May 30, 2026: AI Infrastructure Week

Last week, Dow Jones rose 0.9%, S&P 500 was up 1.4%, Nasdaq composite gained 2.4%. Global technology markets are experiencing unprecedented AI infrastructure spend and massive private capital rounds. Honeywell-backed Quantinuum is seeking a US$1.05 billion US IPO at a US$12.7 billion valuation. Anthropic raised US$65 billion at a US$900 billion valuation, and launched Claude Opus 4.8. Coding startup Cognition raised US$1 billion at a US$26 billion valuation. ByteDance is mulling a US$70 billion capex budget, and is striking an ASIC chip deal with Qualcomm. Meta launched paid chatbot subscriptions, as its capex forecast hit US$145 billion. Snowflake papered a US$6 billion infrastructure deal with AWS. AI memory demand pushed Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung past US$1 trillion valuations. Dell jumped 38% on AI server sales. Salesforce stock dipped on lowered cash flow guidance, despite Agentforce hitting US$1.2 billion ARR. Uber’s COO questioned the ROI of AI coding tools. Amazon is acquiring Apple’s 20% stake in Globalstar. Robinhood launched automated AI-agent trading. Huawei revealed its “Tau Scaling Law” to reach 1.4nm nodes by 2031. In Canadian tech, Saris AI raised a US$28.8 million Series A, Lastwall secured a $16 million extension, Abaxx upsized its bought deal to $60 million. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Kraken Robotics posted 35% Q1 revenue growth to $21.7 million, and reiterated its 2026 outlook. Replenish Nutrients delivered a 29% granulated fertilizer gross margin in Q1, which bodes well for the Company’s H2 2026 scale up plans. Renoworks Software grew recurring licensing revenue 36% to $1.19 million, hitting an 80% gross margin. Sophic client, 01 Quantum trades at a steep valuation discount to post-quantum peers despite demonstrating active commercial deployments, which could be an opportunity for investors.

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) reports Q1 2026 financial results with 35% year-over-year revenue growth and reiterates 2026 guidance.

Kraken Robotics filed its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026 (“Q1 2026”).Q1 2026 revenue of $21.7 million, up 35% from Q1 2025, and Adjusted EBITDA1 of $3.0 million. Product revenue grew 50% from subsea battery and Synthetic Aperture Sonar (“SAS”) demand. Demand for Kraken’s products increased further bringing product orders in 2026 to $97 million. Year-to-date order intake for Covelya’s products also strengthened and now total $165 million. Signed an agreement with SEFINE SISAM to integrate KATFISH into their mission planning software providing a fully integrated autonomous solution for seabed warfare and mine countermeasures. The Covelya Acquisition remains on track to close near the end of the second quarter 2026.Reiterating stand-alone 2026 outlook for revenue of $165 million to $175 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $50 million. At the mid-point, this represents annual revenue growth of over 65% and EBITDA growth of 80%. New guidance that reflects the Covelya Acquisition will be issued at closing. “Our first quarter results were in-line with our expectations, with financial performance expected to improve throughout 2026, consistent with prior years due to the seasonal nature of our business,” said Greg Reid, President and CEO of Kraken Robotics. “We continue to execute on securing new products orders, including growing traction with new defence customers, and recently expanded our battery manufacturing capacity to support anticipated growth. Industry fundamentals across our business remain strong, driven by the growing demand for autonomous underwater vehicles in the defence and offshore energy sectors. This increasing demand presents a significant opportunity for Kraken to drive future growth. Looking ahead, we are excited for the expected closing of our strategic combination with Covelya. This transformative acquisition is expected to accelerate our growth and position Kraken as a major supplier of mission-critical subsea intelligence solutions for maritime security and offshore energy.” Consolidated revenue increased to $21.7 million, up 35% from $16.1 million in Q1 2025. Revenue growth was primarily driven by increased demand in Kraken’s SeaPower subsea batteries and SAS products, in addition to growth in the subsea services division. Q1 2026 results, and service revenue, also included the contribution from the acquisition of 3D at Depth, Inc., which was completed in April 2025. Product revenue totaled $13.8 million, up 50% from $9.2 million in Q1 2025, driven by increased demand for the Company’s SAS and subsea battery products. Service revenue of $7.9 million in Q1 2026 was up 14% in comparison to $7.0 million in Q1 2025. Quarterly revenues and year-over-year comparisons can fluctuate significantly due to seasonality in the offshore services business.Gross profit2 increased to $12.2 million, up 21% from $10.1 million in Q1 2025. The Company’s gross profit margin2 during the quarter equated to 56%, compared to 63%. Gross profit margin can fluctuate within a given quarter based on the mix of product and service revenue. Adjusted EBITDA of $3.0 million in Q1 2026, was up 7% from $2.8 million in Q1 2025. The Company’s Adjusted EBITDA margin3 equated to 14%, down from 17% in Q1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Q1 2026 was slightly impacted by higher administrative expenses reflecting a larger employee base. Kraken’s Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to improve throughout 2026 based on expected revenue growth. The mid-point of Kraken’s annual guidance implies an Adjusted EBITDA margin of over 26%. Total assets on March 31, 2026, were $715.9 million, compared to $179.0 million on March 31, 2025. Total assets at the end of Q1 2026 included $394.5 million of subscription receipt proceeds held in escrow from the Company’s March 3, 2026 public offering, which was completed to partially fund the Covelya Acquisition, as detailed later in this release. Long-term obligations and lease liabilities at the end of the quarter were $38.4 million, compared to $30.5 million in Q1 2025. Kraken maintains a strong balance sheet with a cash position of $108.7 million as at March 31, 2026, up from $59.3 million at the end of Q1 2025, and working capital of $162.4 million, up from $94.6 million at the end of Q1 2025. Capital expenditures/intangible assets purchased were $7.0 million in the quarter, compared to $2.8 million in Q1 2025. This increase in growth capital reflects remaining expenditures related to Kraken’s new subsea power manufacturing facility in addition to new marine assets to support revenue growth. The Company expects more moderate capital spending during the remainder of 2026, with an annual budget of $15 million to $18 million, as highlighted later in the release. The Company reported a net loss of $3.3 million in Q1 2026, or ($0.01) per share diluted, compared to net income of $0.2 million, or $0.00 per share diluted, in the comparable quarter in the prior year period. Excluding restructuring and acquisition costs, the Company reported Adjusted net income4 in Q1 2026 of $0.3 million, or $0.00 per share diluted, compared to $0.7 million, or $0.00 per share diluted in the prior year period. https://tinyurl.com/2s3czmt6

