March 14, 2026: Cloudy, With More Than A Chance Of Volatility

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.9%, S&P 500 lost 0.3% and Nasdaq Composite was down 1.2%, after reversing from record highs on Friday. Astera Labs said it plans to raise up to US$534 million from its IPO as the eight-year-old server component startup looks to benefit from investor interest in artificial intelligence companies. Reddit is planning to start trading on the NYSE on March 21, following a road show next week. The company is initially seeking a valuation between US$5.5 billion and US$6.5 billion, down from the US$10 billion at which it raised money in 2021. Andreessen Horowitz is close to raising US$6.9 billion in new funds, including a growth fund that comprises about half the total and two AI focused funds. Super Micro Computer is joining the S&P 500 following a historic rally in the stock that has pushed the company’s market cap past US$50 billion. Two Nvidia Corp. directors sold about US$180 million in shares of the chipmaker in recent days, becoming the latest insiders to cash in as the stock continues to push deeper into record territory. MicroStrategy slipped from 24-year high on a convertible note offering to buy more bitcoins. The European Commission fined Apple 1.8 billion euros, or US$1.95 billion, for alleged “abusive App store rules” affecting rival music streaming services. President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he would sign a bill that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok or ban the app in the United States if it passed Congress. Temu spent US$2 billion on Meta ads in 2023. Amazon Web Services is paying up to $650 million for a Pennsylvania data center campus next to a nuclear power plant, according to the seller, Talen Energy. In Canada, Sophic Client, Kraken signed a Cooperative Research & Development Agreement with the US Navy for next Generation Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) Beamforming. Toronto-based AI chip startup Taalas has launched out of stealth with $50 million in funding.

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) announces closing of $402.5 million public offering of Subscription Receipts.

Kraken Robotics Inc. announced the successful completion of its previously announced offering (the “Offering”) of Subscription Receipts (the “Subscription Receipts”). Pursuant to the Offering, the Company issued a total of 47,353,550 Subscription Receipts, including 6,176,550 Subscription Receipts issued pursuant to the exercise in full by the Underwriters (as defined below) of their over-allotment option. The Subscription Receipts were issued at a price of $8.50 per Subscription Receipt (the “Offering Price”), for total gross proceeds of approximately $402.5 million. Kraken intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to partially fund the cash portion of the consideration payable in connection with the acquisition of Covelya Group Limited, a leading international provider of mission-critical underwater technology solutions, for total consideration of approximately $615 million (the “Acquisition”), excluding transaction costs and subject to customary adjustments. For additional details related to the Acquisition and the Offering, please see the Company’s news release dated March 3, 2026. The Acquisition is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2026. Each Subscription Receipt entitles the holder thereof, without payment of any additional consideration or further action on the part of the holder, to receive one common share of Kraken upon the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions (the “Release Conditions”), including the satisfaction of all conditions precedent to the completion of the Acquisition other than the payment of the purchase price and the satisfaction of conditions precedent that by their nature are to be satisfied at completion. The Subscription Receipts will begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) under the symbol “PNG.R” (CUSIP: 50077N128, ISIN: CA50077N1289. https://tinyurl.com/82xdkwma

MDA Space announces pricing of Initial Public Offering in the United States.

MDA Space announced the pricing of its previously announced marketed public offering (the “Offering”) of common shares of MDA Space (the “Common Shares”) in the United States and Canada. The underwriters have agreed to purchase 9,836,065 Common Shares from the Company in the Offering at a price of US$30.50 per share (the “Offering Price”), for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of approximately US$300 million. In connection with the initial public offering in the United States, MDA Space has been approved to list its Common Shares on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol “MDA”. The Offering is being conducted through a syndicate of underwriters led by J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets, who are acting as joint lead active bookrunners, and BMO Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies, Scotiabank, and Canaccord Genuity, who are acting as joint active bookrunners. https://tinyurl.com/2vfa2mmz

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) closes second Tranche of Private Placement financing and completes $1.95 million strategic investment.

