June 20, 2026: Great 12 Weeks

Last week, Dow Jones climbed 0.7%, S&P 500 rose 0.9%, and Nasdaq composite gained 2.4%. Nasdaq has gained in ten of the past twelve weeks, and S&P 500 in eleven. SpaceX finalized its US$60 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor. Nvidia announced a US$25 billion bond offering, its first since 2021, in order to fund surging AI infrastructure and private investments like OpenAI. Fox is buying Roku for US$22 billion. Salesforce agreed to acquire customer AI agent Fin for US$3.6 billion. Prediction market Kalshi crossed US$2 billion in annualized revenue and held informal IPO talks. Robinhood is cutting 10% of its workforce. Accenture stock fell 18% on lowered revenue projections, fueling fears that AI will disrupt tech consulting. Accenture also announced that it is acquiring three businesses to beef up their critical infrastructure division. Netrise, one of the three, plays in the SBOM space. While segmented transaction metrics weren’t available, the combined purchase price was 20x revenue, which bodes well for Sophic Client, Cybeats (trading at <8x projected ARR). Apple plans to hike device prices due to AI-driven component shortages. President Trump confirmed an Apple-Intel partnership to manufacture chips domestically. MDA Space is buying RTX Raytheon’s Blue Canyon Technologies for US$620 million in cash to capture U.S. defense demand. Qualcomm is in talks to buy Toronto founded AI chip startup Tenstorrent for US$8 billion to US$10 billion. Space-tech player NorthStar secured a $40 million defense contract tracking orbital threats ahead of its fall NYSE SPAC debut at a US$300 million valuation. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Kraken Robotics secured regulatory approval to close its Covelya Group acquisition. Hybrid Power Solutions landed a C$560,000 European defense order. Renoworks announced 14 new enterprise customer launches. 01 Quantum launched its qVAULT post-quantum digital asset protection platform. Legend Power Systems reported strong interim thermal stress reduction for its SmartGATE system. Boardwalktech expanded its AI platform adoption with Levi’s and SiTime. Sophic Clients, Cybeats, Intermap, Juno, and Replenish Nutrients presented had a busy week of investor presentations and meetings at Planet MicroCap in Las Vegas.

MDA Space to buy Raytheon’s satellite maker for US$620 million.

MDA Space will buy Blue Canyon Technologies, the small satellite manufacturing and mission services arm of US defence contractor RTX Raytheon, for US$620 million in an all-cash transaction financed by secured debt. The deal is expected to close later this year. MDA says it will provide a business and manufacturing footprint that will help it take advantage of growing demand for defence space missions from the US government. The company says Blue Canyon is a profitable business that will add US$3.5 billion in sales opportunities. When MDA debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in March, it said it would use the roughly US$300 million of proceeds to pursue growth strategies, including acquisitions. MDA already has US offices in Texas and Pennsylvania, but the Blue Canyon acquisition will add more than 400 employees and two manufacturing facilities in Colorado, a key hub of both government and aerospace talent. https://tinyurl.com/4jafrhey

Qualcomm in talks to buy Tenstorrent to expand AI chip capabilities.

Qualcomm has been in talks to buy Tenstorrent, a startup that designs chips for AI, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The two companies have discussed a price between at least US$8 billion and US$10 billion, the person said, which would be a significant premium to Tenstorrent’s last valuation. It’s not clear if the price would include payments tied to performance milestones, as has been the case with past acquisitions of chip startups. The talks are ongoing and the price could change, or the discussions could fall apart. The acquisition of Tenstorrent would give Qualcomm a boost in expanding its offering in AI and data center chips. Qualcomm, which generates most of its revenue from selling chips for smartphones and personal computers, has been looking for ways to compete better with rivals in the AI chip market. Last year, it paid US$2.4 billion to acquire Alphawave Semi, a U.K.-based semiconductor company known for technology that can significantly improve the speed of data transmission between chips. Tenstorrent designs chips that the startup claims use a more efficient method for running certain AI workloads compared to general-purpose graphics processing units made by Nvidia and others. Last year, the startup was talking to potential investors about raising US$800 million in funding at around a US$3.2 billion valuation. It’s not clear if the round closed. Tenstorrent has previously raised more than US$1 billion from investors including Samsung Securities, Fidelity, AFW Partners and Eclipse Ventures. Bloomberg reported in May that Tenstorrent had drawn early takeover interest from Intel and Qualcomm. https://tinyurl.com/23jdaaxv

NorthStar secures $40 million to track space threats for Canada’s air force.