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) reports first quarter 2026 financial results and provides operational update.

Replenish Nutrients announced its 2026 first quarter financial results and key operational and commercial milestones, including continued proof points of strong granulated fertilizer margins, final phases of Beiseker commissioning and scale-up, continued progress with construction and commissioning of Farmers Union (FUE) and MJ Ag licensed facilities, and the construction and commissioning of a new pellet facility at the Beiseker Hutterite colony. The first quarter of 2026 saw the Company record modest operating results due to the known transition from blended fertilizer to the commercial scale ramp-up in granulated fertilizer at the Beiseker facility. Of note in the first quarter results are a strong proof-point of granulated fertilizer gross profit margins before other direct costs out of the Beiseker facility, coming in at 29%. Upon full scale production of 2,000 metric tonnes per month, the Company continues to expect granulated and pellet fertilizer gross profit margins before other direct costs to range from 25%-35%. As of the date of this press release, the Company is nearing the final completion of the Beiseker facility load out tower and has begun preparing for 24-hour production runs by hiring additional plant operators. The Company now expects the Beiseker facility to be capable of the full 2,000 metric tonnes per month of production by the third quarter of 2026. In addition, as of the date of this MD&A the Company has recorded record year-to-date production and sales of granulated fertilizer, with the second quarter volumes already significantly surpassing first quarter sales. The Company expects this trend to continue throughout the second quarter and continuing to build for the rest of 2026 on the back on higher demand for locally produced fertilizer given the geopolitical events in the middle east disrupting internationally supplies of fertilizer. Importantly, Replenish is ideally positioned to take advantage of this increased demand in the coming months. Alongside the final commissioning of the Beiseker facility, the Company has also partnered with the Beiseker Hutterite colony to produce the Company’s patented pellet fertilizer in a facility at the Beiseker Hutterite colony. This facility is expected to produce approximately 1,000 metric tonnes of pellet fertilizer per month and represents a meaningful inroad to future large-scale production facilities at other Hutterite colonies in Canada. The Company expects initial production and sales to occur in the third quarter of 2026 and expects the same 25%-35% gross profit margins before other direct costs as the granulated fertilizer products. The first quarter also saw significant progress on the Company’s two licensing deals with Farmers Union and MJ Ag, with both partners achieving significant construction and commissioning milestones. The Company expects both licensing deals to begin initial production by the third quarter of 2026, and scaling to the annualized production capacities of 50,000 and 10,000 metric tonnes, respectively, by the end of 2026. As the Company transitions to higher granulated production and sales volumes at Beiseker and begins to receive licensing fees from the sale of pellet fertilizer, overall revenues, margins, pricing and sales volumes are expected to increase. As the first quarter demonstrated, the Company is achieving strong gross profit margins on the granulated product that is has sold and continues to forecast granulated and pellet gross margins between 25% and 35% before other direct costs as it reaches full scale capacity of 2,000 metric tonnes per month at Beiseker. The Company also continues to forecast blended fertilizer sales to achieve 10% and 15% gross margin before other direct costs on a run-rate basis going forward. Finally, as previously disclosed, the Company completed a private placement financing during the quarter for proceeds of approximately $4.8 million, further strengthening the Company’s balance sheet. “We are highly encouraged by our Q1 performance, where early granulated fertilizer sales delivered a strong 29% gross margin before other direct costs. This validates our long-term margin target of 25% to 35% before other direct costs as we drive toward full scale commercial operations,” said Neil Wiens, CEO of Replenish Nutrients. “With our Beiseker facility capable of full capacity by Q3 2026, and our pellet partnership and licensing deals scaling rapidly through the end of the year, we are successfully shifting our product mix toward higher-volume, higher-margin production that will drive meaningful value for our shareholders.” https://tinyurl.com/3j96ksnz

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) announces first quarter 2026 financial results.