Replenish Nutrients has closed the second tranche (“Second Tranche”) of its previously announced non-brokered private placement (the “Offering”) of units of the Company (“Units”), including the Debt Settlement and Strategic Investment (as defined below) for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $2,185,050. Financing Supports Next Phase of Growth. The completion of the Second Tranche represents another step forward as Replenish continues executing its strategy to scale production and expand distribution of its regenerative fertilizer products. Proceeds from the Offering are expected to support working capital requirements associated with scaling production at the Company’s Beiseker manufacturing facility and advancing previously announced licensing partnerships with MJ Ag Solutions (MJ Ag) and Farmers Union Enterprises (FUE). In connection with the Second Tranche, the Company issued, in aggregate, 21,397,646 Units at a price of $0.12 per Unit, including (i) 17,550,000 Units issued to Sorbie Bornholm LP (“Sorbie”) in connection with a strategic investment, where 16,250,000 common shares of the Company (“Company Shares”) are held pursuant to a sharing agreement (the “Strategic Investment”); and (ii) 1,888,889 Units issued to certain directors and trade creditors (the “Creditors”) in connection with the settlement of approximately $226,667 in aggregate indebtedness owing by the Company to the Creditors (the “Debt Settlement”). Pursuant to the Offering, each Unit consists of one Common Share and one Common Share purchase warrant of the Company (“Warrant”), each whole Warrant entitling the holder to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.18 per Common Share for a period of two years following the issue date. Under the Strategic Investment, 16,250,000 Common Shares issued to Sorbie are held pursuant to a sharing agreement dated March 6, 2026 between Replenish and Sorbie (the “Sharing Agreement”), and the proceeds from the Strategic Investment have been deposited in escrow under the terms of an escrow agreement (“Escrow Agreement” and together with the Sharing Agreement, the “Definitive Agreements”). The Sharing Agreement provides the Company with a payment of $81,250 per month over 24 months, beginning five months following the closing of the Offering, multiplied by the percent difference between the benchmark price of $0.1730 (the “Benchmark Price”) and a 20-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) in the month of settlement. The net cash proceeds from the Offering will be used to fund the working capital requirements for the Company’s previously announced licensing deals with MJ Ag and FUE, working capital requirements for Beiseker and general corporate purposes including strategic marketing and investor relations engagement. https://tinyurl.com/mrx4vm5m

Sophic Client Hybrid Power Solutions (HPSS-CSE, HPSIF-OTC) announces agreement to deliver nine spark units to Quebec-based equipment rental leader.

Hybrid Powerannounces an agreement with Location GM, a prominent Quebec-based equipment rental specialist, for the delivery of a total of nine of Hybrid’s Spark units, representing a value of $521,100. Under the agreement, Hybrid has already delivered the first two Spark units, which are now successfully installed and being operated by a major North American construction company for a project at the Montreal airport. The remaining seven Spark units are scheduled for delivery in Q4 (May) 2026 to support Location GM’s growing inventory of clean power solutions for rental to contractors across the province. https://tinyurl.com/ycyphurk

BDC expands Defence Platform to $6 billion and names a StrongNorth Fund leader.

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) announced Thursday that it is expanding its Defence Platform with another $1.2 billion in funding from the federal government. This comes in addition to the $1 billion BDC was promised by the Government of Canada in Budget 2025 to support its Defence Platform, which was launched in December. At the time, BDC said that capital would enable it to provide up to $4 billion, including $3.5 billion in financing and advisory services and $500 million in venture capital (VC) funding. BDC claims this latest $1.2-billion federal injection will help the organization deploy up to $6 billion in loans and investments to domestic small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) targeting opportunities in Canada’s burgeoning defence sector. https://tinyurl.com/tdb24jhv

Ottawa gives NRC $900 million for drone innovation hub and defence-focused IRAP stream.

The federal government is injecting $900 million into the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to jumpstart a drone innovation hub and launch a defence-focused stream under its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP). Industry minister Mélanie Joly and defence minister David McGuinty announced the commitment, which is part of the recently unveiled $6.6-billion Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), on Monday while surrounded by drones, planes, and helicopters inside the NRC Research Center at Ottawa’s airport. “When DND and the CAF need a technical solution that doesn’t yet exist, we count on the NRC to help build it, and to find it.” Alongside the Department of National Defence (DND) and industry partners, the NRC is committing $500 million of this funding to aerospace and autonomous technologies. One part of this is the creation of the Drone Innovation Hub. Based out of Ottawa and the Montréal area, the hub aims to grow domestic capacity in drone and aerospace technologies. The government said the hub will enhance drone and counter-drone development and testing capabilities, as well as provide a path for industry to qualify new technologies for drones. https://tinyurl.com/zn4cy2ae

Xanadu in talks with government over potential $390 million for domestic quantum manufacturing.

