August 01, 2026: Decent Finish To The Week After Wild Swings

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1%, S&P 500 gained 1.05%, Nasdaq finished up 1.6%. Nasdaq 100 briefly hit correction territory Tuesday, down 10% from its early-June record. The Philadelphia semiconductor index has lost a quarter of its value since late June, Sandisk and Intel sit ~50% and ~40% below recent peaks. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan demanded added collateral from concentrated hedge funds after the largest gross-leverage build Goldman has tracked since 2016. The prominent US$20 billion Situational Awareness AI fund, up 439% through June, had to sell much of its public equity book to Citadel. CXMT jumped 472% in its Shanghai debut. US Senators pressed Apple to avoid CXMT and YMTC memory chips. Shein’s Hong Kong filing showed Q1 revenue up 1.1%, US sales down 14%, and a US$99 million loss. Eric Trump-backed Space-Eyes is going public via SPAC. Amazon’s AWS accelerated to 37% growth and US$42.2 billion, with Amazon’s capex guide at US$220 billion. Microsoft stock rose 9% on 18% growth to US$90 billion. Azure was up 43%, and past US$100 billion annually. Microsoft disclosed 30 million paid Copilot seats. Meta’s revenue rose 28% to US$60.8 billion, but operating profit fell 8% and shares dropped 7%. Apple grew 16.4% to US$109.4 billion, warning chip supply constraints worsen materially. Robinhood’s prediction-market revenue was up 10x to US$156 million, passing crypto at US$100 million. ASML stock was down 5% on China DUV mass production. Nvidia is negotiating a US$250 billion backstop for OpenAI’s 10GW Ohio campus and invested US$1 billion in Naver. Anthropic disclosed its models, including Mythos, hacked three outside organizations in six of 141,006 tests. Microsoft launched cheaper rival Project Perception. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Cybeats closed an oversubscribed C$1.97 million placement at C$0.17 and announced a Japanese ICS customer via a channel partnership. Intermap will acquire PCI Geomatics for $11 million cash, which will be immediately accretive. Boardwalktech reported FY26 revenue of US$3.6 million and US$3.5 million ARR. 01 Quantum announced a Carleton/NC CIPSeR research collaboration. Replenish Nutrients expanded its Board of Directors.

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) closes oversubscribed C$1.9 million Non-Brokered Private Placement.

Cybeats announced, further to its press release dated July 17, 2026, the closing of its non-brokered private placement (the “Private Placement”) of common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares”). Pursuant to the Private Placement, the Company issued 11,562,147 Common Shares at a price of C$0.17 per Common Share for aggregate gross proceeds of C$1,965,565, representing an oversubscription of the Private Placement and exceeding the Company’s previously announced financing target of C$1.5 million. In connection with the Private Placement, the Company paid aggregate finder’s fees of C$3,000 and issued 17,647 finder’s warrants (the “Finder’s Warrants”) to an eligible finder. Each Finder’s Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of C$0.17 per Common Share for a period of one year from the date of issuance. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement are subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Private Placement to support sales and marketing initiatives, product commercialization activities and for general corporate purposes. https://t.co/OHqI4z7HiT

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) channel partnership drives commercial win with Japanese industrial control systems leader.

Cybeats announces that one of its channel partners has secured a commercial engagement with a leading Japanese provider of industrial control systems (“ICS”). The engagement marks an important milestone in the Company’s channel partner strategy and demonstrates growing demand for enterprise-scale SBOM management solutions across highly regulated industries. The customer will leverage the platform to strengthen software supply chain visibility, support vulnerability lifecycle management, and enhance compliance with evolving global cybersecurity requirements. The commercial engagement reflects increasing market adoption of the Company’s platform, which combines Cybeats’ SBOM lifecycle management solutions with complementary SBOM generation capabilities to deliver an integrated software supply chain security solution. “Our channel partners are converting pipeline opportunities into commercial engagements,” said Justin Leger, CEO of Cybeats. “Combining our technology with their enterprise relationships and global sales reach allows us to scale efficiently. Early conversion supports our partner-led model, and we continue to advance opportunities across North America, Europe, and Asia. We believe this is only the beginning of what these relationships can deliver.” The Company believes the growing channel pipeline further validates demand for enterprise SBOM management as organizations prepare for increasing software supply chain security requirements and regulatory obligations. https://t.co/niJd79widV

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) announces Definitive Agreement to acquire PCI Geomatics Group.

