week) with Altimeter Capital and OpenAI investor Brad Gerstner. Altman said the ChatGPT maker was already “doing well more revenue,” than US$13 billion, an apparent reference to its annualized pace, which had reached US$12 billion in July. OpenAI has projected generating US$13 billion in total revenue this year. It also previously forecast generating US$100 billion in total revenue in 2028. Altman’s comments on the podcast suggest the company could reach those milestones more quickly than it previously anticipated. The OpenAI CEO said the company didn’t have a time frame for an initial public offering, and he dismissed critics who doubted the company would be able to pay for the US$1.4 trillion OpenAI has committed to spend on computing capacity. He also envisioned a time when “we will make an incredible consumer device that can run a GPT-5 or GPT-6 capable model completely locally.” https://tinyurl.com/uafbwmv6

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman forecasts US$20 billion in annualized revenue this year.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he doesn’t want the government to bail them out if the company fails. “If we screw up and can’t fix it, we should fail, and other companies will continue on doing good work and servicing customers,” Altman said in an X post on Thursday. Altman also said that OpenAI expects future revenue growth, ranging from hardware AI devices to robotics to an “AI cloud” to drive revenue growth that could help the company fund its US$1.4 trillion in commitments over the next eight years. Altman’s comments come after OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, on Wednesday, suggested a federal backstop could support financing AI chips and data centers that could help the U.S. stay competitive globally. “We’re looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental, the ways governments can come to bear,” she said. Friar later walked back her comments in a LinkedIn post, stating that OpenAI isn’t seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure projects. In his X post, Altman added that while OpenAI doesn’t have a government backstop for its data center projects, OpenAI has discussed government loan guarantees to support the development of semiconductor fabrication plants in the U.S. in order to strengthen the domestic chip supply chain. https://tinyurl.com/e64znk9f

OpenAI CFO suggests government guarantee for AI financing.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said Wednesday that government guarantees for financing artificial intelligence chips could help the U.S. stay competitive globally. “We’re looking for an ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental, the ways governments can come to bear,” she said at a conference. “The backstop, the guarantee that allows the financing to happen. That can really drop the cost of the financing but also increase the loan-to-value, so the amount of debt you can take on top of an equity portion.” Friar later said on LinkedIn that “OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for our infrastructure commitments,” but rather that both the private sector and government need to build the industrial capacity to sustain “American strength in technology.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last week the company had financial obligations for US$1.4 trillion in computing capacity, raising questions among some investors about how it planned to pay for this buildout. https://tinyurl.com/47xphdsv

Banks line up US$18 billion loan for Stargate data center.

Banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are providing a roughly US$18 billion loan to the developers of a New Mexico data center for OpenAI’s Stargate project, said a person familiar with the deal. The loan would add to a long list of debt deals being lined up to support OpenAI’s rapidly expanding computing needs, including a US$38 billion deal for data center sites in Texas and Wisconsin. The Stargate data center is being developed by BorderPlex Digital Assets and Stack Infrastructure for Oracle as part of its cloud deal with OpenAI. Blue Owl is investing equity in the project. Bloomberg first reported on the loan. https://tinyurl.com/nhchdvce

Anthropic projects US$70 billion in revenue, US$17 billion in cash flow in 2028.

Anthropic expects to generate as much as US$70 billion in revenue in 2028, up from roughly US$4.7 billion this year. The company’s fast revenue growth may encourage investors to back the company again in the coming months. The company would likely target a valuation between US$300 billion and US$400 billion. Roughly 80% of Anthropic’s revenue through 2028 comes from sales of its AI models through an application programming interface to business customers. The rest comes from subscriptions to its premium features, including its coding agent Claude Code. Claude Code is nearing US$1 billion in annualized revenue. In total, the company generated close to US$7 billion in annualized revenue last month. In its most optimistic forecasts, Anthropic expects to be cash flow positive as soon as 2027, when it expects to generate US$3 billion in cash. The company expects US$17 billion in cash the following year. Its gross margins were negative 94% last year but should improve to roughly 50% this year and about 77% in 2028, the company forecasts. https://tinyurl.com/yeywxnrn

Nvidia CEO warns China will win AI race.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said China will win the artificial intelligence race because of the country’s lower energy costs and looser regulations. Speaking on the sidelines of a Financial Times conference in London, Huang said the U.S. government’s new rules on AI could lead to dozens of new regulations, while China’s subsidies for energy have made it easier for Chinese companies to operate datacenters containing their homegrown AI chips. Huang has said that China is “nanoseconds” behind the U.S. in AI and chipmaking and that Nvidia should be allowed to sell its most advanced AI chips to China to maintain U.S. dominance over the technology. However, the Trump administration has yet to allow Nvidia to sell its most advanced Blackwell chips to China. Earlier this month, Trump said in an interview on CBS that he would not allow the export of Blackwell chips to China, but didn’t rule out the possibility of allowing the sale of a less powerful version of Blackwell. https://tinyurl.com/mubexzeu

Palantir reports booming U.S. commercial sales.