As it prepares to go public, Toronto-based quantum computing firm Xanadu could get as much as $390 million in government support for a major new quantum project. Project OPTIMISM would “significantly advance” Xanadu’s roadmap toward “utility-scale” quantum computing. Xanadu announced on Wednesday afternoon that it is negotiating with the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario to support what it called Project OPTIMISM. Xanadu said the project would aim to establish advanced semiconductor and photonic manufacturing capabilities in Canada. The company said up to $390 million in combined government support is under consideration. Xanadu made the rare move of announcing negotiations with the government as it prepares to go public in a US$3.6 billion special purpose acquisition company deal that could make it the first Canadian technology business to debut on the TSX in more than four years. https://tinyurl.com/mpw5zu7c

Gumloop sticks US$50 million Series B round to let employees build their own AI agents.

Vancouver-founded, San Francisco-based Gumloop has raised a US$50 million ($68 million) Series B round to help enterprise employees automate their work. One of Gumloop’s core tenets is to “give people UX they rave about.” Gumloop sells its platform to enterprise companies like Ramp, Shopify, and Instacart. The platform lets employees create their own AI agents by connecting their internal data to popular AI models, which in turn will complete complex tasks for them. https://tinyurl.com/k4t3aw8r

Telus Digital confirms breach after hacker claims 1 petabyte data theft.

Canadian business process outsourcing giant Telus Digital has confirmed it suffered a security incident after threat actors claimed to have stolen nearly 1 petabyte of data from the company in a multi-month breach. Telus Digital is the digital services and business process outsourcing (BPO) arm of Canadian telecommunications provider Telus, providing customer support, content moderation, AI data services, and other outsourced operational services to companies worldwide. Because BPO providers often handle customer support, billing, and internal authentication tools for multiple companies, they can become attractive targets for threat actors seeking access to large amounts of customer and corporate data through a single breach. https://tinyurl.com/9y46ushs

OpenAI’s IPO hopes face skeptical investor community.

OpenAI is likely at least six months away from going public, and possibly longer. But as the company takes steps toward an initial public offering, investment banks trying to get a piece of the business are contacting public market investors to gauge how they’re thinking about OpenAI’s prospects as a public company, said one person who has been on the receiving end of the outreach. The mood is mixed. Investors expect the company to raise tens or potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in its initial public offering, meaning it could easily eclipse even Saudi Aramco’s blockbuster IPO in 2019, which brought in over US$25 billion. But many public market investors—even those who are bullish on OpenAI’s favorable position in the competitive landscape of AI—are somewhat skeptical. Several expressed wariness about the offering, partly because plentiful financial data on the company’s performance won’t be available until it files to go public and partly because they are concerned about OpenAI’s ability to turn a profit in the long term. The ChatGPT creator has projected it will continue to burn cash until at least 2030. The US$850 billion valuation at which the company is finalizing a funding round from investors including Nvidia, Amazon and Softbank looks rich, and it’s likely its bankers will price its IPO at an even higher figure. At US$850 billion, OpenAI is valued at 28 times its projected 2026 revenue. Nvidia, in comparison, trades at a multiple of 12 times forward sales. (The US$850 billion figure includes the money being raised). Some investors say they are eager to short OpenAI’s stock, thinking the public market won’t be tolerant of its long path to profitability. Investment manager and high-profile short seller Jim Chanos argues that Nvidia sets the valuation benchmark for investing in AI companies, including OpenAI. Nvidia has “got the monopoly for the most part, and they’re growing rapidly,” Chanos said. “They have massive margins. They have cash flow to burn. So why would you pay a higher valuation for OpenAI?” https://tinyurl.com/bd7buhzz

SoftBank-backed payment app PayPay rises in U.S. IPO.

PayPay shares rose nearly 20% in the Japanese mobile payment app’s debut in the U.S. stock market Thursday, before closing with a 13% gain and market cap of US$12 billion. The company raised almost US$880 million in the IPO, including shares sold by investor SoftBank, making it the biggest listing ever for a Japanese company in the U.S. PayPay’s bankers priced the deal at US$16 per share, which was lower than the range it set out to raise, after a stock selloff exacerbated by rising oil prices. The IPO, originally planned for last December, was delayed because of the U.S. government shutdown late last year. The deal comes as Softbank is looking to finance its big bets in artificial intelligence. It has been selling stakes in Nvidia and T-Mobile and is trying to raise US$40 billion in debt to pay for its OpenAI investment, Bloomberg reported. Founded in 2018, PayPay is the largest mobile payment app in Japan with more than 70 million users. It also issues credit cards and provides banking services. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley led the offering. https://tinyurl.com/2vm4ucht

AI cloud company Nebius gets US$2 billion Nvidia investment.