Montréal’s NorthStar is helping a division of Canada’s air force track threats in space ahead of its anticipated public offering this fall. The space tech company, founded in 2015, announced an agreement with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 3 Canadian Space Division (3 CSD) worth more than $40 million over 12 months. NorthStar will provide surveillance capabilities, which include a network of space sensors, to help the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) monitor objects in orbit and detect threats. The company processes millions of images and observations in space, then feeds 3 CSD information on the location of objects and where they might go next. This fall, NorthStar plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Viking Acquisition Corp. The deal would value the company at US$300. CEO Stewart Bain said in April that going public would give NorthStar, which has raised US$100 million from investors, “unprecedented access to capital” to scale its operations. Other Canadian aerospace public companies include large government contractor MDA Space, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the earlier-stage Maritime Launch Services, listed on the Cboe Canada Exchange. https://tinyurl.com/56m4kfj2

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) announces regulatory approval of its acquisition of Covelya Group.

Kraken received all regulatory and stock exchange approvals required to complete its pending acquisition of Covelya Group Limited (“Covelya Group”) announced on March 3, 2026. The Company expects the acquisition to close on July 2, 2026, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. “We are excited to have received final regulatory approval for our highly strategic and transformative acquisition of Covelya Group,” said Greg Reid, President and CEO of Kraken Robotics. “Upon closing, our focus will shift to welcoming Covelya’s employees and to creating a global leader in mission-critical solutions for underwater platforms and subsea sensors/monitoring systems.” https://tinyurl.com/4xddwmzx

Sophic Client Hybrid Power Solutions (HPSS-CSE, HPSIF-OTC) receives C$560,000 purchase order for European defense application.

Hybrid Power Solutions Inc., an emerging leader in the delivery of fuel-free clean power solutions, is pleased to announce it has received a purchase order valued at C$560,000 for dozens of Batt Pack Pro units. The units will be deployed in specialized mobile electronics systems for a European defense customer. This order represents a significant milestone for Hybrid, marking its first meaningful defense-related win within its current pipeline of $12.5 million in active, quoted opportunities across four primary verticals. The Batt Pack Pro series delivers reliable, high-performance power without fossil fuels, making it ideal for demanding defense applications such as powering systems in field service, surveillance, emergency response, and remote operations. “We are excited to see a world-class organization adopt our Batt Pack Pro technology for their mobile systems,” said Francois Byrne, CEO and Founder of Hybrid Power Solutions Inc. “This purchase order validates the strong demand for our portable, fuel-free power solutions in specialized and highly exacting defense applications, establishing our credentials in this vertical. This win also marks a key step in our geographic growth strategy as we expand into large-scale fleet and equipment markets across Europe.” The selection of the Batt Pack Pro underscores the product’s robust design, portability, silent operation, and zero emission performance. These are critical requirements for powering sensitive electronics equipment while supporting sustainability and operational efficiency goals. https://tinyurl.com/mrxd68ku

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) expands enterprise platform adoption with fourteen new customer launches.

Renoworks announced continued momentum across its enterprise business through fourteen new customer deployments. Since the Company’s October 2025 enterprise adoption announcement, Renoworks has successfully launched fourteen new enterprise visualizers across North America bringing our total customer count to over 200. The Company’s growing enterprise customer base continues to expand Renoworks’ proprietary digital product library and homeowner engagement dataset. These assets support the ongoing development of advanced AI-powered solutions designed to improve conversion rates, increase customer engagement, and provide actionable business intelligence for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and contractors. “As manufacturers evaluate how AI will influence product discovery, customer engagement, and purchasing decisions, the need for accurate product data and trusted digital experiences becomes increasingly important.” said Doug Vickerson, CEO Renoworks. “Renoworks is uniquely positioned at the intersection of these trends, and is positioned as a clearinghouse of highly relevant data through our growing digital product catalog, proprietary homeowner engagement data, and expanding suite of AI-enabled technologies. We believe this positions Renoworks as a strategic technology partner for manufacturers and distributors seeking to navigate the next generation of home improvement and remodeling.” https://tinyurl.com/2fne2jh6

Sophic Client 01 Quantum Inc (ONE-TSXV, OONEF-OTCQB) and qLABS announce qVAULT commercial availability.