Palantir’s sales to U.S. businesses hit US$397 million in the third quarter, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations and growing 121% compared to the previous year, the company reported Monday. The U.S. commercial growth was a highlight of continued breakneck growth for Palantir, which has been the stock market’s best-performing software company and neared a US$500 billion market capitalization before the market closed Monday. The firm, seen as one of this era’s political beneficiaries due to its work with agencies like the U.S. Army and Immigration and Customers Enforcement, has turned into one of the biggest beneficiaries of other companies seeking to improve their businesses with artificial intelligence and better data tools. Overall, the company posted annual revenue growth of 63% in the quarter, to US$1.2 billion. The results emboldened CEO Alex Karp, who pounded a table during the earnings video call, and criticized other enterprise software companies. “Our clients realized the choices sucked, basically,” he said. “They tried a lot of stuff; it didn’t work.” The company’s stock, already by far the most richly valued software company in the U.S. on a multiple of revenue, was volatile after hours. It jumped sharply after reporting earnings before falling below its closing price. https://tinyurl.com/y4md6x5p

OpenAI, AWS sign US$38 billion cloud deal.

OpenAI will spend US$38 billion to rent servers from Amazon Web Services in the coming years, the two companies announced Monday. AWS will rent existing servers to OpenAI and will build new data center capacity for the startup, which it plans to begin using next year, the companies said. It’s not clear over what time frame OpenAI plans to spend the US$38 billion, but the companies said the deal will “have continued growth over the next seven years.” The deal is OpenAI’s first with AWS as the startup moves quickly to rent servers equipped with Nvidia chips from a wide range of cloud providers. OpenAI previously had an exclusive cloud deal with Microsoft, but those companies amended their agreement this month to allow OpenAI to rent servers from other companies. OpenAI has separately committed to spend US$250 billion on Microsoft Azure and US$300 billion on Oracle’s cloud in the coming years, and it has raised US$100 billion from Nvidia to fund its own data centers. https://tinyurl.com/3rwh82bf
Elon Musk says Tesla could build chip fab, work with Intel. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that Tesla may have to eventually build its own chip fab to manufacture chips for its autonomous vehicle and robotics businesses. “One of the things I’m trying to figure out is — how do we make enough chips?” Musk said at Tesla’s annual meeting after shareholders approved his US$1 trillion pay package. “Even when we extrapolate the best case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, it’s still not enough… So I think we’re probably going to have to build a gigantic chip fab.” Musk has raised the possibility of Tesla building its own chip fab previously, writing on X in 2024 that Tesla “could” build a chip fab but “I sure hope we don’t have to.” Currently, Tesla designs its own chips and has contracts with chipmakers including TSMC and Samsung to produce them. Musk also raised the possibility of Tesla doing a deal with Intel at the annual meeting. “We haven’t signed any deal, but it’s probably worth having discussions with Intel,” Musk said. His comments caused Intel shares to spike as much as 3% in after-hours trading before falling. https://tinyurl.com/yjpzmen4

Cipher mining inks multi-billion deal to provide AI data centers to AWS.

Cipher Mining, which builds and runs data centers for bitcoin mining and has recently expanded its focus to AI, revealed in its third-quarter earnings report that it has inked a 15-year lease agreement with Amazon Web Services worth around US$5.5 billion. In the deal, Cipher will provide 300 megawatts of computing capacity by next summer that AWS plans to use for AI computing jobs. Cipher, which announced a similar AI deal in September with London-based AI cloud provider Fluidstack, is following the same path as CoreWeave, Crusoe and Applied Digital, which also started in cryptocurrency mining. Shares of Cipher jumped nearly 35% after the announcement, despite a lackluster quarter in which the company missed its revenue forecast and reported a larger-than-expected net loss. Driven by demand for cloud AI services, AWS has added more than 3.8 gigawatts of power over the past 12 months and now has double the amount of power capacity it had in 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call last week. That capacity is set to double again by 2027, he said. https://tinyurl.com/bdumxpf8

Microsoft to spend over US$10 billion to rent cloud servers from smaller firms.