Nvidia will invest US$2 billion in Amsterdam-based AI cloud company Nebius Group and the two companies will work together to build data centers using 5 gigawatts of energy by the end of the decade. The deal, announced by both companies Wednesday, adds to the growing tally of investments Nvidia has made in customers to support their growth. Nvidia invested US$17.5 billion in private companies and infrastructure funds in its most recent fiscal year and provided US$3.5 billion of financial guarantees to companies working on data centers, according to financial disclosures. Nebius was formed from the non-Russian assets of internet company Yandex and is led by its former CEO, Arkady Volozh. The company’s shares rose more than 13% following the announcement, giving it a market value of almost US$28 billion. https://tinyurl.com/2nkf92cc

Amazon confirms US$37 billion bond sale.

Amazon raised US$37 billion in bonds in the U.S., the company confirmed in a securities filing on Wednesday, buttressing its balance sheet as it ramps up its investment in AI. the bonds range from two year notes to 50 year notes. Separately, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the company raised an additional US$16.8 billion in Euro-denominated bonds in Europe. The debt-raising comes just four months after Amazon raised US$15 billion in bonds. The latest series of bonds were issued at a range of prices—measured as the spread over Treasurys—with the spread meaningfully higher than those issued in November. That’s a sign Amazon is having to pay a slightly higher price as it borrows more money. Amazon has said it will lift capital expenditures this year by 50% to about US$200 billion and will invest as much as US$50 billion in OpenAI. Amazon’s debt raising comes as numerous tech firms are tapping the bond market to raise money, including Salesforce, which also confirmed on Wednesday it was raising money. Salesforce is raising money to help fund a big stock buyback. https://tinyurl.com/3564pwka

Anduril expands into space as defense tech angles to support Trump’s Golden Dome.

Anduril acquired missile tracking and intelligence firm ExoAnalytic Solutions as it extends its reach into U.S. defense interests in space, the company announced on Wednesday. Through the acquisition, Anduril plans to mobilize ExoAnalytic’s sweeping network of telescopes and missile defense tracking to gather data that improves its ground and satellite capabilities. The defense tech firm is aiming to improve the Department of Defense’s visibility in space as it becomes a “war-fighting domain,” said Gokul Subramanian, Anduril’s senior vice president of engineering for software programs. https://tinyurl.com/48e4xyxf

Zendesk acquiring AI customer service startup forethought.

AI customer service software provider Zendesk is acquiring Forethought, a nine-year-old startup that is one of its industry partners and competitors, for an undisclosed sum. The deal shows how larger firms are snapping up smaller rivals that develop AI agents that can perform multi-step tasks without human intervention, like processing retail product returns. Last September, customer service software provider Nice acquired Cognigy, a startup with a similar focus as Forethought, for US$955 million. Forethought, whose customers include Airtable, Datadog and Superhuman (formerly known as Grammarly), has raised around US$115 million. The startup should fit neatly within Zendesk’s product portfolio, since Forethought’s agents can already access Zendesk customer data through a software integration the companies announced in 2022. Both companies are also pioneers in charging customers for AI features only when they don’t require humans to step in, known as outcome-based pricing. Anthropic Says Defense Department Move Has Killed Deals. Anthropic said that the Defense Department’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk could jeopardize billions of dollars of revenue this year, and it cited business contracts it’s already lost because of the agency’s moves. In filings made with its suit against the government, Anthropic said one customer that provides AI to the Food and Drug Administration switched from Claude to a different AI product as a result of the supply chain risk designation, cutting off revenue worth more than US$100 million. In addition, Anthropic was on the cusp of closing deals, worth over US$80 million, with two financial services firms, but now the firms are insisting on the ability to unilaterally cancel their contracts. https://tinyurl.com/42nattan

Salesforce raises US$25 billion in bonds for buyback.