01 Quantum Inc. and qLABS, a quantum-native Web3 foundation, announced that qLABS has launched qVAULT, a self-custody, smart-contract vault designed to provide quantum attack protection for digital assets. qVAULT is developed on 01 Quantum’s patent-pending QCW (Quantum Crypto Wrapper) and QDW (Quantum DeFi Wrapper) technologies, which provide the integration layer for Falcon (FN-DSA) signatures and post-quantum transaction flows. The vault is now available to the public following an early-access period in which initial Hyperliquid users migrated $HYPE into the post-quantum signing environment. qVAULT is a post-quantum, self-custody smart-contract vault that enables holders to move their digital assets from elliptic-curve-only control, which is susceptible to threats from evolving Quantum technology, to qVAULT, a more secure vault that utilizes Falcon (FN-DSA) quantum-safe protection. This is the signature scheme selected by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for standardization and currently under public review as FIPS-206. qVAULT is non-custodial, and does not hold user keys or seed phrases. Users connect their wallets, create a Falcon-secured vault, and transfer their digital assets into their qVAULT wallet providing protection from the evolving Q-Day threat. Executive Commentary: Andrew Cheung, CEO of 01 Quantum, stated, “Post-quantum security has matured. qVAULT provides a way for digital-asset holders to begin exploring Falcon-based signatures within a live, audited smart-contract environment. This allows users to apply post-quantum security as part of their broader risk-management planning for their digital assets holding.” Antanas Guoga (Tony G), President of qLABS, stated, “Hyperliquid has grown significantly as an on-chain trading environment. As the industry evaluates potential long-term cryptographic risks, qVAULT offers a framework for users and institutions to assess post-quantum signing options within that ecosystem.” https://tinyurl.com/2nyzk7p5

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) announces preliminary findings from independent evaluation of SmartGATE operating performance.

Interim Results Demonstrate Improved Operating Voltage Conditions, Reduced Modeled Thermal Stress, and Measured Energy and Demand Benefits. Legend Power Systems Inc. announced preliminary findings from an ongoing independent government-funded evaluation of SmartGATE™ operating performance at a federal facility. The evaluation is assessing the impact of SmartGATE on building operating conditions, energy consumption, demand characteristics, and infrastructure-related performance metrics under normal operating conditions. A final report is expected in October 2026. According to the interim findings, the facility was regularly operating approximately 32 to 35 volts above optimized equipment nameplate voltage conditions during normal utility operation. With SmartGATE engaged, operating voltage was maintained within approximately 1 to 2 volts of equipment nameplate. Using standard electrical loss modeling, the elevated voltage conditions observed during baseline operation translated into approximately 14% to 16% higher thermal stress on building systems, equivalent to roughly a 7-degree Celsius increase in operating severity. The interim measurement and verification analysis also demonstrated approximately 2.6% energy savings, average demand reductions in the 2% to 4% range, and peak demand reductions approaching 25% during portions of the evaluation period. The interim findings are preliminary in nature and remain subject to review, refinement, and inclusion in the final report. Final conclusions may differ from the preliminary findings reported herein. In addition to the measured evaluation results, facility operations personnel reported several operational improvements following SmartGATE deployment. According to feedback provided by facility staff, these observations included reduced lighting flicker, fewer breaker trips, fewer variable frequency drive (“VFD”) resets, and reductions in HVAC and elevator reset activity. These observations were provided by facility personnel and are not part of the formal measurement and verification results. The Company has not independently quantified these observations, and they are not included within the interim evaluation findings. Building on a Broader Validation Strategy. Over the past several quarters, Legend Power has focused on addressing a challenge frequently encountered during customer evaluations. While many building owners and operators recognize that operating conditions can influence equipment performance, quantifying the broader infrastructure and operational implications beyond energy savings has often proven difficult. To address this challenge, the Company implemented a focused strategy designed to better quantify and communicate SmartGATE’s broader value proposition. This effort has included refinement of the Company’s technical framework, expanded use of third-party operating and infrastructure datasets, and analysis of operating and financial results from existing SmartGATE deployments. As part of this work, Legend Power has increasingly focused on the relationship between actual building operating voltage and equipment design voltage levels, commonly referred to as equipment nameplate ratings. Operating voltage conditions similar to those observed during the evaluation have been identified across numerous commercial and institutional facilities evaluated by the Company, where equipment frequently operates above design voltage levels despite remaining within utility-permitted service ranges. The Company believes the preliminary findings provide an additional independent data point that is generally consistent with observations from existing SmartGATE deployments, facility operating feedback, and the broader analytical framework developed over the past year. “Historically, electrical optimization technologies have often been evaluated primarily through the lens of energy savings,” said Mike Cioce, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “What makes these preliminary findings important is that they provide independent operating-condition data showing the relationship between building voltage conditions and modeled thermal stress on infrastructure. While additional analysis remains underway, these findings expand the discussion beyond energy savings and toward broader considerations such as infrastructure performance, operational stability, maintenance planning, reliability, and long-term asset management. Over the past year, we have invested significant effort into helping customers better understand and evaluate the operational and infrastructure implications of operating outside equipment design conditions. The preliminary findings, together with operating data from existing deployments, third-party infrastructure analysis, and feedback from facility operators, continue to build the body of evidence supporting those discussions. Equally encouraging is the consistency between the measured findings and the operational feedback being reported by facility personnel. While these observations were not part of the formal measurement process, reports of reduced lighting flicker, fewer breaker trips, fewer VFD resets, and fewer HVAC and elevator reset events are consistent with the types of improvements one would expect from a more stable electrical operating environment.” Additional analysis remains underway, with the final report expected in October 2026. Legend Power intends to provide further updates as additional findings become available. https://tinyurl.com/r8jxxawj