Microsoft said Monday it had struck two separate deals to spend more than US$10 billion to rent cloud servers with Nvidia chips from smaller cloud providers in the coming years. Microsoft will spend US$9.7 billion to rent servers from cloud startup Iren over the next five years, and will also rent Nvidia-equipped servers from the cloud startup Lambda, totaling several billion dollars over an unspecified time period, Lambda announced Monday. Microsoft was already renting servers from Lambda prior to the new deal being announced. The moves come as Microsoft races to add more computing capacity to run artificial intelligence for itself and its customers. OpenAI, Microsoft’s biggest cloud client, announced last month that it would spend US$250 billion to rent Azure servers in the coming years; and Microsoft said in its quarterly earnings call last week that it doesn’t have enough server space in its Azure cloud computing unit to meet demand for server rentals from customers, which could explain the recently announced cloud deals. Microsoft, which previously had the exclusive rights to rent out cloud servers to OpenAI, amended its deal with the startup last month to allow OpenAI to rent servers from competing cloud firms; OpenAI separately announced on Monday that it would spend US$38 billion on Amazon’s cloud in the coming years. https://tinyurl.com/3hcabw87

SoftBank explored takeover of chip firm Marvell, Bloomberg reports.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group explored a potential acquisition of chipmaker Marvell Technology earlier this year, according to a report in Bloomberg. Marvell and Softbank are not in active negotiations, according to the report. A deal would have been the largest in semiconductor buyout in history. Marvell, which has a market capitalization of US$80 billion, designs chips for data centers and other industries. SoftBank has been eyeing takeovers of firms that could boost chip designer Arm, in which it holds a majority stake. Earlier this year, for instance, SoftBank agreed to buy Ampere Computing, which makes traditional data center chips, for US$6.5 billion. https://tinyurl.com/yp59yzm4

AMD projects much slower AI chip revenue growth than Nvidia.

Advanced Micro Devices said Tuesday its revenue rose 36% to US$9.2 billion in the third quarter, beating its earlier projection by 8 percentage points. But AMD also projected revenue in the current quarter would rise 25% to US$9.6 billion, plus or minus US$300 million. That’s nearly 30 percentage points lower than its much bigger rival Nvidia’s projected revenue growth in its current fiscal quarter, showing how Nvidia continues to extend its vast lead in the market for artificial intelligence chips. AMD shares fell 3% in after-hours trading. AMD generated US$4.3 billion from its data center unit in the quarter, which includes sales of its chips that compete with Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Still, AMD gained some traction with major Nvidia customers in recent months. AMD announced a major partnership with OpenAI in the quarter, as well as an expanded contract with Oracle to buy its chips. Su said the partnership with OpenAI has the potential to generate “over US$100 billion” in revenue over the next few years. OpenAI isn’t obligated to buy AMD chips, which is a contrast to the obligations it made to rent Nvidia chips from cloud providers and to produce its own AI chips with Broadcom. https://tinyurl.com/mpeyc9jj

Uber reports accelerating growth, led by delivery business.

Uber’s revenue growth accelerated to 20% in the third quarter, lifting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 33% to US$2.3 billion. Free cash flow rose 5.7% to US$2.2 billion. Underwriting the growth was Uber’s delivery business, where bookings jumped 25% and Ebitda rose 47%. Uber CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah attributed the surge in the delivery business partly to the expansion of the delivery business into groceries. Bookings on the ride-hailing side rose 20%, lifting Ebitda there by 21%. On a call with analysts, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Uber was growing fastest in the U.S. in markets where it has partnerships with Waymo, Austin and Atlanta. “Waymo utilization is still very, very high.” https://tinyurl.com/mr49r7jp

DoorDash’s investment plans send stock falling.

DoorDash stock slumped as much as 20% in after-hours trading after the delivery firm revealed it expects to “invest several hundred million dollars more” in upgrading its technology and expansion next year than it did this year. The investment is to unify the technologies used by the company and two European companies it has acquired, Wolt and Deliveroo, as well as to make its technology ready for AI services. In the quarter, DoorDash reported revenue growth accelerated to 27% in the third quarter, thanks to healthy expansion in the dollar value of orders made through the delivery service. The company generated US$723 million in free cash flow in the quarter, up from US$444 million a year earlier. https://tinyurl.com/2s46496c

Spotify reports higher revenue despite Ad decline.