Salesforce raised US$25 billion in bonds, the company confirmed, and has struck deals with “financial institutions” to buy back that much in stock. A US$25 billion buyback would shrink Salesforce’s outstanding shares by about 13%. Salesforce shares were trading up 3.4% on Thursday morning. Such a buyback would be an expansion of what Salesforce has done. Last year, for instance, it repurchased about US$12.6 billion in shares, which was up from US$7.8 billion the year earlier. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff had signaled his intention to borrow money to buy back shares at the company’s recent earnings call. Alluding to the company’s recent stock price decline and the fact that Salesforce has issued shares in a couple of big acquisitions over the years, he said: “Now is the opportunity to take some of that stock back out of the market…and I think debt is a great way to do that.” https://tinyurl.com/ycffmn7r

Anthropic says Defense Department move has killed deals.

Anthropic said that the Defense Department’s designation of the company as a supply chain risk could jeopardize billions of dollars of revenue this year, and it cited business contracts it’s already lost because of the agency’s moves. In filings made with its suit against the government, Anthropic said one customer that provides AI to the Food and Drug Administration switched from Claude to a different AI product as a result of the supply chain risk designation, cutting off revenue worth more than US$100 million. In addition, Anthropic was on the cusp of closing deals, worth over US$80 million, with two financial services firms, but now the firms are insisting on the ability to unilaterally cancel their contracts. The filings also detailed some of Anthropic’s financial figures. Since its founding five years ago, Anthropic has generated more than US$5 billion in revenue, while training and running its models has cost the company over US$10 billion. As the cost of running its models has jumped, Anthropic has lowered its gross margins projections. It also raised its training cost projections. https://tinyurl.com/nhchnbay

Meta may lay off 20% of staff, report says.

Meta Platforms is planning layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, Reuters reported Friday. The cuts would offset high costs of artificial intelligence spending and prepare for efficiency gains from AI assistants, said the report. The cuts, if they materialize, would be the latest reductions at the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Meta let about 10% of its Reality Labs unit go in January and has laid off about 25,000 people over the past three years. Even so, its workforce has continued to climb since 2023, hitting 78,865 as of December. Meta, similar to Amazon, Google and Microsoft, is spending aggressively on data centers and other computing costs to develop and run AI models. The company has forecast capital expenditures of US$115 billion to US$135 billion this year, up roughly 73% from 2025. https://tinyurl.com/3krzz7wv

Atlassian lays off 10% of staff, CEO plans more investment in AI.

Atlassian, which sells software that lets developers and other business teams collaborate on projects, is laying off around 1,600 employees, or around 10% of its staff, CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes announced in a blog post. Few companies have been harder hit by investors’ fears over the impact of AI on enterprise software than Atlassian, whose shares are down more than 50% since the start of the year and over 65% over the past 12 months. In the wake of the job cuts, Atlassian plans to invest more in AI and enterprise sales, while also focusing more on profitability, according to Cannon-Brookes. “Our approach is not ‘AI replaces people,’” Cannon-Brookes said in the blog post. “But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does.” https://tinyurl.com/2ftc2ayr

Honda takes a US$15.7 billion hit as EV retreat continues to batter legacy automakers.

Honda is taking a massive financial hit as it pulls back on its electric-vehicle ambitions. On Thursday, the Japanese automaker said it expects to write off up to 2.5 trillion yen — roughly US$15.7 billion — as it reshapes its North American EV strategy. Honda expects the charge will push profits into the red in 2026, marking its first annual loss in nearly 7 decades. It’s the latest in a growing list of legacy automakers to announce multibillion-dollar hits as the industry recalibrates its electric plans. The EV pullback has gained momentum after the federal government ended the US$7,500 tax credit for US-built EVs under the Inflation Reduction Act in September. https://tinyurl.com/4xr8m56b

Meta rolls out in-house AI chips weeks after massive Nvidia, AMD deals.

