August 03, 2025: Worst Week In A Few Months

After some mixed earnings, weak jobs data, and at the beginning of the seasonally soft period in post US election year for second term Presidents, markets had a tough close to the week. For the week, Dow Jones declined 2.9%, S&P 500 lost 2.4%, and Nasdaq composite was down 2.2%. Figma’s IPO debuted strongly, closing at a market cap of US$47 billion, significantly surpassing its initial IPO price. Ambiq Micro also enjoyed a strong IPO, closing up 61%, highlighting robust investor appetite for AI-driven companies. Klarna is considering reviving its IPO plans following recovery in fintech stocks. OpenAI secured a US$8.3 billion round, forecasting annualized revenue of US$20 billion by year-end, while Anthropic pursued new financing at a US$170 billion valuation. Cerebras, an AI chipmaker, sought a US$1 billion in new funding, delaying its IPO plans amid regulatory scrutiny. Earnings were mixed, Meta was a winner, while Amazon was not. Apple’s quarterly revenues exceeded expectations, driven by strong iPhone sales, and CEO Tim Cook hinted at potential AI acquisitions. Microsoft briefly reached a market capitalization of US$4 trillion, powered by robust Azure cloud sales driven by AI. Meta’s revenues grew 22%, fueled by digital advertising strength and AI investments. Canada’s AI leader Cohere partnered with BCE Inc. to deliver AI solutions through Bell Canada’s AI data centers, aiming to bolster Canada’s sovereign AI capabilities. Yaletown Partners successfully closed a first tranche of $100 million for its third Innovation Growth Fund, targeting digital infrastructure startups. Sophic Client, Boardwalktech reported its fiscal 2025 results, showing revenue of US$4.8 million, a decline from US$6.0 million the previous year due to the non-renewal of two major SaaS customers. The company raised a total of $1.3 million via LIFE Offerings to support its working capital and growth initiatives.

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) reports fourth quarter and annual Fiscal 2025 financial results.

Boardwalktech reported its financial results for fiscal year 2025 ended March 31, 2025. All figures are reported in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated. Financial Highlights: Revenue for Fiscal 2025 totaled $4.8 million compared to $6.0 million for Fiscal 2024. The portion of revenue from new and recurring SaaS licenses earned in Fiscal 2025 decreased by 23% year-over-year due to the impact from two previously disclosed customers that did not renew due to internal reorganizations, partially offset by a 9% increase in professional services revenue. Annual recurring revenue (“ARR”), a non-IFRS metric, at March 31, 2025 was $4.0 million. Gross margin for Fiscal 2025 was 87.7%, comparable with 89.6% in Fiscal 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for Fiscal 2025 was $(1.8) million, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $(1.6) million for Fiscal 2024. Non-IFRS net loss for Fiscal 2025 (as defined in the Adjusted EBITDA and Non-IFRS Financial Measures section) was $(2.2) million, $(0.04) per basic and diluted share, versus the $(1.7) million non-IFRS loss for Fiscal 2024, $(0.03) per basic and diluted share. Reported IFRS loss for Fiscal 2025 was $(3.2) million, $(0.06) per basic and diluted share, versus a net loss of $(3.1) million for Fiscal 2024, $(0.06) per basic and diluted share. Subsequent to March 31, 2025, the Company closed two tranches (on June 13, 2025 and July 24, 2025) of non-brokered placements under a LIFE Offering, raising a gross total, before expenses and fees of $0.55 million . When combined with the original LIFE Offering closed during Q4 of Fiscal 2025, the Company raised a gross amount of $1.3 million to fund working capital, balance sheet, and growth needs. “We’ve made strong progress with major U.S. banks, deepened relationships with large multinational enterprises, and have positioned the Company for potential geographic expansion overseas…. Looking ahead, we’re preparing to launch a major innovation: the Boardwalktech Grid Security Protocol… our Grid security system is focused on Agentic AI and the authentication and secure movement of information between the enterprise and AI Bots and AI to AI communication. It is also designed to secure the way AI agents and enterprise bots authenticate and interact, a foundational piece of the future of AI, B2B automation and digital commerce. It brings the same immutability and auditability that define and differentiate our core platform, and addresses a massive pain point in authentication, password management, session management and token-level security without creating new silos or complexity.” https://t.co/Sz5MwlEwYA

Canada’s leading tech startup Cohere strikes alliance with BCE to sell AI tools.

A new alliance between Canada’s leading artificial intelligence startup and one of its major telecommunications firms is aiming to sell made-in-Canada AI tools to Canadian governments and businesses amid a wider national push to build out the country’s sovereign AI capabilities. On Wednesday morning, Cohere Inc. and BCE Inc. announced a partnership that will make the startup’s AI offerings, including its large language models and agentic AI platform, available through Bell Canada’s AI data centres and fibre network. Cohere co-founder and chief executive Aidan Gomez said the project would help organizations “increase their productivity and efficiency without any compromise on data security and privacy.” This May, Bell Canada launched a data centre initiative called the Bell AI Fabric, a national network of AI-focused data centres that will start with a “supercluster” in British Columbia. https://tinyurl.com/bdcnr4us

Yaletown Partners raises $100 million in first close for third Innovation Growth Fund.