Spotify lifted revenue 7% in the third quarter, as growth in its subscription business was offset by a 6% drop in advertising revenue. It was the second consecutive decline for Spotify ads, which last year had been growing, albeit slowly. Spotify executives said on the earnings call Tuesday that 2025 is “a transition year for its ad business” — earlier this year CEO Daniel Ek attributed the exit of ads chief Lee Brown to dissatisfaction with the growth of the ads business. Executives said that they expected ads to start growing in the second half of 2026, buoyed by the strength of recent partnerships with advertising technology partners like Yahoo and Amazon. Spotify has struggled to have the right technology for small advertisers, who prefer to use self-service tools, rather than buy directly through salespeople or use the third-party tools Spotify is touting. On the earnings call, chief financial officer Christian Luiga said that ad sales coming directly from salespeople have been flat to slightly down. Spotify last year revamped its tool for small advertisers. https://tinyurl.com/yc5ukc2v

Snap stock rockets higher on US$400 million Perplexity deal.

Alongside its release of third-quarter earnings, Snap announced on Wednesday evening that it has inked a US$400 million deal with AI startup Perplexity AI. Under the agreement, Perplexity will pay Snap to integrate some of its AI features into the Snapchat user interface, starting in early 2026. Snapchat has struggled to keep pace with its larger social media competitors in recent years, falling behind as platforms like Instagram and TikTok have grown and adapted to an AI-powered internet. With the latest announcement, the platform has launched itself squarely into the AI zeitgeist with its lucrative new deal with Perplexity. https://tinyurl.com/bdt8zfd4

Bitcoin falls below US$100,000 as risk-off mood weighs on crypto.

Bitcoin has wiped out its summer rally, giving back gains made during Wall Street’s euphoric embrace and a surge in institutional buying. The original cryptocurrency fell as much as 7.4% to US$96,794 on Tuesday in New York, the first time below US$100,000 since June. That’s down more than 20% from a record high reached a month ago, a plunge consistent with a bear market in equities. Ether slipped as much as 15% and several so-called altcoins posted similar declines, bringing losses for many of the less easily traded and liquid tokens to more than 50% this year. The turning point came in October, when a brutal wave of liquidations wiped out more billions in bullish positions. Since then, traders have stayed on the sidelines. Open interest in Bitcoin futures remains far below pre-crash levels, and even with funding costs turning favorable, few are willing to re-enter. The result: Bitcoin is up less than 10% this year, lagging equities and once again falling short as a portfolio hedge. https://tinyurl.com/4ucb7dj9

Google’s rolling out its most powerful AI chip, taking aim at Nvidia with custom silicon.

Google is making its most powerful chip yet widely available, the search giant’s latest effort to try and win business from artificial intelligence companies by offering custom silicon. The company said on Thursday that the seventh generation of its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), called Ironwood, will hit the market for public use in the coming weeks, after it was initially introduced in April for testing and deployment. The chip, built in-house, is designed to handle everything from the training of large models to powering real-time chatbots and AI agents. In connecting up to 9,216 chips in a single pod, Google says the new Ironwood TPUs eliminate “data bottlenecks for the most demanding models” and give customers “the ability to run and scale the largest, most data-intensive models in existence.” TPUs have been in the works for a decade. Ironwood, according to Google, is more than four times faster than its predecessor, and major customers are already lining up. AI startup Anthropic plans to use up to 1 million of the new TPUs to run its Claude model, Google said. https://tinyurl.com/2a56t8x9

Apple finalizing move to Google’s AI for Siri revamp.

Apple is finalizing a plan to use Google’s artificial intelligence model to power an overhauled version of its Siri voice assistant, according to Bloomberg. Instead of building a large language model in-house to power a new Siri, Apple has been evaluating several external models over the past year. It has narrowed in on Google’s Gemini, Bloomberg reported. Apple will pay Google around US$1 billion a year, the news outlet reported. The new Siri powered by Google will likely release next spring. Originally launched in 2011, Siri has fallen far behind the competition, especially with the rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. A team inside Apple attempted to build the company its own version of a ChatGPT, but they’ve struggled inside Apple’s corporate culture, The Information previously reported. As a result, most of that team has departed. https://tinyurl.com/5c2jt93p

Google wants to build solar-powered data centers — in space.