Meta on Wednesday revealed four custom, in-house chips tailored for artificial intelligence-related tasks as part of the company’s massive data center expansion plans. The specialized silicon is part of the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, or MTIA, family of chips, which it publicly revealed for the first time in 2023 before unveiling a second-generation version in 2024. The first new chip, MTIA 300, was deployed a few weeks ago and is intended to help train smaller AI models that underpin Meta’s core ranking and recommendation tasks, Song said. These kinds of tasks include showing people relevant content and online ads within the company’s family of apps like Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s AI spending spree includes a gigantic data center in Louisiana and two others in Ohio and Indiana. Meta is also reportedly looking to lease space at the Stargate site in Texas after OpenAI and Oracle scrapped plans to expand the AI data center site, according to Bloomberg. Tech giants like Google have been developing their own in-house silicon to fill data centers in recent years, as they seek an alternative to the costly, supply-constrained GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. These hyperscalers have been creating so-called application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, that are smaller and cheaper than the general-purpose AI workhorse GPUs, but are limited to performing a narrower set of tasks. https://tinyurl.com/7rv9cnye

Microsoft announces new Office 365 Bundle with AI Copilot included.

Microsoft will start selling a new subscription bundle for businesses that combines its Office 365 software with its Copilot AI chatbot for the first time starting in May, the company said Monday. The launch reflects Microsoft’s effort to use AI products to wring more revenue out of its existing base of corporate customers that already pay for software like Office 365 or Teams. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in January that 15 million people were paying for subscriptions to 365 Copilot, or roughly 3% of the total number of Office 365 subscribers. Microsoft last year started bundling 365 Copilot with consumer office subscriptions, but had kept Copilot subscriptions separate from its enterprise software bundle up until now. The new bundle, called E7, will cost US$99 per user per month, up from the US$60 price tag for the existing E5 bundle that combines Office 365, Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft’s cybersecurity software. E7 will include those products as well as 365 Copilot, the AI tool that uses models from OpenAI and Anthropic to automatically summarize emails or generate Powerpoint slides, which Microsoft previously sold for US$30 per month. It will also include Microsoft’s new Agent 365 software, which lets users keep track of and manage AI agents and cost US$15 per month. Microsoft also on Monday announced new AI features called Copilot Cowork, which relies on technology from Anthropic to automate complex tasks like reorganizing people’s calendars and compiling reports based on research gleaned from the internet. After Anthropic released its own Cowork product earlier this year, Microsoft—which pays Anthropic for the use of its models—has been moving quickly to build similar features in Copilot, The Information previously reported. https://tinyurl.com/5h2xz39n

Nvidia to launch platform for OpenClaw-like AI agents.

Nvidia is planning to launch a platform for AI agents aimed at enterprise customers called NemoClaw, Wired reported Monday. The platform will be open-source, it said, meaning the software code of these AI agents will be publicly available and modifiable. Nvidia already has reached out to Salesforce, Cisco, Google, Adobe and Crowdstrike over potential partnerships, though it isn’t clear whether this resulted in actual deals, Wired reported. Nvidia plans to offer tools for security and privacy for AI agents on its NemoClaw platform, Wired said. It added that the platform will be available to enterprise customers regardless of whether they use Nvidia chips or not. The move comes amid the popularity of software similar to OpenClaw, an AI agent that runs on a user’s computer that can write code, edit files and surf the web to complete tasks on behalf of users. Because the new Nvidia platform is open-source, it’s likely that partners would get free, early access in exchange for contributing to the project, Wired reported. Tesla and xAI to Work Together on AI, Elon Musk Says. Tesla and xAI are working together on a joint artificial intelligence project, Elon Musk said Wednesday. The move, which comes after turnover at xAI, is the latest shift in Musk’s plan to build AI designed to replace white collar workers. https://tinyurl.com/2r9hda5k

Meta said to push back launch of Avocado model.

Meta’s new foundational model, code-named Avocado, has come up short of competitors’ AI models, prompting the company to delay its release, The New York Times reported Thursday. The company is pushing out Avocado’s rollout, which was supposed to happen this month, to at least May, the report said. Meta’s AI leaders had also considered temporarily licensing Gemini to power its AI tools, the Times reported. Meta has thrown billions of dollars at hiring highly sought after AI researchers and talent. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also said the company plans to spend at least US$600 billion on data centers and other infrastructure projects. https://tinyurl.com/5xvhpywe

Amazon orders 90-day reset after code mishaps cause millions of lost orders.

Amazon is beefing up internal guardrails after recent outages hit the company’s e-commerce operation, including one disruption tied to its AI coding assistant Q. Dave Treadwell, Amazon’s SVP of e-commerce services, told staff on Tuesday that a “trend of incidents” emerged since the third quarter of 2025, including “several major” incidents in the last few weeks, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. At least one of those disruptions were tied to Amazon’s AI coding assistant Q, while others exposed deeper issues, another internal document explained. Problems included what he described as “high blast radius changes,” where software updates propagated broadly because control planes lacked suitable safeguards. (A control plane guides how data flows across a computer network). https://tinyurl.com/3wzpejnv

DIU, Navy tap Anduril to prototype Dive-XL autonomous submarine.