Intermap announced that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement (the “Arrangement Agreement”) with PCI Geomatics Group Inc. (“PCI,” aka. “CATALYST”) and Grenadier Investments Limited (“Grenadier”), a major shareholder of PCI. Pursuant to the Arrangement Agreement, Intermap will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of PCI (the “PCI Shares”) not already owned by Intermap by way of an arrangement under the Canada Business Corporations Act (the “Arrangement”). Intermap will use $11 million of cash to complete the transaction. A detailed description of the Arrangement Agreement will be contained in the Material Change Report that will be filed by Intermap on SEDAR+ and on EDGAR in accordance with applicable securities laws. June McAlarey, President and CEO of PCI, will continue in her current role, and extend her duties as an Intermap Executive Vice President, responsible for the commercial business. PCI is a leading provider of commercial geospatial image processing technologies, with more than 750 proprietary algorithms (across level 0-3 stages) delivered as cloud-native micro-services, supporting imagery from more than 500 satellites in-orbit, and embedded in thousands of workflows worldwide. Intermap has maintained a longstanding strategic and technology relationship with PCI, including an existing ownership position. The Arrangement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both Intermap and PCI. Intermap has entered into voting support agreements with Grenadier and all of the directors and officers of PCI who hold PCI Shares, pursuant to which such shareholders have agreed to vote their PCI Shares in favor of the Arrangement. A special meeting (the “PCI Meeting”) of the holders of PCI Shares (“PCI Shareholders”) will be held to vote on the Arrangement. Closing will occur thereafter upon satisfaction or waiver of all conditions, including required shareholder approval, court approval and customary closing conditions as set out in the Arrangement Agreement. The acquisition integrates PCI’s industry-leading satellite and aerial image processing and micro-services with the world’s best commercially available digital elevation models. Customers can now benefit from automated, near real-time, AI-powered GEOINT analytics, that are mapping-grade at global-scale, from an integrated, secure, as-a-service or on-premises sensor-to-user platform. Commercial downstream applications providing software and data as-a-service include high resolution wide area terrain and geoid mapping; insurance underwriting; vegetation management, subsidence and critical infrastructure monitoring; transportation, navigation, and logistics optimization. Defense and intelligence applications include solutions for advanced Positioning, Navigation and Timing; multi-domain situational awareness; automated object detection, feature extraction and tracking; and long-range beyond-line-of-sight remote navigation and targeting. Together, the companies enable customers to transform raw, multi-domain Earth observation imagery into analysis-ready geospatial intelligence, with an integrated suite of sensor agnostic cloud-based applications, APIs, algorithms, micro-services and enterprise solutions. As satellite constellations and drones continue to proliferate and Earth observation data volumes increase exponentially, demand is shifting beyond image collection toward rapid automated processing, AI-powered analytics and the delivery of distributed decision-ready geospatial intelligence throughout the enterprise. The combined company offers a vertically integrated geospatial intelligence platform spanning data collection, image processing, orthorectification, mapping, feature extraction, foundation GEOINT, agentic AI and enterprise delivery. The solutions enable commercial, government and defense customers to consume data in formats, quantities and timelines that complement their existing workflows, reduce latency from sensor collection to actionable intelligence, while supporting interoperable multi-domain integration across land, air, sea and space. Approximately 60% of pro forma revenue is expected to be generated from recurring commercial subscriptions and repeat contracted licenses, strengthening revenue visibility while increasing exposure to scalable, high-margin software and analytics services. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to commercial revenue growth, EBITDA, earnings and cash flow. Arrangement Highlights: Consolidation of Ownership: As a current shareholder of PCI owning all of the Series B Preferred Shares and 3.3% of the Common Shares of PCI, the acquisition will result in a consolidation of ownership and the realization of one of Intermap’s strategic milestones to build the world’s leading platform for geospatial intelligence. Enhanced Industry Positioning: The Arrangement integrates PCI’s industry-leading satellite and aerial image processing and micro-services with the world’s best commercially available digital elevation models. This combination will allow Intermap to offer its customers automated, near real-time, AI-powered GEOINT analytics, that are mapping-grade at global-scale, from an integrated, secure, as-a-service or on-premises sensor-to-user platform. Immediate Accretion: The Arrangement is expected to increase Intermap’s recurring commercial subscriptions and repeat contracted licenses, strengthening revenue visibility while increasing exposure to scalable, high-margin software and analytics services. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to commercial revenue growth, EBITDA, earnings and cash flow. Long Term Value Creation: The Arrangement creates a differentiated geospatial intelligence platform with proprietary capabilities spanning sensor edge processing, image exploitation, orthorectification, foundation GEOINT, AI-powered analytics and enterprise delivery. The combined platform expands Intermap’s addressable market, increases recurring commercial revenue, strengthens competitive differentiation and creates opportunities to accelerate innovation through a unified engineering organization and shared customer relationships. https://t.co/uadR1dojz4

Sophic Client 01 Quantum Inc (ONE-TSXV, OONEF-OTCQB) and Carleton University to collaborate with NC CIPSeR to study privacy and data risks in AI systems.

01 Quantum Inc., Carleton University (“Carleton”) and the National Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection, Security and Resilience (“NC CIPSeR”) announced a strategic research collaboration to study, stress test, and evaluate defensive technologies against modern artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems that can unintentionally reveal sensitive information and how advanced Post-Quantum Cryptography (“PQC”) can prevent it. This partnership marks an important step in accelerating the deployment of 01 Quantum’s PQC and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (“FHE”) solutions. The project will simulate a realistic financial institution environment where multiple AI agents work together on tasks such as fraud detection and customer risk assessment. By exposing the inherent vulnerabilities in existing AI models, where agents frequently exchange sensitive customer data in plain text, the project is intended to provide the independent research insights required to assist enterprises in their evaluation of 01 Quantum’s encrypted AI architecture. The study focuses on “membership inference”, where an outside party can statistically determine whether a particular customer record was part of a model’s training data. This is a high-value vulnerability for financial institutions, government agencies, and the defense sector as it demonstrates an urgent, unaddressed requirement for the type of privacy preserving technologies 01 Quantum is bringing to market. The first phase of the project will quantify data leakage from a standard, non-encrypted AI system. A later phase will test an encryption compatible model component to demonstrate the potential applicability of FHE as the solution to help close that privacy gap. This initiative is positioned to capture increased attention from the shifting regulatory landscape. On June 22, 2026, President Trump issued an Executive Order (The PQC Order) directing U.S. federal agencies to accelerate preparations for quantum enabled cybersecurity threats. This order highlights the NIST approved standards 01 Quantum is positioning itself to fulfill. According to public text of the Order, the President stated that quantum computing poses a strategic risk to current widely used cryptographic systems. The Order instructed agencies to: identify systems that rely on encryption vulnerable to future quantum computers, prioritize migration to quantum-resistant cryptographic standards, and coordinate with industry partners to ensure continuity of secure operations. The Order also highlighted the risk that adversaries may “harvest encrypted data today for decryption when quantum capabilities mature,” underscoring the need for data-in-use protection technologies during processing such as those offered by 01 Quantum. This Executive Order is relevant to the goals of the 01 Quantum-Carleton-NC-CIPSeR project, which aims to quantify privacy leakage in plaintext AI systems and demonstrate how encrypted AI models may mitigate these risks. https://t.co/s4GSS9fwfg

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) announces appointment of Tim Close to Board of Directors.

Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. announced the appointment of Tim Close to the Company’s board of directors, effective July 30, 2026, pursuant to SRC Agrominerals Sales Inc.’s (“SRC”) nominee rights under the investor rights agreement entered into between the Company and SRC on July 23, 2026. Mr. Close is the Chief Executive Officer of SRC and previously served as CEO of Ag Growth International, a publicly traded global leader in agricultural infrastructure. https://t.co/k19oYsEZRI

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) reports Fourth Quarter and Annual Fiscal 2026 financial results.

Boardwalktech reported its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 (“FY26”). All figures are reported in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. Boardwalktech’s financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). Financial Highlights for three-months ended March 31, 2026 (“Q4-FY26”): Revenue for Q4-FY26 was $0.8 million, an 18% decrease from $1 million in Q4-FY25, primarily due to a decline in software and subscription services revenue from two previously disclosed non-renewals in FY-25. The Company defines annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) as the recurring revenue expected based on annual license subscriptions and recurring services. ARR is a non-IFRS measure. ARR at March 31, 2026 was $3.5 million. Gross margin for Q4-FY26 was 83.5%, versus 86.9% in Q3-FY26 and 85.3% in Q4-FY25. The decrease from Q3-FY26 is due lower revenues combined with a slight increase in data center fees. The decrease from Q4-FY25 is due to lower revenue levels. Adjusted EBITDA for Q4-FY26 was a loss of $(0.3) million, a 19% decrease versus $(0.2) million of adjusted EBITDA in Q3-FY26, but a 63% improvement over $(0.8) million in Q4-FY25. Net loss for Q4-FY26 was $(0.9) million ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share), versus a $(0.4) million loss in Q3-FY26 ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share), and a $(1.1) million loss in Q4-FY25 ($(0.02) per basic and diluted share). The increase over Q3-FY26 is due to a lower gross margin combined with $0.2 million for the derecognition of lease liability and impairment of right-of-use assets, $0.1 million severance costs and a $0.1 loan amendment fee. Total selling, general and administration (“SG&A”) expenses in Q4-FY26 totaled $1 million, a $0.1 million decrease from $1.1 million reported in Q3-FY26 and a $0.6 million decrease from the $1.6 million reported in Q4-FY25, as the Company continues to recognize savings from previously announced cost alignment efforts. Non-IFRS net loss for Q4 Fiscal 2026 totaled $(0.4) million ($(0.01) per basic and diluted share), versus $(0.3) million in Q3 Fiscal 2026 ($(0.00) per basic and diluted share) and $(0.9) million in Q4 Fiscal 2025 ($(0.02) per basic and diluted share). As of March 31, 2026, Boardwalk had $140 thousand of cash plus $180 thousand of collectible receivables. Subsequent to year end, the Company closed a non-brokered private placement for C$1.5 million. Outstanding debt as at March 31, 2026 was $2.5 million which was drawn against the previously announced $4 million line of credit from Celtic Bank. Financial Highlights for the Year ended March 31, 2026 (“FY26”): Revenue for FY26 totaled $3.6 million compared to $4.8 million for FY25. Gross margin for FY26 was 85.2%, comparable with 87.7% in FY25. Adjusted EBITDA for FY26 was $(1.6) million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $(1.8) million for FY25. Subsequent Events: On July 13, 2026, the Company announced a C$1.5 million private placement with first tranche of C$800,000 to close on July 31, 2026. Subsequent to March 31, 2026, the Company closed two tranches (on April 1, 2026, and April 27, 2026) of non-brokered placements under a LIFE Offering, raising a gross total of C$1.5 million. Outlook: Over the past two years, Boardwalktech has repositioned the business with a focus on AI around three complementary product families, Velocity, Verity and Unity Central, built on the Company’s patented Digital Ledger technology. Today, the Company is focused on helping enterprises intelligently manage their data, automate controls, and improve enterprise workflows all using AI. While the pace of enterprise software sales has remained longer than anticipated, management believes the foundation for future growth is now in place. Verity has generated encouraging interest from large financial institutions, Unity Central is beginning to gain commercial traction, and existing Fortune 500 customers represent meaningful expansion opportunities. At the same time, Boardwalktech has broadened its go-to-market reach through partnerships with IBM, ServiceNow, Accenture, TCS, HCLTech, LTIMindtree and others. Following the cost reduction initiatives implemented over the past year, the Company has significantly improved its operating efficiency and remains focused on achieving Adjusted EBITDA breakeven, especially as revenue growth resumes. Looking ahead, management’s priorities are: convert its growing pipeline into commercial contracts, expand deployments within existing customers, leverage its partner network to accelerate sales, and continue building recurring revenue. As the cost structure of the business has been streamlined, the company is 100% focused on revenue growth and expects to see new contracts converted from the pipeline in the near future across all three product lines generating positive incremental growth. While the timing of individual enterprise deals can be difficult to predict, management believes Boardwalktech is entering Fiscal 2027 with stronger products, better market positioning, and more commercial opportunities than at any point in the Company’s recent history. https://tinyurl.com/2rj3hpc6

China memory chipmaker CXMT soars 472% in Shanghai debut.