In a research paper published Tuesday, Google outlined plans to launch its AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units, into a low-earth orbit that keeps them constantly in view of the sun, allowing them to continually run off solar power. The TPUs, attached to satellites, would be deployed as a constellation where they’d travel close enough together for high-bandwidth wireless communication, allowing the satellites to work in concert just like the AI chips in today’s earthbound data centers. Google, which dubbed the effort “Project Suncatcher,” plans to launch two test satellites, each carrying four TPUs, in 2027 with the company Planet Labs. As space transport comes down in price, the team believes the idea could become economical by 2035. The advantage of running a data center in space is that it can be powered entirely by the sun. Terrestrial data centers that run off solar panels lose that power at night and production drops significantly during the winter. Google’s plan is to launch the satellites into an orbit that would keep them in nearly continuous sunshine and receive up to eight times more solar power per year than a panel located on earth at mid-latitude. But running a data center in space creates other challenges beyond the initial hurdle of getting them up there in the first place.
In space, Google’s TPUs will be exposed to much higher levels of radiation than they would on Earth, and researchers need to figure out how long they will last. A startup called Starcloud, which has partnered with Nvidia, plans to build what look more like traditional data centers in space, with modular containers filled with server racks. Google’s idea is to take a much simpler approach by launching fleets of small satellites and connecting them wirelessly, reducing the need to carry large, bulky server racks on rockets. Google found that if the satellites are positioned hundreds of meters apart they can use an optical connection that achieves fast enough speeds, with current tests showing about 1.6 terabits per second. Current satellite constellations, like Starlink, are roughly 120 km apart, by some estimates. Google used physics modeling to show how it was possible to keep them in a tight formation using modern thruster technology. Even if Google’s satellite data center concept worked, it would be too expensive today to launch the equipment into space. But the price is coming down quickly: Google researchers estimated that today’s roughly US$1,500 per kg on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket could drop to about US$200 by 2035, making a space-based data center on par with a terrestrial one on a cost-per-kilowatt basis. https://tinyurl.com/596mya8t

Elon Musk: future Starlink satellites will become orbiting data centers.

Starlink satellites are best known for supplying high-speed internet, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is suggesting they might one day also be used as orbiting data centers. Creating a network of orbiting data centers would be no easy task. But according to Musk, SpaceX already has a foundation with the company’s next-generation V3 Starlink satellites, which are designed to beam gigabit internet. “Simply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high-speed laser links, would work,” he tweeted. “SpaceX will be doing this.” This comes amid growing discussions about building power-hungry AI data centers in space to mitigate the environmental impact on Earth. SpaceX’s proposed V3 satellites require SpaceX’s Starship vehicle for launch, which is still in testing. An earlier regulatory filing from the company indicates that each V3 could weigh up to 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds), or almost four times the current mass of the V2 Mini Starlink satellites. Musk’s tweet suggests SpaceX could make them even larger to host more built-in computing. A customer could then remotely connect to the Starlink satellites—which already possess high-speed connectivity—and run AI training workloads. Musk’s reference to the high-speed laser links is also notable. One key challenge with operating any data center in space is remotely connecting to it, especially when the data center is continually circling the Earth, in and out of view for customers on the ground. However, SpaceX has already developed a solution using the built-in laser system on existing Starlink satellites, enabling them to transmit data at up to 200Gbps, thereby creating a mesh network in space. https://tinyurl.com/rn2rjkr9

China’s Xpeng aims to mass produce humanoids by end of 2026.

Xpeng Motors, one of China’s biggest electric vehicle makers, on Wednesday announced a new version of its humanoid robot and said it now aims to start mass production of advanced humanoids by the end of next year. Xpeng, based in the southern city of Guangzhou, also said it will launch three robotaxi models in China next year and start trial robotaxi operations in Guangzhou and some other cities. In addition, the company unveiled a new six-seat flying car that is expected to have a range of 500 kilometers, and said it is currently conducting test flights. Meanwhile, Xpeng’s previously announced vehicle that comes with a detachable two-person aircraft will be ready for mass production and delivery next year, it said. Xpeng made those announcements at its annual AI Day event at its headquarters, where it showed some of its prototypes as well as existing products. Xpeng’s focus on artificial intelligence and its latest plans highlight the similarity between Xpeng’s ambitions and those of Tesla. Xpeng’s robotaxis, humanoids, flying cars and its driver assistance system similar to Tesla’s Full Self Driving, will all be powered by the Chinese company’s new open-source “physical world” AI model called VLA 2.0, it said. Xpeng said Volkswagen will be the launch customer of VLA 2.0. https://tinyurl.com/bdcpc5e2

Scammy ads generated an estimated 10% of Meta’s revenue in 2024.