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the US Navy have tapped Anduril to participate in the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform Project (CAMP) with its prototype autonomous submarine, known as Dive-XL. The contract includes conducting a long-range, “operationally representative” demonstration within four months of the contract award, according to Anduril. The Dive-XL prototype is similar to the Ghost Shark Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (XL-AUVs) the company is currently delivering to the Royal Australian Navy, Anduril said. https://tinyurl.com/96t36zfc

Tesla and xAI to work together on AI, Elon Musk says.

In a X post, Musk said “Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project.” Macrohard is the name of an xAI team that’s been developing computer use agents designed to behave like office workers, while Optimus is the name of Tesla’s humanoid robot project. Toby Pohlen, a co-founder of xAI who Musk put in charge of Macrohard as part of a reorg last month, left xAI shortly afterward. It could not be learned who is now in charge of Macrohard, though top Tesla AI executive Ashok Elluswamy posted about recruiting for the project on Wednesday. Musk also said the joint project is “part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI.” Tesla disclosed a US$2 billion investment in xAI as part of its fourth quarter 2025 financial results, shortly before SpaceX acquired xAI. https://tinyurl.com/2fvv4pyz

Uber to offer Zoox self-driving taxi to riders.

Uber announced it would offer the Zoox robotaxi to customers starting this year. This is the first time the Amazon-owned self-driving car company has partnered with an outside ride-hailing app. Zoox will be available on the Uber app starting this summer in Las Vegas, and next year will be available in Los Angeles. Zoox will continue offering rides through its own separate app. So far, Zoox has been offering its rides for free. That’s because Zoox needs to secure approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to charge for rides in cars without certain standard features, which currently don’t meet the agency’s standards. But earlier this week, the regulator opened public comment on whether Zoox can be exempted from the agency’s rules. That puts Zoox ahead of Tesla’s rival robotaxi, as the government hasn’t opened public comment on whether Tesla self-driving vehicles can be exempt. But Zoox is still behind Google-owned Waymo, which operates commercially in 10 cities across America, with more standard car features. Waymo also has a commercial partnership with Uber. https://tinyurl.com/y3y7b2uu

Nasdaq partners with Kraken to push for stock tokens.

Nasdaq is partnering up with crypto exchange Kraken to distribute tokens representing U.S. equities to crypto users globally, a service planned for the first half of next year, pending regulatory approval. The move will “enhance global accessibility to U.S. equity markets,” said Tal Cohen, president of Nasdaq in a statement. Nasdaq said its approach will allow issuers to “have more control over their shares” in the crypto token format, preserving underlying rights like shareholder voting and dividends for investors. Nasdaq crypto tokens are backed by actual stocks and endorsed by the companies that issue the shares. They differ from most of the stock tokens currently circulating in the market, which are derivatives or claims on special-purpose vehicles and don’t require approval from issuers. Kraken-owned xStocks is the second largest provider of such stock tokens. Last week, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to distribute its planned tokenized stocks to OKX’s global user base and made a minority investment into OKX. https://tinyurl.com/3pvafwkbs

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) – the fertility problem: soil degradation.

Geopolitics meets the grocery aisle. The current instability in Iran has effectively severed a primary corridor for global fertilizer trade, sending nitrogen costs soaring just as spring planting begins. Why are we so dependent on a single chokepoint for our food supply? Read our latest Sophic Insights report on the case for regenerative alternatives. https://t.co/dPbRWVoh3r

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) – Replenish Nutrients: Beyond ‘meat & potatoes’ soil fertility.

For decades, agriculture has relied on a “standard diet” of heavy NPK. But as global supply chains fracture and soil health declines, farmers are hitting a wall. Our latest report features Sophic Capital Client Replenish Nutrients, a company at the intersection of biology and scale. By moving away from high-salt synthetic inputs and focusing on patented granulation that blends minerals with active microbes, they are helping farmers build “Soil Capital.” In our next report, we examine the economics and strategic implications of this licensing model in greater detail, including production capacity potential and acreage coverage scenarios. https://t.co/89Y41W3U9P