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) announces expanded adoption of AI-enhanced velocity platform by existing customers.

Boardwalktech announced that three existing customers – Levi Strauss & Co., SiTime Corporation, and Sekisui Specialty Chemicals – have expanded their use of Boardwalktech’s Velocity platform and have adopted newly introduced AI capabilities designed to accelerate automation, improve visibility, and increase operational efficiency. The expanded deployments represent continued momentum and increasing revenue among Boardwalktech’s existing customer base as organizations leverage AI to modernize critical business processes without requiring costly system replacements. Boardwalktech’s enhanced Velocity and Unity Central platforms unifies every enterprise document, signal, and information flow into a single living digital information thread, giving the enterprise and Agentic AI agents the context to act decisively with better data by automating workflows, improving exception management, and delivering real time alerts. As an example, a large semiconductor company using the digital thread of curated AI data in Velocity to automate their RFP, RFQ and Deal Price Management process saw deal flow increase 8.6%, a reduction in average quote response time went from 8.2 days to 2.9 days and win rates increased 15.8% delivering millions of dollars of additional deals and revenue. “These expansions demonstrate the value our customers are realizing from combining AI with the trusted foundation provided by our patented digital ledger technology,” said Andrew Duncan, CEO of Boardwalktech. “Levi’s, SiTime, and Sekisui have been long-standing customers, and their decision to broaden their use of our solutions and adopt our new AI capabilities validates both our technology strategy and the growing demand for practical enterprise AI solutions.” We are actively engaged with every customer as well as new prospects in deploying and expanding the use of Velocity with its new AI capabilities across these organizations.” The new AI capabilities embedded within Velocity help organizations: Accelerate business process automation, Identify and manage exceptions proactively, Provide greater visibility across operational workflows, Preserve institutional knowledge and operational memory, Deliver AI-ready data with full provenance and auditability. The Company believes that these customer expansions reflect a broader trend among enterprises seeking to deploy AI solutions on top of trusted, governed data environments like Velocity that improve mission-critical operations and results while delivering quantifiable ROI. https://tinyurl.com/mvu3v674

Kalshi passes US$2 billion in annualized revenue, holds informal IPO talks.