Vancouver-based venture capital (VC) firm Yaletown Partners has raised $100 million in the first close of its third Innovation Growth Fund (IGF III), which will continue its thesis of investing in digital infrastructure technology companies. Yaletown’s eighth fund overall, IGF III is aiming for a final close of $250 million, or about $50 million more than the 2023 final close of its predecessor. Founded in 2001, Yaletown invests in emerging growth-stage North American technology startups that help traditional companies improve their operational efficiency, with the goal of driving strong financial returns while also achieving “climate-resilient growth.” Headquartered in Vancouver, Yaletown also has offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montréal, and San Francisco. https://tinyurl.com/c9zcxe7k

Canada awards $14.6 million contract to space triumvirate to build its new lunar rover.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded $14.6 million in contracts to three Canadian spacetech companies developing a new all-Canadian lunar rover. The Canadian rover is meant to assist astronauts and support operations, such as transporting cargo, performing logistics, and construction duties, on the moon. Over the next 18 months, Canadarm manufacturer MDA Space will lead preparatory studies to assess different potential options for the rover, including various capacities depending on different sizes and scope, according to the CSA. Ottawa-based software startup Mission Control and Toronto-based Canadensys Aerospace Corporation are also working on the project. https://tinyurl.com/3d8yu786

Cybersecurity startup Cavelo secures $5 million seed extension round led by Inovia Capital.

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based cybersecurity startup Cavelo has closed a $5 million seed extension round led by Inovia Capital as it continues to focus on sales, marketing, and developing its product. https://tinyurl.com/42vxbtkh\

Figma’s stock soared in its highly anticipated IPO, market cap instantly hit US$45 billion.

Figma began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after a long delay. It soared so quickly that trading was halted for a short time due to market volatility. Within a minute of trading, its market cap hit US$45 billion but the price spent the day bouncing between US$101 and as high as US$124. It closed at US$115.50 and a US$47 billion market cap, Yahoo Finance reports. The company and existing investors sold shares at the IPO price of US$33 per share. https://tinyurl.com/2e8vxv3x

Kleiner Perkins-backed Ambiq pops on IPO debut.

Ambiq Micro, a 15-year-old manufacturer of energy-efficient chips for wearable and medical devices, closed its first day of trading on Wednesday at US$38.53 a share, a 61% increase from the US$24 IPO price the company set the previous day. The success of the IPO signals strong investor demand in the public market for new small-cap companies benefiting from AI innovation. Ambiq closed its first day as a public company with a valuation of US$656 million (excluding employee options). This represents a significant increase from its last private funding valuation of US$450 million in 2023, according to PitchBook. The company has pitched itself as well-positioned to capitalize on the growth driven by AI. “Because we’re so low energy, we can put more intelligence and more AI on board” of edge processors, the company’s CTO Scott Hanson told TechCrunch. https://tinyurl.com/5n7nw3n7

Klarna to revive IPO as soon as September.

Klarna, the Swedish installment lender, is considering reviving its potential New York initial public offering as soon as September as shares in U.S. fintech companies surge, Sky News reported. Klarna filed for its IPO in March and was seeking to raise at least US$1 billion at a valuation of more than US$15 billion, according to reports. In April, the fintech company paused its IPO efforts after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs triggered a public market selloff. Shares in Affirm, a Klarna competitor, have almost doubled its April low ofUS $35.75. And Chime, a banking app that went public in June, has seen its stock trade up nearly 25% from its IPO price of US$27. https://tinyurl.com/3c7pjpas

CoreWeave raises US$2.6 billion in debt for OpenAI agreement.

CoreWeave secured US$2.6 billion in debt to help it purchase equipment for its contract with OpenAI, the server rental company said Thursday. The loan facility gives CoreWeave access to more capital as it looks to buy and deploy chips for a contract with OpenAI the company previously said is worth up to US$11.9 billion over five years. CoreWeave entered the public markets in March with about US$8 billion in debt and has raised billions more since, including a US$1.75 billion offering it finalized earlier this week. OpenAI has turned to a growing roster of cloud providers to satisfy its significant computing needs after its exclusive deal with Microsoft ended in January. The ChatGPT maker invested US$350 million in CoreWeave as part of the deal it struck in March. CoreWeave said the loan facility will have an interest rate of 4 percentage points above the secured overnight financing rate, which is currently hovering around 4.3%. https://tinyurl.com/yzjk3cbr

OpenAI raises US$8.3 billion, projects US$20 billion in annualized revenue by year-end.