Financial highlights for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 with comparatives for 2025 are as follows: Revenues of $1,836,884, a 1% decrease from the prior period’s $1,847,981. The decrease in reported revenue was due to an expected decline in design services offset by a 36% increase in higher margin recurring licensing revenue, reflecting previously highlighted recurring revenue growth focus. Recurring revenue of $1,193,692 versus 879,726 for the same period in 2025, a 36% increase. Deferred Revenue of $2,141,893 at March 31, 2026 compared to $2,436,650 at December 31, 2025. Gross margin of 80% versus 75% in the same period in 2025, as a higher percentage of revenue is from licensing. Net loss of $48,756 compared to a net profit of $67,092 for the same period in 2025. Cash at March 31, 2026 was $1,102,656, a decrease of $342,072 from $1,444,728 at the end of fiscal 2025. The Company’s working capital at March 31, 2026 was a positive $529,776 compared to a positive working capital of $459,164 at December 31, 2025 an increase of $70,611. Excluding deferred revenue, a significant non-cash item included in working capital, the Company’s working capital at March 31, 2026 is positive $2,191,876 ($2,381,953 – Dec 31, 2025). As at March 31, 2026, the Company had 40,901,301 common shares issued and outstanding. In the first quarter of 2026 the Company earned aggregate revenues of $1,836,884, including $190,923 from design services, $1,193,692 from licensing and hosting, $148,150 from libraries, and $304,119 from implementation fees. Net loss for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2026, was $48,756, a decrease compared to the net income of $67,092 reported for the same period in 2025. The decrease was primarily driven by increased overall expenses incurred in support of our continued product marketing and investment in research and development. “Renoworks continues to execute on its transition toward a higher-margin, recurring revenue software business powered by AI-driven visualization, data analytics, predictive lead scoring, automated design assistance, image enhancement technology, and workflow automation,” said Doug Vickerson, Chief Executive Officer of Renoworks. “During the quarter, recurring revenue increased 36% year-over-year, reflecting continued enterprise adoption of our platform and growing demand for scalable digital engagement solutions across the remodeling industry.” “We believe artificial intelligence is significantly expanding the opportunity for Renoworks and our customers. Homeowners are increasingly using AI tools to explore remodel ideas online. Manufacturers, contractors, and retailers require trusted platforms that connect those design experiences directly to real-world products, pricing, lead generation, and fulfillment. Renoworks is uniquely positioned at the intersection of AI visualization, product data, and conversion-driven homeowner engagement.” “Our strategy is centered on embedding AI functionality directly into the Renoworks platform to improve homeowner conversion, simplify product selection, accelerate project estimation, and generate higher-quality leads for our customers. We continue to invest aggressively in AI applications, data science, predictive analytics, and contractor workflow solutions that strengthen the value of our ecosystem and increase long-term recurring revenue potential.” “As we move further into 2026, we expect continued momentum in ARR growth, deeper enterprise adoption of our AI-enabled platform, and expanding opportunities to integrate Renoworks technology into emerging AI-driven consumer experiences. We believe the increasing adoption of AI across the home remodeling industry creates a significant opportunity for the Company to strengthen customer engagement, improve conversion rates, and expand recurring software revenues through next-generation digital experiences. https://tinyurl.com/3dvd5cf2

Abaxx (ABXX-TSX, ABXXF-OTCQX) announces upsize of previously announced Bought Deal offering to $60 million.

Abaxx Technologies amended its agreement with ATB Cormark Capital Markets and Cantor, as co-lead underwriters and co-lead bookrunners on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters (collectively, the “Underwriters”), to increase the size of its previously announced “bought deal” public offering. Pursuant to the upsized deal terms, the Underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a “bought deal” basis, 1,106,000 common shares of the Company (the “Shares”) at a price of $54.25 per Share (the “Issue Price”) for aggregate gross proceeds of $60,000,500 (the “Underwritten Offering”). The Company has agreed to grant the Underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the Shares at the Issue Price (the “Underwriters’ Option”, and together with the Underwritten Offering, the “Offering”), exercisable in whole or in part, at any time on or prior to the date that is 30 days following the Closing Date (as defined below). If the Underwriters’ Option is exercised in full, approximately $9,000,075 additional proceeds will be raised pursuant to the Offering and the aggregate proceeds of the Offering will be approximately $69,000,575. The Offering is expected to close on or about June 2, 2026 (the “Closing Date”) and is subject to the Company receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. https://tinyurl.com/2r8nmjrs

Saris raises US$28.8-million Series A to automate banks’ back offices.