Prediction market Kalshi is generating more than US$2 billion in annualized revenue, up about three times from November, as traders betting on NBA and World Cup games drove a surge in trading volume, according to people familiar with the company’s financials. Kalshi’s fast growth has led its top executives to hold informal conversations with investment banks about an eventual public offering. The eight-year-old startup wants banks seeking to advise it to integrate with Kalshi, which would allow institutional clients of banks to trade on its platform, one of the people said. The talks are early, and the company is unlikely to list until late next year or even 2028. The investment bank discussions point to an important way Kalshi expects to expand its business over the next few years. Individual traders have propelled its rise, but it wants to expand its business with institutional traders, similar to the path Coinbase followed in its early years. It is competing for market share with younger rival Polymarket, whose recent revenue couldn’t be learned. It’s not unusual for startups to expect investment banks to become customers or enter partnerships as banks lay the groundwork for a potential IPO. Elon Musk, for instance, required banks seeking to work on SpaceX’s IPO to buy subscriptions to Grok, the AI chatbot. https://tinyurl.com/y5awtu76

Nvidia plans US$25 billion bond offering.

Nvidia said Monday it plans to raise US$25 billion in new debt even as the AI chip leader generates tens of billions of dollars in cash every quarter. It will be the company’s first corporate bond sale since 2021, when it raised US$5 billion. In doing so, Nvidia is effectively following other large AI businesses that have issued debt or financial backstops for the development of AI data centers that house chips including Nvidia’s. Key Nvidia customers Amazon, Oracle and Meta and Google are also each raising more than US$25 billion via high-grade bond sales this year to help fund their data center expansion as their free cash flows decline. An Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement that the company intends to “use the net proceeds from this [debt] offering for general corporate purposes, including repayment and refinancing of outstanding notes.” Nvidia currently carries US$11 billion in total debt, including around US$7.5 billion in long-term debt—meaning the new offering will more than double its relativey small debt load. The bond sale will be in seven tranches maturing between 2028 and 2056, per a Monday regulatory filing. Nvidia may use some of the debt for investments as well: While Nvidia isn’t building AI data centers itself, it’s spending big to make the chips to fill those facilities and is increasingly investing capital in its customers as well as backstopping some data center leases. For instance it committed to put US$30 billion into OpenAI’s latest funding and plans to backstop the AI maker’s lease payments at a large facility in Ohio. In the quarter ending in April, Nvidia invested US$19 billion in private companies and infrastructure funds, including AI model makers, it said in a regulatory filing. https://tinyurl.com/ywntsknk

SpaceX finalizes US$60 billion deal to acquire Cursor.

SpaceX announced it agreed to buy AI coding startup Cursor for US$60 billion on Tuesday. The announcement came only a few days after SpaceX went public at a valuation of about US$1.77 trillion. Since the IPO, SpaceX stock has risen 42% to close on Monday at US$193.50, valuing it at US$2.5 trillion. The stock was up a further 5% in pre market trading on Tuesday. SpaceX got an option to buy Cursor for US$60 billion in April. That agreement allowed Cursor to use SpaceX’s AI unit computing capacity to train its coding model, Composer, while SpaceX got access to tools and data that could accelerate its coding-focused AI efforts. Internally, Elon Musk has presented the partnership as a way to catch up with competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI. SpaceX said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it expects the merger to close during the third quarter of 2026. https://tinyurl.com/yrzasm5u

Fox to buy Roku for US$22 billion.

The Murdoch family’s Fox is buying Roku for US$22 billion in cash and stock, or US$160 a share, giving Roku shareholders an exit at the highest price at which the stock has traded since the 2020-2022 Covid-fueled surge. In recent years Roku has traded mostly below US$100 a share. Roku, which sells streaming device makers, makes most of its money selling ads that run on its eponymously named streaming channel as well as in other streaming services that air on the Roku platform. Roku’s ad growth has been steady—it grew 13% to US$2.3 billion in 2025—but the streaming ad market is relatively small and extremely competitive. That raises questions about how much more growth Roku could achieve. The deal expands Fox’s portfolio, which now mostly consists of broadcast TV and the Fox News Channel, by giving it greater exposure to the streaming TV ad market. Right now, Fox’s main exposure to streaming is through the free Tubi service, which is also reliant on ads. https://tinyurl.com/h3wpa54v

Salesforce to acquire customer AI agent Fin for US$3.6 billion.