ChangXin Memory Technologies, China’s leading memory chipmaker, jumped 472% in its Shanghai trading debut on Monday, as investors bet the Chinese memory chipmaker will benefit from growing demand for AI. The opening price valued CXMT at about 3.3 trillion yuan (US$487 billion), making it the largest company listed in mainland China, and the stock climbed as much as 535% in morning trading. CXMT’s listing, the largest onshore initial public offering in China, raised up to 66.6 billion yuan. Apple is considering CXMT as an alternative supplier as memory-chip prices rise, but the plan faces political resistance in Washington, according to the Financial Times. The Pentagon has previously designated CXMT as a Chinese military company, and some U.S. lawmakers want the Trump administration to consider tougher restrictions on the chipmaker. CXMT makes Dynamic Random Access Memory, which helps phones, computers and servers quickly retrieve data while running programs. The company has quickly become the biggest challenger to Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron, the three companies that dominate the memory-chip industry. Its share of global DRAM sales rose to 8% in the first quarter from 3% a year earlier, making it the world’s fourth-largest supplier, according to research firm Counterpoint Research. https://tinyurl.com/ym3nt4rx

Eric Trump-backed defense technology company Space-Eyes to go public in US$638 million SPAC deal.

Defense technology company Space-Eyes has agreed to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company McKinley Acquisition Corp, in a deal valuing the combined business at US$638 ‌million, according to four people familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump has recently become the third-largest private investor in the original Space-Eyes, which has operated primarily as a research-and-development company and generated about US$1 million in annual revenue, the people said. Space-Eyes’ model is inspired by software and data analytics providers such as Palantir, the people said. Palantir, a major U.S. government contractor, reported an adjusted operating margin of 60% in the first quarter, compared with the single-digit margins typical of traditional defense hardware contractors. Space-Eyes defines ⁠itself as software and systems company that combines data from satellites, radar, radio-frequency sensors and other sources to detect, track and respond to drone threats and deliver real-time geospatial intelligence. Its products include SeaWatch, a maritime intelligence platform that tracks vessels using satellite and sensor data, and Morpheus, an AI-driven counter-drone system designed to detect and mitigate unmanned aerial threats. The deal is expected to close in the ⁠fourth quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, with the combined company expected to trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol “CUAS”, a reference to counter-unmanned aerial systems. https://tinyurl.com/yu54z9kv

Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund sells public equity bets to Citadel.

Situational Awareness, a US$20 billion hedge fund started by former OpenAI employee Leopold Aschenbrenner, sold much of its public equity bets to Ken Griffin’s investment firm Citadel after suffering recent steep losses from its public AI stock portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The hedge fund held talks with existing lenders and investors to raise new cash, The Financial Times reported. An earlier report by the Financial Times added that Situational Awareness also offered some investors the opportunity to buy assets in its portfolio. Its investors include trading firm Jane Street, Meta executives and investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, as well as Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison, the report added. Situational Awareness was in talks to sell its stake in Anthropic, according to CNBC, but a spokesperson for the firm told CNBC it wasn’t marketing the position. The Financial Times also reported that Situational Awareness, which was up 439% this year at the end of June, had borrowed funds to juice its returns. Taking on loans to buy stocks can magnify losses when share prices fall. https://tinyurl.com/yuys2xwd

Nvidia to invest US$1 billion in South Korea’s Naver for AI data center expansion.

Nvidia said it would invest US$1 billion in South Korean internet giant Naver to help expand the country’s data center infrastructure. Nvidia’s investment will help finance Naver’s plans to expand the planned capacity of its AI data center from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts. Canadian investment firm Brookfield also plans to invest up to US$9 billion, according to the companies. On Monday, Naver’s shares closed 8.4% higher. Nvidia has been forging partnerships around the world as many countries step up their efforts to build their own domestic AI capabilities to reduce their dependence on the U.S. and China. The movement, known as sovereign AI, has created new business opportunities for chip suppliers like Nvidia. The announcement of Nvidia’s investment in Naver came after South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung met with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a two-day visit to San Francisco. https://tinyurl.com/48cunh9j

Shein’s Hong Kong IPO filing reveals damage done by end of De Minimis rule.

Online fashion retailer Shein revealed in paperwork for its forthcoming Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO that last year’s elimination of regulations allowing retailers to import low-cost items without paying duties had hit its business hard. Shein’s revenue growth slowed to 1.1% in the first quarter of 2026, while its U.S. business shrank 14%. The company lost money in the first quarter. The de minimis rule, which allowed items worth less than US$800 to be imported duty-free, was eliminated by the Trump administration in May of last year, and the European Union took similar steps. Shein’s revenue growth slowed in 2025 to 8%, from 21% in 2024. In 2023, the U.S. accounted for 29.4% of Shein’s revenue but only 22.5% in the first quarter of this year. In the IPO filing, Shein said the elimination of de minimis had forced Shein to adopt “formal customs clearance procedures and a framework of price increases, localized inventory and fulfilment” in the U.S., with similar measures expected in Europe. The result was “an adverse impact on our sales in the U.S. and the overall growth of our net revenues” and had also increased its fulfilment costs. Shein swung to a net loss in the first quarter of US$99 million, after earning US$395 million in the year-earlier quarter. In 2025, Shein earned US$2 billion in net income, down from US$3.365 billion in 2024, the IPO paperwork showed. The paperwork showed that Shein had 273 million customers last year, which rose to 281 million in the first quarter of this year. https://tinyurl.com/47ftd6mv

OpenAI CFO says revenue growth accelerated in July.

OpenAI’s revenue growth has accelerated this month compared to the second quarter of this year, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told employees on Wednesday, as the company tries to close the distance with rival Anthropic. OpenAI in July has added more annual recurring revenue—a measure of monthly sales times 12—than the increase in that figure over the previous three months combined, according to a person familiar with Friar’s remarks. The July increase has been driven by the launch of OpenAI’s recently launched GPT-5.6 group of models and growing use of its Codex coding tool and ChatGPT Work, the person said. OpenAI is also nearing its long-delayed goal of 1 billion weekly active users for ChatGPT. It couldn’t be learned how much revenue OpenAI is generating now. In February, the company surpassed US$25 billion in annual recurring revenue. https://tinyurl.com/3968awpk

Nvidia in talks with OpenAI to guarantee US$250 Billion financing for data center.