Montréal and San Francisco-based Saris AI announced Thursday a US$28.8-million Series A round led by American firm 8VC, which was started by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Fellow US investors Audacious Ventures, Homebrew, Btech Consortium, and Service Ventures participated in the round, which Saris says will help scale its platform to reach more financial institutions. The startup claims that its agentic workflows (the roadmaps for AI agents to get different tasks done) automate up to 70 percent of consumer, mortgage, and commercial lending tasks, with associated cost reductions of 35 percent. https://tinyurl.com/uwbfdwsn

Lastwall raises $16 million to defend critical infrastructure in cyberspace.

In the digital age, communications, weaponry, and critical infrastructure all exist on networks operated by trusted personnel. But what happens when the enemy steals the keys? Karl Holmqvist is the founder and CEO of Fredericton-based identity verification software Lastwall, the digital key keeper for the United States and Canada’s agencies and critical infrastructure. It may not be guns in the trenches, but in this era of warfare, he says nothing is off-limits. Lastwall now has FedRAMP Moderate Authorization, clearing it for use in the entire US federal ecosystem. The certification, alongside a fresh $16 million Series A extension round, will aid in Lastwall’s mission to scale up and protect more government agencies and critical infrastructure providers across North America. The round was led by BDC Capital’s StrongNorth Fund, with participation from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, Frostbite Capital, and its existing investor base, including Blue Bear Capital, 18West, and Blue Wing Ventures. https://tinyurl.com/yp8pawzk

Q&A: Erin O’Toole says Canada needs to play catch-up on defence innovation.

Erin O’Toole has dedicated most of his adult life to public service. The former leader of the Conservative Party and former minister of veterans affairs, he also served for more than a decade in the Canadian Armed Forces. He now channels that experience by advising Canadian defence-tech companies like Dominion Dynamics. He sat down with BetaKit to discuss how Canada can capitalize on its current push for sovereign defence capacity. What is the situation our nation finds itself in? I think the prime minister expressed it well in his speech at Davos. We’re facing a rupture of the traditional rules-based system. After World War II, Canada benefited immensely from trade prosperity and relative peace. That’s now out the window. So now Canada’s a little less prepared than we should be on both the trade and economic fronts. Security-wise, we’re not self-reliant. We don’t have sovereign capability in the areas that we need to for a country with the most coastline in the world, a massive geography, and interests in multilateralism. So we’re playing catch-up. What does catching up to meet the moment look like? We need to be self-reliant, and we need to eliminate barriers that have held Canada back from scaling. The very innovations we change the world with, we don’t commercialize as well as we should. Canada’s strengths lie primarily in our R&D networks. We haven’t commercialized well, but, my goodness, we’ve come up with it. We have one of the top five AI players in the world. We are leaders in quantum. Canada was the first country to have a drone. We were also the first country to produce an autonomous submarine. These are innovations that we haven’t really scaled and we’ve seen other people take. We have the capability. We just have to provide the capital and lower some of the barriers. https://tinyurl.com/5t3ephu4

Honeywell-backed Quantinuum seeks US$1.05 Billion in US IPO.

Quantinuum Inc., a quantum computing company backed by Honeywell International Inc., is seeking to raise US$1.05 billion in its US initial public offering, capitalizing on investor enthusiasm for the technology. The company plans to market about 21 million shares for US$45 and US$50 each, according to its filing Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At the top of that range, Quantinuum would have a market value of US$12.7 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing. Quantinuum makes powerful quantum computers that are capable of solving complex tasks beyond the abilities of traditional processors. Quantum computers have the potential to make exponential leaps in computing, necessary in artificial intelligence. The company is developing platforms for use in fields such as chemistry, machine learning, cybersecurity, finance and drug discovery. It counts companies such as Amgen Inc. and Mitsui & Co. as early users and collaborators, the filing shows. https://tinyurl.com/5fzfjcxr

Uber COO says AI lacks ROI.

Many corporate leaders say they’re getting value from AI as their spending on it skyrockets, but hype is outpacing reality in plenty of cases. On a podcast over the weekend, for instance, Uber Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald said the ride-hailing company isn’t seeing a clear increase in productivity from using AI coding services despite their use by its engineering teams. That has prompted executives to discuss how to get a handle on token consumption costs, he said. “If you‘re not actually able to draw a direct line to how much useful features and functionality you’re shipping to your users, [the costs become] harder to justify,” Macdonald said on the podcast. It’s the latest sign that Uber is having a rocky transition to AI-powered coding. Last month, Chief Technology Officer Praveen Neppalli Naga told us his company’s surging usage of products like Claude Code had caused it to blow through its entire AI budget just a few months into the year. Uber isn’t alone. Many other firms are struggling to navigate Anthropic’s shift to charging customers based on token consumption, which has made it harder for them to gauge costs in advance. For now, customers are eating the higher costs, ROI be damned. https://tinyurl.com/3pd9hhz9

Anthropic raises US$65 billion at US$900 billion valuation; Micron, Samsung invest.