Salesforce has agreed to buy Fin, a startup that develops customer agents formerly known as Intercom, for US$3.6 billion, as the software giant hopes to win new businesses from enterprises to adopt its own AI offering. The sale price is a premium to Fin’s last estimated valuation of US$1.8 billion, according to Caplight. Founded in 2011, the firm develops customer support software, but launched a new product in 2023 named Fin, an AI agent for businesses that automatically responds to customers’ inquiries via text. Fin seems to be growing faster than Intercom’s older business of selling software for customer support. CEO Eoghan McCabe announced in March that the company had passed US$400 million in ARR and that the Fin agent was closing in on US$100 million ARR, up 350% from the previous year. The company generated more than US$300 million in annual recurring revenue at the end of 2024 but the Fin service accounted for a small portion of that total. https://tinyurl.com/mwtff7zc

Accenture stock falls 18% as lower revenue projection feeds AI fears.

Shares of technology consulting firm Accenture fell 18% Thursday to their lowest price since 2017 after the company reported a decline in new bookings and revenue growth during the May quarter. The result bolstered the idea that AI tools will hurt consulting firms like Accenture that utilize large teams of software engineers for their clients’ projects. New bookings, or the value of contracts signed by Accenture during the period, fell 2% from the previous year to US$19.3 billion. During the previous quarter, new bookings had climbed 6%. Revenue in the May quarter grew 6% from the prior year to US$18.7 billion, a slight deceleration from the 8% growth in the February quarter. CEO Julie Sweet said conflict in the Middle East resulted in slower business and lower sales than expected, and that would continue in the current fiscal quarter. Accenture also tempered investors’ expectations for its full fiscal year, which ends in August, saying it will grow as much as 4% in constant currency, down from the 5% growth it had previously projected. The company ended Thursday’s trading session with a market capitalization of around US$79 billion, down roughly US$17 billion from the previous day. https://tinyurl.com/3yp6hjpm

Robinhood to cut 10% of staff.

Robinhood said on Tuesday it’s cutting 10% of its workforce, or about 290 roles, and closing a small number of open roles, in an effort to stay lean. “Because our financial position is strong, we are making this change proactively,” CEO Vlad Tenev said in a note to employees. “We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single individual is empowered to make a massive impact.” The company had about 2,900 full-time employees as of the end of last year. Its stock fell 3% as of 11:20am Tuesday in New York and is down 17% so far this year, amid plunging crypto revenue. Robinhood said its June month-to-date average daily trading volumes is at record levels across equities, options, and prediction markets. https://tinyurl.com/vx6av234

Apple to raise prices with memory, storage shortages.

Apple plans to raise prices on its devices to counteract soaring component costs for memory and storage chips, Chief Executive Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal. Cook didn’t elaborate in the interview about timing or exact price increases. Apple is expected to hold its annual hardware event in September, where it will unveil new iPhones, including a foldable model. Cook also said in the interview that Apple is ready to use its massive cash reserves to help boost supply of memory chips. Although he declined to say more, he clarified that the company wouldn’t go as far as building its own component factories. The artificial intelligence boom is responsible for the massive supply constraints hitting the tech industry. Large AI players are spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually building out data centers packed full of memory-hungry servers. During Apple’s most recent earnings, the company said that limited chip supply was hindering growth for its iPhones and Macs. For years, Apple held sway over much of the electronics supply chain as the scale of its iPhone business ate up huge portions of the industry. But the rise of AI has diminished the company’s influence. Nvidia, for example, this year overtook Apple as the biggest customer of advanced chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Apple has been struggling in this new environment. https://tinyurl.com/yc3xpuum

Snap unveils US$2,195 AR glasses.

Snap on Tuesday unveiled the latest version of its augmented reality glasses, Specs, as it tries to catch up to similar products from Meta Platforms and Google. The device, which will cost US$2,195, will offer features like real-time translation, web browsing and video recording, and it will have a four-hour battery life. While Snap has been working on AR glasses for more than a decade, these glasses are the first that the company plans to market to a wide consumer audience since 2019. While announcing the new gadget, CEO Evan Spiegel described Specs as “are the most capable and wearable AR glasses ever built.” And he added: “Those copy cats up north aren’t going to be stealing this one.” Spiegel was taking an obvious shot at his longstanding rivalry with Meta, which already has a popular line of AI glasses from a partnership with Ray-Ban. Those devices are priced significantly less than Specs. Google plans to launch its own glasses using its Gemini AI in the fall. In January, Snap spun off the division working on its AR glasses into a wholly owned subsidiary, a move the company said would provide “capital flexibility.” https://tinyurl.com/5n9bcjyv

Microsoft mulls using DeepSeek for Copilot Cowork.