Nvidia is in talks to provide a roughly US$250 billion backstop for OpenAI as part of a massive data-center project, one of the most ambitious financial transactions yet in America’s artificial-intelligence boom. The guarantees from Nvidia would help the ChatGPT maker lease a 10-gigawatt project that SoftBank’s energy subsidiary is developing in southern Ohio, people familiar with the matter said. In total, the project could cost more than US$500 billion, including the chips that would go inside the data centers. It would be the largest data-center project announced to date. The power for the project is controlled by the U.S. government and funded separately by Japan under a recent trade deal. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is involved in deciding who will get the power, some of the people said. Nvidia’s backing would allow the data-center developer, which is owned by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s investment firm SoftBank, to raise debt at more favorable terms than it could if OpenAI had no financial backer, since OpenAI has no investment-grade credit rating as an unprofitable private company. The AI company has been in advanced talks to lease the site for several weeks, people familiar with the matter said. The US$250 billion guarantee would cover the data-center lease and debt needed to fund its build-out, but not the Nvidia chips that would go inside it. Nvidia, which has invested US$30 billion in OpenAI, is also discussing a deal to finance the chip purchase for OpenAI, which could total US$350 billion, people familiar with those discussions said. Such circular funding arrangements have caused concerns that the industry is vulnerable if investor sentiment shifts or growth slows for AI companies. The campus would require roughly 10 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power several million homes, and take many years to complete. The first phase of the project is expected to be finished in 2028, with around 800 megawatts of power, according to people familiar with the deal. https://tinyurl.com/4zx6ryyp

Meta and BlackRock partner on US$14 billion El Paso data center.

Meta Platforms is bringing in BlackRock to take over much of the financing for its El Paso, Texas, data center campus, the companies announced on Tuesday. The joint venture underscores how big technology companies are increasingly relying on a combination of external financing, such as private infrastructure funds and debt, as well as their own capital to fund rapid AI infrastructure build-outs. Meta had previously announced it would invest US$10 billion in the campus. Now, funds managed by BlackRock will acquire an 80% ownership stake in the campus, while Meta will retain the remaining 20%, the Facebook, Instagram and Threads parent said. BlackRock’s investment will be partly financed through US$12.5 billion in debt, while Meta will receive a one-time US$1 billion distribution to align ownership with the 80/20 split. Meta will contribute land and construction assets valued at about US$2.3 billion, while BlackRock will make a cash contribution of about US$4.9 billion, the companies said. The El Paso campus is expected to become operational in 2028. It is one of 33 data centers that Meta has in operation or under construction globally. https://tinyurl.com/mvnu4bh3

PayPal CEO says ‘open’ to evaluating deal offers.

PayPal CEO Enrique Lores said the company is committed to executing its turnaround strategy while “open” to evaluating deal opportunities. Earlier this month, Stripe and Advent International submitted an unsolicited joint offer to buy PayPal at US$60.50 per share, or more than US$53 billion. On the earnings call Tuesday, Lores declined to comment on any specific offers. “What I can say is that our board and management team are open and have a clear responsibility to objectively evaluate every opportunity that’s presented to us, compare it with our own plan, and choose the option that creates more value,” he said. PayPal reported second-quarter net revenue of US$8.7 billion, up 5% from a year ago. Net income fell 12% to US$1.1 billion. The company raised its forecasts for 2026 adjusted profitability and transaction margin dollars. Shares rose 4.3% to US$58.50 per share. https://tinyurl.com/4bmfbtb2

AWS revenue growth accelerates sharply to 37% in Q2.

Amazon stock surged in after hours trading after the ecommerce-and-cloud firm reported that revenue from its cloud division Amazon Web Services soared 37% in the second quarter, nine percentage points faster than the first quarter, bringing the division’s revenue to US$42.2 billion. AWS’ operating margin also improved to 39% compared with 37% in the first quarter. On the earnings call, Amazon said it would spend US$220 billion in capital expenditures this year, a larger figure than the US$200 billion estimate Amazon gave earlier this year. CEO Andy Jassy said that the higher cost of memory chips was driving this figure. Buoying AWS’ growth is its AI business, which Amazon said now had an annual revenue run rate of US$25 billion (although Amazon didn’t say exactly what went into that figure). Amazon’s chip business, which is the revenue it makes renting out Trainium and Graviton chips, also rose to an annual revenue run rate of US$25 billion from US$20 billion in the first quarter. Earlier this month, Amazon laid off employees working on the company’s efforts to build its own frontier models. Jassy said on the call that Amazon can have a wildly successful business “without its own frontier models,” but that Amazon was still pursuing frontier model development to manage AI costs in Amazon’s own consumer applications and for its end customers. Amazon recently renegotiated its deal with Anthropic, such that using its models will be more expensive for Amazon. Overall, Amazon’s revenue grew 20%. Its North American stores business grew 16%, thanks in part to Prime Day which was moved to the second quarter from the third quarter. The company said growth would slow to 9% to 12% in the third quarter. https://tinyurl.com/4um7x79s

Apple expects supply constraints to hit hard in current quarter.