Anthropic said Thursday it had raised US$65 billion at a valuation of US$900 billion before the financing, more than double the valuation in a round closed three months earlier. New investors Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix, which make a key component of AI chips, are investing in the model maker. The capital raise brings Anthropic’s total fundraising to more than US$130 billion, according to the person, and follows a whirlwind process stoked by Anthropic’s fast-growing revenue, which the company said passed US$47 billion earlier this month, up from US$9 billion at the end of last year. Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks and Sequoia led the round. Additional investors Capital Group, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, Singapore’s GIC, Iconiq and hedge fund XN co-led the round. Many of these investors also have invested in OpenAI. The fundraise includes $15 billion commitments previously pledged by Amazon and other hyperscalers, Anthropic said. The maker of Claude has been rapidly adding access to AI servers in deals with Amazon, Google and SpaceX that will cost tens of billions of dollars. “This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing,” said CFO Krishna Rao in a statement. https://tinyurl.com/53k7r45r

Inference provider Baseten in talks to double valuation to US$11 billion.

Baseten, a startup that rents out Nvidia AI servers to application developers and helps them customize models, has recently been in talks with investors to raise US$1 billion at an US$11 billion valuation including the money. That would more than double the company’s US$5 billion valuation from its last round, which was announced just three months ago. The fundraising comes on the back of strong revenue growth for the startup. By the end of the first quarter, Baseten’s annualized revenue—typically a measure of the past month’s revenue multiplied by 12—rose to around US$600 million from US$200 million at the start of the quarter. Some of Baseten’s rivals, including Together AI and Modal, have been raising at valuations that are sharply higher than their previous rounds after a surge in revenue. https://tinyurl.com/598vfxzs

Coding startup cognition raises US$1 billion at a $26 billion valuation.

Coding startup Cognition has raised more than US$1 billion in a funding round that valued the company at US$26 billion including the investment, the company said in a blog post. That’s nearly double its valuation from its last fundraise, which valued the three-year-old company at about US$10 billion eight months ago. General Catalyst, Lux Capital and 8VC co-led the round, with participation from Atreides Management, Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, the company said. The fundraise and steep valuation increase indicates that demand for coding startups is still white hot. Cognition’s revenue run rate has increased to US$492 million as of this month, up from US$37 million a year ago, with growth propelled by sales to big businesses such as Goldman Sachs and Mercedes Benz as well the U.S. Army and Navy. https://tinyurl.com/49vvw4rc

Snowflake inks US$6 billion deal with AWS tied to Graviton chips.

Database firm Snowflake said it has committed to spending US$6 billion on Amazon Web Services over the next few years, including using Amazon’s Graviton chips and AI infrastructure. Graviton is a CPU, a chip designed for general computing. CPUs are becoming increasingly important as businesses need to use resource-intensive AI models. Last month, AWS announced a multi-billion dollar deal with Meta for Graviton chips. AWS has designed a separate chip, called Trainium, for running training and inference for AI models, but the announcement did not mention Snowflake’s use of that chip. Snowflake’s archrival Databricks announced a deal to use Trainium chips two years ago. Snowflake said the deal was its largest infrastructure commitment with AWS to date. Snowflake was built on AWS more than a decade ago, but also competes with AWS on some services. Snowflake’s stock was up more than 30% in after hours trading. The company also reported earnings for the quarter ending in April, where revenue grew 33% year-over-year, an acceleration from the prior quarter. https://tinyurl.com/4eyjs7m4

Qualcomm strikes AI chip deal with ByteDance.

Qualcomm has reached a deal with ByteDance to supply chips for AI data centers to the Chinese tech giant, Bloomberg reported. The deal comes as Qualcomm, one of the world’s largest suppliers of smartphone processors, is trying to increase its presence in chips for AI computing. As part of the deal, ByteDance is procuring millions of chips known as application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, from Qualcomm, according to Bloomberg. These chips can help power AI applications such as agents. ByteDance will be one of the first customers for Qualcomm’s ASICs. Landing a high-profile customer like ByteDance could help accelerate the U.S. company’s expansion into AI infrastructure. ByteDance, best known for its TikTok and Douyin video apps, is one of the leaders in China’s AI industry. It develops a wide range of AI foundation models and also operates China’s most popular AI chatbot app, Doubao. The company has also been investing aggressively in AI infrastructure such as data centers and chips. https://tinyurl.com/4wdx6t8s

ByteDance mulls US$70 billion capex this year as AI costs grow.

ByteDance is considering more than doubling its capital expenditures this year to as much as US$70 billion, as the Chinese tech giant ramps up its investment in data centers and other AI infrastructure, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance’s capex plans reflect the surging costs of compute in the AI industry worldwide due to chip supply constraints and skyrocketing token usage for AI agents and other applications. ByteDance, best known for its TikTok and Douyin video apps, is one of the leaders in China’s AI industry. It develops a wide range of AI foundation models and also operates China’s most popular AI chatbot app, Doubao. https://tinyurl.com/mryt4h8t

Amazon plans to acquire Apple’s 20% stake in Globalstar.