Microsoft is considering adding Chinese AI developer DeepSeek’s V4 as a cheaper model option for powering the Copilot Cowork AI assistant, Axios reported. The U.S. tech giant is exploring a Microsoft-hosted version of DeepSeek V4, or another open-source model, as a cheaper alternative to Anthropic and OpenAI models that are currently powering Copilot Cowork, according to Axios. Microsoft plans to make a lower-cost model available in the coming weeks. DeepSeek’s V4 open-source model, released in April, has gained popularity among developers and researchers around the world looking for more affordable options for AI coding. If Microsoft decides to use DeepSeek V4, the model would be hosted on the U.S. firm’s Azure platform, and customer data would be kept within Microsoft’s cloud, according to Axios. https://tinyurl.com/3zey3k2d

AWS introduces new cybersecurity, coding tools at NY summit.

Amazon Web Services unveiled several new AI products at its annual New York Summit, some of which are designed to solve novel problems created by the new era of AI-driven software engineering. These include AWS Continuum, which helps identify code vulnerabilities to prevent companies from cybersecurity threats. In announcing the product, AWS specifically called out new threats from AI models like Mythos. AWS is also building new tools to adapt to the challenges of AI coding. AWS released its Dev Ops agent last year, and is now introducing new release management capabilities, which uses AI to help test code before it is released wider. In an interview, senior principal engineer for Agentic AI at AWS David Yanacek explained how new AI coding tools inspired the feature, because they lead to new bottlenecks in the software development process. “Coding agents are getting a ton done in parallel,” Yanacek said. “The more that you’re doing in parallel, the higher the probability that the resulting train will not be able to leave the station because one of these things has a bug in it.” Yanacek said improvements to the DevOps agent have turned an eight-minute task in January into a three-minute task in May. https://tinyurl.com/4y3ep2n3

Midjourney announces full-body scanner, plans to launch spa.

AI image generation company Midjourney on Wednesday launched the first of its long-awaited hardware projects: a full-body scanner for detecting diseases and other health issues. The company’s founder and CEO David Holz claimed the machine is more detailed than an MRI. Midjourney has spent years developing the scanners, he said during a launch event at Vita Brevis, a member’s only club in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. He said the scanner relies on sound waves and water. A demonstration video showed a woman descending slowly into a circular tank of water. To commercialize its scanners, Midjourney plans to open a spa in 2027. The company has rented a 24,000 square foot, four-floor space near San Francisco’s Union Square, Holz said at the event. The spa will have nine or 10 of the scanners, along with hot tubs, cold plunges and other amenities. Eventually, he added, the company plans to have thousands of these spas across the country. Holz described the scanner as the first of four hardware products the company plans to launch, two of which people will be able to “hold” and purchase themselves. (The body scanners are not in that category.) The body scanners do not seem to link directly to the AI image generation product that Midjourney is known for. The 37-year-old Holz founded Midjourney in 2022. The company quickly developed a large following for its image generator, which was seen as more artful than those from larger AI labs like OpenAI and Google. However, Holz has long teased a futuristic hardware effort, apparently inspired by his previous startup, Leap Motion, which sold a device for controlling computers with hand gestures. This move into hardware also coincides with growing competition in the AI image generation space, which is now crowded with competitors like Google, Runway and Black Forest Labs. Holz owns 100% of Midjourney but told The Information in March that he’d consider taking outside capital for the first time to fund the company’s hardware efforts. “We have never raised and don’t need any money for the business right now,” he said. “But we have projects that may benefit from external financing over the years.” https://tinyurl.com/mpbrpbcr

U.S. government unlikely to extend Anthropic export control to other AI companies.