Apple expects choppy waters ahead for the quarter that ends in September, the company said on its June quarter earnings call. Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh warned that supply constraints for advanced chip manufacturing will “increase significantly.” The company experienced such constraints during the June quarter for Macs, and to a lesser extent iPhones and iPads, due largely to a limited supply of its processing chips. Nvidia chips for artificial intelligence have been soaking up more and more of the chip making capacity of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple’s primary chip manufacturing partner. For the June quarter, Apple reported sales of US$109.4 billion, up 16.4% from the prior year, and a net income of US$29.8 billion, advancing 27% annually. The iPhone grew nearly 22% to US$54.3 billion in sales. The company said it expects revenue to increase between 9% and 11% in the September quarter from the year earlier period, while it expects iPhone growth to slow to the mid-teens as supply constraints grow. Apple fell more than 7% in after-hours trading following the guidance announcement. While many stocks are getting hit hard this week over concerns with heavy AI spending, Apple has stood apart from the pack by limiting its capital expenditures on AI. The company’s stock was up 23% so far this year prior to its earnings announcement, outperforming most of its tech peers. On the call, CEO Tim Cook noted that he will soon hand off the top job at the company to John Ternus, its current hardware leader, who will replace Cook in September. “This will be my final earnings call, and John will lead these calls going forward,” Cook said. “The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era.” https://tinyurl.com/59uyw3d4

Microsoft’s AI sales didn’t boost overall growth but the company says it won’t burn cash.

Microsoft revenue rose 18% to US$90 billion in the June quarter, the same growth rate it reported in the first quarter, according to its quarterly earnings report. AI-related sales growth was tempered by revenue declines in its Xbox and Windows device businesses, and overall revenue growth would decelerate by 1 to 2 percentage points in the current fiscal quarter, CFO Amy Hood said. Still, Microsoft touted more than 30 million paid subscriptions to its Copilot AI features for Office 365 applications, up from 20 million paying users at the end of the first quarter. That paid seat figure includes subscribers who pay a monthly rate per seat, which starts at $30 per month, but not customers that pay Microsoft for such tools based on usage. The paid seat growth could provide Microsoft with a temporary respite from questions about whether Anthropic and other AI firms are challenging its core software application business. At the same time, sales growth in the unit that includes Office 365 will decelerate 2 to 3 percentage points in the current quarter, Hood said. Microsoft’s AI product sales dragged down profit margins, however. Microsoft’s operating margin from selling Office and other business software fell more than 2 percentage points between the March and June quarters. That was partially offset by its operating margin from cloud services, including Azure, Windows Server, and GitHub and other developer tools, which rose 1.3 percentage points in the same span. In a rare public disclosure, the company said its Azure cloud server rental revenue surpassed US$100 billion in the year that ended in June. The company typically only reports Azure on a percentage growth basis. Azure sales rose 43% in the second quarter, 3 percentage points faster than growth in the first quarter. While that’s an impressive growth rate by most standards, it pales in comparison to Google’s results. Last week, Google reported its cloud unit revenues rose an astounding 82% to nearly US$25 billion in the second quarter, meaning it is on pace to generate US$100 billion annually at the moment. If the gap in revenue growth continues between the companies, Google Cloud could theoretically catch up to Azure in the coming years. The gap between the two clouds could be a reflection of Anthropic’s much faster revenue growth compared to OpenAI so far this year. Google supplies Anthropic with lots of cloud servers while Microsoft is a primary supplier to OpenAI. (Microsoft said it recorded US$24 billion in revenue related to OpenAI in the 12 months ending in June, meaning it accounted for about 7% of Microsoft’s total revenue in the period.) Microsoft’s spending on AI data centers is taking a toll on its cash generation. The company generated US$20 billion in free cash flow in the quarter, up more than US$4 billion from the cash it generated in the first quarter but down 20% compared to its free cash flow in the second quarter last year. That’s still better than results from Google, which last week disclosed its first quarterly cash burn as a public company, thanks to increased capex for AI data centers. Microsoft will not burn cash over the next 12 months, despite a signifcant capex increase, CFO Amy Hood said. The company will spend US$50 billion on capex in the September quarter, she said. Microsoft shares rose 9% in after-hours trading. Microsoft shares have performed poorly this year, down more than 17% before the close of normal trading hours Wednesday, as questions loom over some of its struggling businesses and whether its AI investments are paying off fast enough. https://tinyurl.com/4yjdu7je

Meta shares fall as profits drop.

Meta Platforms’s operating profit fell 8% in the second quarter, despite 28% revenue growth, reflecting a sharp increase in costs relating to Meta’s AI investments and some one-time costs. Meanwhile Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg signalled that Meta was weighing whether to rent out excess computing capacity, noting on a conference call “we are getting a lot of offers for compute at a premium over what we paid for it.” Zuckerberg added that he believed “selling intelligence” offered higher profit margins than selling computing capacity, however, indicating he remains undecided. The profit decline sliced Meta’s operating margin by 10 percentage points, compared with the first quarter, to 31%. Meta’s profits were also affected by legal charges and restructuring expenses. Meta shares were trading down 7% in after-hours trading. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp said total costs and expenses jumped 55% year over year to US$42 billion, including US$2.4 billion in charges related to legal proceedings and US$1.2 billion in severance expenses tied to the company’s May workforce reduction of about 8,000 jobs. The legal costs come as Meta faces a series of high-profile lawsuits over its handling of youth safety. In a recent court filing, the company said four states were seeking as much as US$1.4 trillion in penalties over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to encourage addictive use among young users and that Meta misled the public about platform safety. Meta disputed the potential penalty figure, which was submitted as part of arguments over how damages should be calculated if the states prevail. The potential scale of the penalties could spark investor concerns that Meta’s legal liabilities may become a larger drag on earnings and cash flow over time. Despite the higher costs, Meta posted revenue of US$60.8 billion for the three months ended June 30, up 28% from a year earlier. Meta narrowed its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to between US$130 billion and US$145 billion, raising the lower end of its outlook by US$5 billion while keeping the upper end unchanged. https://tinyurl.com/445ak527

Robinhood 2Q prediction market revenue surpassed Crypto.