Following last month’s announcement that Amazon would acquire Globalstar, the company has now informed the FCC that it will also take over Apple’s 20% stake in the satellite connectivity company. Here are the details. Amazon promises to keep Globalstar satellite service working for iPhone users. In late 2024, an FTC filing showed that Apple would expand its investment in Globalstar to US$1.1 billion, up from the US$300 million originally tied to the satellite connectivity partnership that powers the Emergency SOS via satellite feature. Under the terms of the expanded deal, Globalstar committed 85% of its satellite capacity to Apple, which, in turn, agreed to acquire a 20% stake in the company in the form of 400,000 Class B shares. Now, Amazon has informed the FCC that it plans to take over Apple’s stake as part of the US$11.6 billion acquisition of Globalstar, in a second step of the merger process after Amazon first combines with Globalstar through a newly created subsidiary called Grapefruit Acquisition Sub II, LLC. https://tinyurl.com/yyhdbu6a

Micron passes US$1 trillion as AI memory demand sends shares soaring.

Micron Technology crossed US$1 trillion in market value for the first time Tuesday, as shares climbed 19% on rising demand for memory chips used in AI systems. It was Micron’s largest single-day gain since 2011. The rally came after UBS sharply raised its price target for Micron to US$1,625 from US$535, implying the stock could more than double from Friday’s close of US$751. The bank cited long-term supply agreements with partially fixed pricing and said investors are likely to apply a higher valuation multiple as AI’s impact on the memory industry becomes clearer. The growing importance of memory chips for AI infrastructure is boosting the share prices of major suppliers. South Korea’s SK Hynix passed US$1 trillion in market value on Wednesday, rising more than 13% in Seoul and extending its 12-month gain to more than 1,000%. Earlier this month, the market capitalization of Samsung Electronics, a consumer electronics and memory chip giant, also surpassed US$1 trillion. Memory has become a critical bottleneck in the AI buildout because AI models need huge pools of fast memory to train, store and serve data alongside graphic processing units and other processors. The squeeze now extends across the entire memory complex, from high-bandwidth memory used in AI accelerators to conventional memories in servers for storage. https://tinyurl.com/4d57hehc

SK Hynix joins Micron in US$1 trillion club as AI memory chip rally accelerates.

SK Hynix shares jumped 9% on Wednesday, pushing the memory chip maker to a US$1 trillion valuation in Asia just hours after peer Micron Technology crossed the same milestone on Tuesday. Wall Street had anticipated SK Hynix would join the club as the last of the industry’s “big three” to reach the valuation after Samsung Electronics first crossed the mark earlier this month. May has become a month of trillion-dollar milestones for the memory chip giants, as soaring demand has tightened supply and created a key bottleneck in the AI trade. SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung have become major beneficiaries of the AI boom as demand for High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips has surged alongside AI training and inference workloads. Their production is allocated through 2026. SK Hynix shares have surged more than 248% year to date, while Samsung Electronics has gained about 165%, and Micron is up more than 210%. https://tinyurl.com/3sfk3tmu

Dell shares rise nearly 40% after surge in AI server sales.

Customer demand for AI is pouring jet fuel on Dell’s server, storage and networking businesses, as its overall revenue grew 88% to US$43.8 billion during its April quarter compared to last year, beating its earlier forecast by more than US$8 billion. Excluding items, Dell reported earnings per share of US$4.86, compared to its earlier forecast of US$2.90 per share. Dell raised its full-year projection to 50% growth, from the 23% it issued a few months ago, and its shares jumped more than 38% after its earnings report. Sales of AI servers, or ones equipped with GPUs from Nvidia and AMD, were US$16.1 billion, up 757% from last year and nearly 80% from last quarter. On an earnings call, Dell COO Jeff Clarke said the AI server sales growth stems from customers doing more AI-related work, like developing agents. Some customers are also using traditional servers to run trained AI models in applications, known as inference. Dell is forecasting revenue of between US$44 billion and US$45 billion for its current quarter, which would be growth of around 50% compared to last year—and a steep drop from last quarter. On the call, Clarke said this is because Dell is facing supply shortages for certain components, such as memory and storage, and not a sign of cooling demand. https://tinyurl.com/hwury956

Salesforce stock dips as software firm lowers cash flow forecast.

Salesforce on Wednesday lowered its projection for cash flow growth in its 2027 fiscal year, which ends January next year. The stock fell 3% in after-hours trading following Salesforce’s quarterly earnings results for the April quarter. The software firm said operating and free cash flows will rise 4% to 5% for the year, five percentage points lower than the guidance it provided three months ago. It said the change reflects a hit from its recent US$25 billion issuance of debt to repurchase Salesforce stock, which had fallen 33% through Wednesday’s market close as investors feared new AI tools could crimp its future growth or profits. Salesforce kept the high end of its fiscal-year revenue projection steady. In the April quarter, revenue grew 13% to US$11.1 billion, largely in line with what it had projected three months ago. CEO Marc Benioff also said Agentforce, Salesforce’s suite of AI tools, has generated US$1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue, which reflects a US$400 million jump from the January quarter. Such growth does not appear to be boosting overall revenue much, however. https://tinyurl.com/mwdjv5ux

Snowflake shares jump 35% as AI product adoption grows.