The White House is unlikely to extend export restrictions on Anthropic’s advanced models to other AI companies, an official close to the U.S. government said Saturday. The mandate stemmed from what the official said was Anthropic’s refusal to fix vulnerabilities in its recent Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. Anthropic has argued that other companies have developed models that hold similar risks, writing in a blog post on Friday that the vulnerabilities were found in other publicly available models. OpenAI, for instance, in April released its most recent model GPT-5.5, which matched some of Mythos’ cybersecurity benchmarks. The official said that the government was concerned that Fable, a version of Mythos that included special guardrails designed for public release to a broader swathe of developers, could still find vulnerabilities in sensitive systems. They were also concerned about the risks that advanced AI capabilities could expand to foreign adversaries. On Friday, Anthropic said the U.S. government had issued an export control directive that required the company to suspend all access to Anthropic’s latest models to any foreign national, either inside or outside the country. Anthropic said it ultimately cut off access to all of its customers. The directive followed Jassy and other tech leaders calling administration officials to raise concerns about security risks. Former White House AI & crypto czar David Sacks wrote on X Saturday that the administration asked Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to fix the vulnerabilities or de-deploy the model, and Amodei refused. Anthropic said in its blog post that it disagrees with the government’s decision that a “narrow potential jailbreak” should trigger recalling a commercial model. “The potential jailbreaks that have been disclosed to us are either entirely benign responses or are minor findings,” it said. https://tinyurl.com/ya6ajyt9

Anthropic sued over ‘misleading’ limits on premium subscription plans.

A Washington, D.C.-based Anthropic customer filed a class action lawsuit against Anthropic Sunday night alleging that the company had misled customers about the value of its premium “Max 5x” and “Max 20x” subscription plans. The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic markets its Max 20x plan, which costs US$200 per month, and Max 5x plan, which costs US$100 per month, as delivering twenty and five times, respectively, the usage of its US$20 per month Pro plan. However, the lawsuit alleges that Max US20x delivers just six to eight times and Max 5x delivers three-and-a-half times the usage of the Pro plan. The complaint comes as Anthropic has capped usage of its AI models and products in recent months due to its limited supply of computational resources. (The Claude maker in May raised the usage limits after signing an agreement to pay SpaceX US$1.25 billion per month to rent compute from its Memphis data centers.) Anthropic declined to comment. https://tinyurl.com/yfww6jjt

Sen. Bernie Sanders releases proposal for AI-funded Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill on Thursday that would establish a US$7 trillion sovereign wealth fund that would provide the American public with a 50% ownership stake in the top AI companies. “What this bill does is not complicated,” he said during a press briefing on Thursday. “It gives the American people the ability to prevent AI developments which will negatively impact their lives.” Sanders had previously floated the idea in an op-ed published in early June and had spoken with OpenAI Sam Altman about the proposal in a meeting a few days later. President Trump has also expressed interest in the government taking a stake in AI companies and paying dividends to U.S. citizens, though he has not provided further details on how his proposal would work. Sanders’ bill would create an independent commission consisting of seven members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate that would use the voting shares in AI companies to impact their board-level decisions. It would also establish a 5% annual dividend providing direct payments to Americans that Sanders said would come from company-issued dividends. In the press briefing, Sanders acknowledged that companies that don’t currently generate profits, like OpenAI and Anthropic, tend not to pay dividends. “We will see what happens,” he said. “There’s some people who have some doubts about the potential financial success of these companies, but the American people are not going to lose any money.” With a Republican-controlled Senate, Sanders’ proposal faces steep odds, especially as other AI bills have languished in Congress. He said that he has spoken with other senators about the draft but did not provide more specifics. Sanders, however, might have his best ally in Trump. “As far as economics are concerned, we have certain things that aren’t that far apart,” the president previously said about Sanders’ idea. https://tinyurl.com/yrv9x4zb

Apple and Intel are working together to build chips in America, says President Trump.

President Trump took to TruthSocial to confirm what was previously rumored: Apple and Intel have agreed a partnership where Intel will manufacture chips for future Apple devices, using Intel’s American-based fabrication sites. The breadth and depth of the agreement is unclear. It is unlikely that Intel will be able to supply the latest-generation chips for Apple’s highest-end iPhones, any time soon. Intel stock has surged 9% in pre-market trading in reaction to Trump’s pronouncement. Last month, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Intel had already kicked off production of legacy chips for older iPhone, iPads and Macs. To clarify, these are still wholly Apple-designed chips. Intel is merely joining the manufacturing side of the supply chain. https://tinyurl.com/yfkz6vmj