Robinhood reported second-quarter revenue of US$1.31 billion, up 32% from a year ago. Prediction market revenue rose over 10 times to US$156 million, surpassing crypto revenue of US$100 million in the quarter. Prediction markets has become the fastest-growing product line by revenue at Robinhood, now making up 20% of its transaction-based revenue. It has also sent more event contract orders away from Kalshi to Rothera, a new exchange that’s a joint venture between Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group. Launched in June, Rothera has traded over 3.5 billion contracts. Total event contracts traded in the second quarter was 13.6 billion at Robinhood. Crypto revenue continued its decline amid a market downturn, down 38% from a year ago and 25% from a quarter ago. Net income increased 48% to US$573 million. Equities trading revenue jumped 95% to US$129 million. https://tinyurl.com/47fbs4f8

ASML shares slide after Information report on China producing DUV tool.

Shares of Dutch company ASML, which produces chipmaking tools, dropped after The Information reported that a Chinese state-backed company is mass-producing important chip manufacturing equipment for the first time. ASML’s shares slid as much as 6.6% on Monday and ended the day down about 5%. The equipment—immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines—is key to China’s drive to stop relying so much on foreign technology to make chips. ASML has long been the primary supplier of chipmaking equipment globally, including DUV machines and the even more advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines. And chipmakers like TSMC use DUV and EUV machines to etch the microscopic circuits that make chips work. If the Shanghai-based company can successfully mass-produce DUV machines, it could cut into ASML’s dominant market share. In 2025, approximately 30% of ASML’s revenue came from customers in China. https://tinyurl.com/3j3efr52

Hedge funds face demands to stump up collateral as AI stocks tumble.

Wall Street banks have demanded more collateral from hedge funds in recent weeks as a rout in AI stocks accelerates and triggers heavy losses across several popular strategies. Banks asked funds whose holdings are heavily concentrated in certain industries to provide additional collateral to keep their existing levels of leverage, according to four people familiar with the matter. The collateral demands highlight the mounting fears on Wall Street about the scale and speed of the sell-off in AI stocks over the past fortnight, which has upended a rally in a sector favoured by many funds. The Nasdaq 100 briefly veered into correction territory on Tuesday, falling 10 per cent from its record high in early June. Stocks that had surged earlier in 2026 have fallen sharply, with Sandisk and Intel down 53 per cent and 39 per cent from their peaks, respectively. The wider Philadelphia semiconductor index has lost a quarter of its value since late June. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase were among the banks that had asked clients to stump up additional collateral, according to several people familiar with the matter. Both banks declined to comment. Goldman said in a recent note to clients that the build-up in gross leverage in the first five months of the year was the largest cumulative increase it had recorded since it began tracking the data in 2016, suggesting funds had been turning to borrowing to juice up their trades ahead of the sell-off. https://tinyurl.com/2urbm223

OpenAI’s rogue agent compromised a customer at a second tech firm, executive says.

The rogue agent that escaped from OpenAI and went on a days-long hacking spree at the AI firm Hugging Face also compromised a customer at a second tech company — New York-based Modal Labs — according to a Modal executive and two other sources familiar with the matter. Modal executives emphasized that the company itself was not hacked. According to a timeline published by Hugging Face, opens new tab on Tuesday, the rogue agent broke into a sandbox, or ⁠an isolated testing environment, “hosted on a third-party provider’s infrastructure” before turning it into a launchpad for the broader hack. The third-party provider was not named in the blog post, but Modal’s chief technology officer, Akshat Bubna, said the agent exploited vulnerable code written by a customer that was hosted on Modal’s platform. Although the compromise of a Modal customer was just an initial step in the wider hacking campaign against Hugging Face, it shows that the rogue agent roamed ‌further ⁠afield than was previously known. Last week, Reuters reported that OpenAI did not notice that its agent had gone haywire until well after the threat was contained and the FBI was alerted. OpenAI said at the time that there were inaccuracies in ⁠the Reuters reporting but did not elaborate. https://tinyurl.com/bdfcz9n7

Anthropic says its models also hacked outside sites during testing.

Anthropic said its AI models hacked into three outside organizations during testing of their cybersecurity capabilities, incidents it discovered during a review prompted by a similar episode at rival OpenAI that has fueled widespread concern about AI safety. In a blogpost Thursday, Anthropic said the direct impact of the incidents was limited, with the most significant episode involving extraction of some user credentials and several hundred rows of production data from an internal database. Anthropic said it successfully contacted two of the affected organizations on Monday and was still seeking to reach the third. It didn’t name the organizations. The hacks occurred when Anthropic tasked its Claude models with solving a “capture the flag challenge,” a standard cybersecurity exercise that involves retrieving a piece of text hidden in computer systems. In six of the 141,006 testing instances Anthropic reviewed, its models reached the internet because of a configuration mistake in the test environment. Four of those instances targeted the same organization. Claude didn’t use the internet access to make a copy of itself in any of the instances. The hacks were conducted by three different Anthropic models, including Mythos, its highly cyber-capable model. In the Mythos attack, it uploaded malware to a public software registry, and 15 computer systems downloaded and ran the malicious software. That behavior lines up with an earlier Anthropic finding while training Mythos that “the model occasionally circumvented network restrictions in its training environment to access the internet and download data that let it shortcut the assigned task.” Anthropic said these hacks differed from OpenAI’s—in which that company’s models attacked the model repository Hugging Face—in that OpenAI’s models exploited a novel software vulnerability to access the internet, whereas Anthropic’s had internet access available (though they were instructed that they did not). https://tinyurl.com/3uu6bw6y

Microsoft launches Mythos competitor, new homegrown AI for cybersecurity.