Shares of Snowflake rose more than 30% late Wednesday after the database provider surpassed its earlier forecast for product revenue—its most closely watched sales metric—by around US$125 million for the first quarter ending April 30. The company raised its full-year product revenue target by US$180 million to US$5.84 billion. Snowflake said increasing adoption of its AI products, which include an AI coding agent and an agent for querying data in Snowflake and third-party applications, is helping to drive its sales. More than 13,600 customer accounts are now using Snowflake’s AI products, up from 9,100 last quarter, CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said on an earnings call. Investors seem to believe that Snowflake is much less at risk from AI than many of its business software brethren. Database providers, in general, are poised to benefit as more customers look to build AI applications that tap their corporate data, according to industry executives. “AI is accelerating the value that people can get from the data they put into Snowflake,” said Ramaswamy. While Snowflake expects product revenue growth to slow to 30% this quarter from 34% in the April period, it now expects full-year growth of 31% compared to an earlier estimate of 27%. Snowflake reported a net loss of US$295.5 million during the quarter, down from US$310 million last quarter and US$430 million in last year’s April quarter. https://tinyurl.com/ywx3uz3u

Anthropic releases new flagship AI model.

Anthropic on Thursday announced its new flagship AI model, Claude Opus 4.8, which showed improvements in standardized AI performance evaluations in coding, financial analysis and other fields. The company also said the model is more likely to flag uncertainties about its work and less likely to make unsupported claims. Claude Opus 4.8 will cost the same as the prior flagship model, Opus 4.7. Additionally, Claude Opus 4.8’s “fast mode,” which can work 2.5 times faster than the regular version, is three times cheaper than the fast version of previous Anthropic models, the company said. The emphasis on cost comes as many Anthropic customers are facing effective price hikes for the models they use and Anthropic has projected turning a profit in the current quarter. Anthropic also announced other new features for its coding agent Claude Code and the ability for customers to choose how hard the Claude chatbot should “think” about their queries. The model announcement came at the same time Anthropic announced a US$65 capital raise led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks Capital and Sequoia Capital at a US$965 billion valuation, including the investment. OpenAI was recently valued at about US$850 billion, including roughly US$120 billion in new capital commitments. https://tinyurl.com/bdhw3epc

Meta launches paid AI chatbot subscriptions.

Meta Platforms is launching paid subscriptions for its AI chatbot across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp as it looks to monetize its investments in artificial intelligence. The company’s head of product, Naomi Gleit, announced Wednesday that it is testing out new subscription plans. The services will be branded as Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus, and WhatsApp Plus, offering users access to Meta’s AI chatbot with higher usage limits than free users. That means subscribers will be able to generate more images and videos and use the chatbot more frequently, the company said. The plans will come in two tiers: Meta One Plus, priced at US$7.99 per month, and Meta One Premium, priced at US$19.99 per month. The subscriptions are initially rolling out in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia, with additional countries expected to follow. Meta is also testing new subscription plans for businesses and creators, which will include access to tools to help manage their brands as well as analytics on engagement and customer activity. The company has been testing subscription models across some of its platforms, including Instagram, since March as it explores ways to offset a portion of its AI-related spending. Meta is investing heavily in AI. Last month it raised its forecast for capital expenditure, saying it expected to spend between US$125 billion and US$145 billion, up from its previous projection of US$115 billion to US$135 billion. https://tinyurl.com/5bnhavep

Huawei moves to narrow chip gap with TSMC despite U.S. sanctions.

Huawei Technologies said on Monday that it is using a new principle for semiconductor development to narrow its gap with the world’s leading chipmakers, despite U.S. export controls that have restricted China’s access to the most advanced equipment. He Tingbo, a Huawei board director and the head of the company’s chip business, presented the new principle, the Tau Scaling Law, during her keynote speech at a tech conference in Shanghai. She said Huawei will begin making chips with transistor density equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer node in 2031—three years behind TSMC, which has said it expects to mass-produce the same generation by 2028. The new roadmap shows Huawei is making faster progress than expected. If Huawei can produce 1.4-nanometer chips at scale, it would validate China’s years-long bet that homegrown innovation can substitute for Western technology its chipmakers can no longer access, dealing a blow to the U.S. strategy of using export controls to maintain its technological edge. The stakes are high for both sides. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said last week in an interview with CNBC that his company has “largely conceded” China’s AI chip market to Huawei, adding that Huawei “had a record year” and would “likely have an exceptional year ahead” as “their local ecosystem of chip manufacturers is thriving.” https://tinyurl.com/yf223az9

SpaceX’s Starlink coming to half of American Airlines main fleet.