Meta internally projected that 10% of its revenue last year, or US$16 billion, came from ads promoting fraudulent products or schemes, Reuters reported. Reuters cited an internal document prepared in December 2024 which estimated that Meta shows users 15 billion ads each month that show clear signs of promoting fraud of some kind. While Meta has rules against running such ads, the team that vets advertisers wasn’t allowed to block the ads if doing so would cost Meta more than 0.15% of its revenue, the report said. One solution Meta devised last year to deal with these scammers was to charge the scammers more, to disincentivize them from buying more ads. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that the true percent of revenue coming from scam ads was lower, and the 10% figure was “overly-inclusive.” The spokesperson said the 0.15% threshold for taking action to enforce rules against scammy ads was not a hard limit and that charging scammy advertisers more for ads led to a decline in both scam reports and ad revenue. https://tinyurl.com/yc8rj2bd

Klarna feared data leak exposed 288,000 customer logins, messages show.

The buy-now, pay-later company Klarna feared that as many as 288,000 customers’ login details were exposed in a data glitch, which could have cost the company up to US$41.8 million, according to internal messages. It turned out the impact wasn’t as bad as originally thought. A Klarna spokesperson told Business Insider that “the actual number of impacted accounts is estimated at more than ~99% lower than the initial theoretical scope” of 288,000. Internal Slack messages, seen by Business Insider, show the Sweden-based company dealt with a problem caused by the absence of login protections for recycled phone numbers — when mobile carriers reassign a number after a previous owner gives it up. When a new customer received one of these reused numbers, Klarna’s system automatically logged them into the former owner’s account, potentially exposing their personal information, according to one internal message. https://tinyurl.com/eknwe4md

Congressional Budget Office believed to be hacked by foreign actor.

The Congressional Budget Office, lawmakers’ nonpartisan bookkeeper, was hacked by a suspected foreign actor, according to an agency spokeswoman, potentially exposing the key financial research data Congress uses to craft legislation. https://tinyurl.com/bdecu2fn

Amazon demands that Perplexity blocks ai agents from browsing its site.

Amazon demanded Perplexity stop allowing its AI assistant to make purchases on Amazon’s site, setting off a war of words between the two companies. Perplexity accused Amazon of restricting “user choice and freedom” by limiting AI agents’ access. Amazon said it had repeatedly requested that Perplexity stop allowing its Comet browser to use AI agents to access Amazon. It said Comet’s AI assistant offered a “significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience.” The skirmish is one of the highest-profile examples yet of the tension between AI companies developing agents and other tools that can complete tasks like making purchases on behalf of users and retailers that want to more closely control shoppers’ experiences on their sites. “We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate,” Amazon said in a statement. Amazon has previously taken steps to ward off AI agents and bots from accessing its site. This summer, Amazon updated the code underpinning its website to add language warding off AI agents from Google, in addition to restrictions on AI crawlers and agents from Perplexity, Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The e-commerce giant is working on several of its own agentic shopping tools, including a feature called Buy For Me, which can make purchases on outside sites on behalf of Amazon users, and its on-site chatbot Rufus, which can answer questions about products and help users decide what to purchase. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on the company’s earnings call last week that while most existing agentic shopping tools didn’t currently have good customer experiences, he expected that Amazon would eventually find ways to partner with outside AI agents. https://tinyurl.com/mtntumdr

China bans foreign AI chips in state-funded data centres.

China has ordered new data centers that receive state funds to use only domestically produced artificial intelligence chips, Reuters reported. Chinese authorities recently instructed operators with data center projects less than 30% complete to remove foreign chips from their systems or cancel plans to buy them, according to Reuters. The latest guidance could shut out companies including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel from gaining market share in China, boosting domestic suppliers such as Huawei. The move comes as Beijing pushes for AI chip self-sufficiency and steps up efforts to purge foreign technology from critical infrastructure, even as bilateral trade tensions with Washington ease. China’s access to high-end AI chips from firms such as Nvidia remains a sticking point in China-U.S. relations. https://tinyurl.com/yej6ahup