Microsoft on Monday announced a new AI security product called Project Perception, powered by new homegrown AI models specialized for cybersecurity tasks. Microsoft framed the product as a cheaper alternative to Anthropic’s Mythos model, which similarly uses AI models to automatically find vulnerabilities in software. The new product reflects Microsoft’s efforts to cash in on rising cybersecurity spending as companies prepare for a rise in AI-powered threats. Firms are budgeting to spend more on AI tools to reduce the need for human security analysts that traditionally kept tabs on companies’ IT systems to detect and respond to potential hacks. Project Perception will use a combination of models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft itself, including the newly announced MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, a new homegrown model that Microsoft said could perform as well as Mythos on some cybersecurity tasks at a fraction of the cost. https://tinyurl.com/5evntwdw

DoorDash gets FAA nod to run its own drone delivery program.

DoorDash will soon build and operate its own drones. The company has received Part 135 air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), allowing it to deliver packages by drone at altitudes below 400 feet. Amazon’s Prime Air and Alphabet’s Wing are among the seven other companies that have received the certification. DoorDash already provides drone delivery in parts of Charlotte, Dallas–Fort Worth, Virginia, and metro Atlanta using Wing’s drones. With the FAA certification, DoorDash will build and operate its own drones under a new program called DoorDash Air. The FAA nod is just the first step for DoorDash Air, however. The dedicated unit will now have to build drones and test them out before making them available for delivery. “We’ll have more to share later this year on the aircraft and how our drone program fits into the broader network alongside Dashers, Dot, and our partners,” DoorDash says. Walmart, Wendy’s, and Amazon are some of the big names testing or operating the service. Residents in areas where drones operate, however, haven’t always been pleased with them. In 2024, those living in College Station, Texas, requested that the FAA look into Amazon’s noisy drones. Amazon’s drones also collided with a crane in Arizona last year. https://tinyurl.com/fyrhdukz

Amazon files FCC application to provide direct cell service.

Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission for approval to create a direct-to-device satellite service globally, in a step towards expanding the goals of its burgeoning Leo satellite business. Amazon Leo became a player in the satellite mobile cell service earlier this year when it agreed to acquire Globalstar, which specializes in satellite cell service. Previously, Leo has focused on building a satellite service to provide Internet service. That broadband service is due to launch this year. Amazon said in its FCC application it wants to operate 5,105 satellites designed for direct-to-device capabilities. Amazon said it would help provide service in places where traditional telecom networks don’t serve. When it announced the Globalstar deal in April, Amazon said it would provide satellite services to Apple products, including watches and iPhones. Globalstar has also provided emergency cell service to Apple products. Apple will unload its 20% stake in Globalstar once the acquisition is approved, which is set to happen in 2027. https://tinyurl.com/2rr8rs8u

Apple set to make big smart home push with Siri AI at center.

The company plans to kick off this wave of home products soon with a hub device built around the new Siri AI assistant, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple also is preparing to release a new TV set-top box and refreshed HomePod mini, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. All three devices are nearly ready to launch, with the company set to release the new Apple TV and HomePod mini this fall and the home hub between October and early next year. The move will push the iPhone maker into more direct competition with Amazon and Google in a market being reshaped by advances in artificial intelligence. Apple’s new hub device will face off against Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub. The Apple smart hub will have a roughly 7-inch square display and is meant to be the centerpiece of the company’s renewed home push. It runs an entirely new operating system based on the Apple TV’s tvOS. The interface looks like a blend of that software with watchOS and iOS — complete with a grid of icons, widgets and apps. The device features FaceTime videoconferencing, home security monitoring and an intercom system for households with multiple Apple home devices. There’s a way to manage and control smart appliances, such as speakers and locks, and it will let users view photos, access calendars and play music. It also features an array of customizable clock faces like an Apple Watch, according to the people. The hallmark feature is facial recognition, enabling the hub to identify who’s looking at the display, determine their distance and personalize the interface in real time. It can adjust the size and type of information for easier viewing while displaying that user’s calendar, notes and other personalized content based on who’s in front of the device. https://tinyurl.com/bdhypv5c

Trump Administration bans new humanoid robots from China.

The U.S. government announced a ban on the imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots, which are mostly from China, citing national security risks. The move reflects Washington’s growing concerns about China’s critical role in the global robotics industry and its supply chain. China currently accounts for the vast majority of the world’s humanoid production. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday said it has added foreign humanoids and quadrupeds to its list of equipment and services that pose a risk to U.S. national security, preventing such robots from receiving FCC authorization to be imported, marketed or sold in the U.S. “Advanced robotic devices collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots,” the White House said in its National Security Determination statement. The ban applies to new models of robots, the FCC said. American consumers can continue to use robots they have already purchased, and retailers can continue to import and sell existing models of robots that previously obtained FCC authorization. https://tinyurl.com/z8byyaav

U.S. Senators press Apple not to buy Chinese memory chips.

A group of U.S. senators are urging Apple to drop any plans to buy memory chips from Chinese suppliers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies, citing national security risks, Bloomberg reported. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the lawmakers, led by Indiana Republican Jim Banks and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, said using chips from those Chinese firms could make Apple dependent on a U.S. adversary for key components, according to Bloomberg. The lawmakers also noted that both of those two Chinese memory chipmakers, CXMT and YMTC, are on the Pentagon’s blacklist of entities with alleged Chinese military ties. The Financial Times reported last month that Apple was lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from CXMT. The Pentagon’s military company blacklist doesn’t prohibit Apple from using CXMT as a supplier, but some U.S. lawmakers have urged the Trump Administration not to facilitate purchases of Chinese memory chips. The debate over whether U.S. companies like Apple should buy chips from those Chinese suppliers comes amid a worldwide memory chip shortage due to surging memory demand for AI data centers. CXMT recently went public in Shanghai and its stock surged 472% in its trading debut last week, as investors bet the company will continue to benefit from global AI demand. https://tinyurl.com/yc6axevx