American Airlines plans to start adding SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to around half of its main aircraft fleet beginning early next year, the airline said on Tuesday. The deal will offer in-flight wifi on approximately 500 narrowbody Airbus planes, but does not include the American’s roughly 500 Boeing craft. It also excludes an additional approximately 500 smaller regional planes operated under the American Eagle brand. While some operators such as United Airlines have agreed to put Starlink in their entire fleets, American’s deal leaves room for the company to do deals with multiple satellite internet providers. That could eventually include Amazon’s Starlink competitor Leo, which has yet to launch commercial service but announced a deal with Delta Air Lines earlier this year. https://tinyurl.com/ywewzz6f

Amazon launches service to put AI shopping assistants on other retailers’ sites.

Amazon is marketing a new service to let other retailers take advantage of its AI shopping assistant technology. For the past two years, Amazon has offered an AI shopping chatbot on its main retail site, which was originally called Rufus, but earlier this month was rebranded to Alexa for Shopping. Amazon is now offering the Alexa for Shopping technology to other retailers through Amazon Web Services. The new product is called AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant. In an announcement on Wednesday, Amazon gave the example of Kate Spade building a shopping agent using AWS products and Anthropic models. Amazon is betting chatbots will become a popular feature on other websites, and has also been pitching technology to help sell ads in independent websites’ chatbots. But shopping chatbots are still getting off the ground. OpenAI abandoned an effort to help customers shop directly through ChatGPT earlier this year, and Amazon’s own effort to develop AI agents that let Amazon shoppers find products on other websites drew the ire of independent retailers in January. https://tinyurl.com/yb74tp5x

Robinhood lets customers use AI to trade stocks, make credit-card purchases.

AI agents were already dispensing advice on stock investments and recommending Amazon.com purchases. Now they can do all of that trading and shopping for you. Robinhood Markets is launching a new feature that lets customers hand their trading and credit-card purchasing decisions to their favorite artificial-intelligence tools. Robinhood is part of a crowded field of financial firms that have introduced AI tools into a range of services they offer individual customers, from stock research to automated investing management. The agentic trading and credit-card spending feature marks another step forward, said Abhishek Fatehpuria, Robinhood’s vice president of product management. Robinhood users can link an AI agent like Anthropic’s Claude or the coding agent Cursor to a separate, dedicated investment account. There, the agent can access the dedicated funds and place trades as directed. For example, users might instruct their agents to root out risks created by being overly concentrated in one part of the market, or monitor a basket of promising semiconductor stocks. For now, only stock trades are on the table—options, crypto and event-contract capabilities will come later, executives said. Investors get a push notification every time the agent makes a trade and can see a real-time activity feed in the Robinhood app. They can also disconnect the agent at any time. Robinhood will also let customers connect an AI agent to a virtual version of their Gold credit cards, allowing the agents to hunt for low prices, monitor availability and even make purchases that follow users’ instructions. The tool could monitor hard-to-get restaurant reservations, book a flight or snag tickets to a Broadway show on a specific day under a certain price limit, said Deepak Rao, the vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money. Agents are restricted to the virtual card only, Rao said, and can’t access a customer’s primary credit-card number or any other account information. Customers can also set spending limits for the agent or ask to approve every purchase the agent makes on their Gold cards. Robinhood has already launched a flurry of new AI features over the past couple of years, including AI-generated analyses of customer portfolios, single stocks and the broader market. Fatehpuria said there are more AI-related announcements coming later this year. https://tinyurl.com/4sx9jcfu

Sophic Client 01 Quantum Inc (ONE-TSXV, OONEF-OTCQB): Quantum Optionality, How investors should position themselves if the market starts valuing execution.

This report asks the obvious next question: is the market giving 01 Quantum enough credit for its current positioning in post-quantum cybersecurity and privacy-preserving AI? 01 Quantum appears to be one of the few publicly traded Canadian names in the category with live partner deployments and initial reported commercial revenue. Yet it continues to trade at a substantial lower valuation and discount to better-known Canadian peers. The valuation gap between 01 Quantum and certain Canadian peers is notable. Traditionally investors have valued software companies at a premium due to their high gross margins, and low capital expenditure requirements. However, within the public quantum computing landscape, a disconnect has emerged. 01 Quantum trades at a market capitalization of approximately CA$54 million, while certain peers have achieved exponentially higher valuations, despite less operational validation or even lower current revenue velocities. For example, Quantum eMotion (QNC: TSXV) (QNC: NYSE) trades at a market capitalization of nearly CA$1 billion and BTQ Technologies (CBOE: BTQ) (BTQ: NSDQ) trades at a market capitalization of approximately CA$736 million, both an order of magnitude higher than 01 Quantum’s level, despite 01 Quantum already reporting early commercial validation progress and having live partner-led product deployments. That does not mean 01 Quantum should automatically trade at a similar market capitalization. Each company has its own technology stack, financing history, investor base, expectations, and narrative. Some peers also benefit from stronger liquidity, broader awareness, media awareness, or more promotional market positioning. But that said, when a Company with live deployments and reported revenue trades at a small fraction of sector peers, investors should investigate and at least ask whether the discount has become too wide, which could present an opportunity. https://tinyurl.com/2tzp6yv6