OpenAI has secured US$8.3 billion of new commitments from investors such as hedge funds Dragoneer, Altimeter Capital and D1 Capital Partners, exceeding its earlier goal of US$7.5 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise, confirming earlier reporting from The Information about the round. The fundraise comes as ChatGPT continues to anchor OpenAI’s business, which is generating US$12 billion in annualized revenue, roughly doubling from the start of the year. OpenAI expects to hit US$20 billion in annualized revenue by the end of the year, meaning it would be generating about US$1.7 billion in revenue per month, according to the same person, up from practically no revenue three years earlier. The company has over 700 million ChatGPT users across both consumer and business customers. The new capital is part of an unprecedented US$40 billion funding round that values the ChatGPT maker at US$260 billion before the investment. OpenAI received US$10 billion of that amount in June, and the new commitments means that the US$40 billion round will increase by about US$1 billion. SoftBank, which is leading the fundraise, has committed to funding US$22.5 billion of the round, provided that OpenAI successfully reorganizes its corporate structure this year or early next year. Dragoneer committed US$2.8 billion to OpenAI, and other investors in the round include existing shareholders Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Fidelity Management, Tiger Global Management and Thrive Capital. New OpenAI investors in the round include TPG, T. Rowe Price and Blackstone. https://tinyurl.com/rzsnv2ny

Anthropic in talks to raise at a US$170 billion valuation.

Anthropic is raising a new financing at a US$170 billion valuation in a deal led by Iconiq Capital, reported Bloomberg. That’s up from the US$58 billion-valued round, before the investment, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at the start of this year. The new funding round is expected to be between US$3 billion to US$5 billion. Anthropic has also held discussions with Qatar Investment Authority and Singapore sovereign fund GIC, among other investors, about investing in the round as well. Earlier this month, investors floated a new financing at valuations above US$100 billion. The higher valuation likely reflects continued strong interest in the four-year-old startup. Investor interest comes as the company crossed US$4 billion in annualized revenue and some of its profit-related metrics improve. Anthropic’s gross profit margin from selling its AI models and Claude chatbot directly to customers was roughly 60% and moving towards 70%. However, its gross profit margin from selling its Claude models through Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud was generating negative 30% earlier this year. https://tinyurl.com/2w5cp6ff

AI chipmaker Cerebras seeks US$1 billion in funding as IPO stalls.

Cerebras Systems, a startup that is developing artificial intelligence chips to challenge Nvidia’s, is in talks to raise up to US$1 billion in private funding, potentially delaying a plan to go public this year. The potential delay would represent a shift for Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman, who said in May that the company would aim to go public this year after it got permission from U.S. regulators to sell shares to Middle East investors. Cerebras had several issues that could have made it a tough sell for public investors. Most of its revenue comes from one Middle East customer G42, which enlisted Cerebras to build three supercomputers. Cerebras’ close ties to G42 has also drawn scrutiny from U.S. national security regulators. https://tinyurl.com/msucnt7b

OpenAI revenue hits US$12 billion annualized pace.

OpenAI has reached US$12 billion in annualized revenue, nearly double its pace at the beginning the year. The rise suggests the company will be able to hit is projections of generating US$12.7 billion in revenue this year. The growth comes as the company logs roughly 700 million weekly active users for its ChatGPT products used by both consumers and business customers, up from 500 million weekly active users OpenAI said all of its products had in late March. Increased use will also drive up its costs. The company now expects to burn roughly $8 billion in 2025, up $1 billion from the cash burn it projected earlier in the year. https://tinyurl.com/5n85bmk8

Nvidia orders more H2O chips as China demand soars.

Nvidia last week ordered an additional 300,000 H20 chips from its manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, as surging demand from Chinese tech companies prompted the U.S. firm to reconsider its initial plan to sell only its current stockpile, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources. Nvidia developed the H20 for the Chinese market in 2023 to comply with U.S. export restrictions. The Trump administration this month allowed Nvidia to resume sales of the H20 to China, reversing a ban that was put in place in April over national security concerns. Nvidia needs export licenses from the U.S. Commerce Department to ship the H20 chips to China. While the company was assured that approval would be granted soon, the department has not yet approved them, according to Reuters. Nvidia initially told some of its Chinese customers that it had only limited stock of the H20 due to supply chain constraints, and was yet to restart production plans, The Information reported earlier this month. CEO Jensen Huang said restarting H20 production could take about nine months. https://tinyurl.com/5n8hzcrt

Groq cuts revenue projections in span of a few months.

Groq, a chip startup taking on Nvidia, recently cut its 2025 revenue projections from more than US$2 billion to more than US$500 million. The company gave out the lower projections as it talks to investors about a new round of funding that would double its post-investment valuation to US$6 billion. A Groq spokesperson said the company shifted some revenue projections to 2026 because of a lack of data center capacity in a region where it planned to install more of its chips. She also said Groq had since adjusted the most recent projection to reflect a recent deal with Bell Canada and the addition of new artificial intelligence models to Groq’s cloud service. https://tinyurl.com/mr3ez26e

Palo Alto Networks to acquire CyberArk for US$25 billion.

Palo Alto Networks will buy the login software firm CyberArk for US$25 billion, the companies announced on Wednesday. CyberArk, a publicly traded startup based in Israel, sells software for verifying companies’ employees when logging into applications that run in the cloud. The 26-year-old firm competes with the likes of Okta and Microsoft, and it was trading with a market cap of roughly $18 billion before the deal talks were first reported by media outlets on Tuesday. The transaction is expected to close in 2026, and marks the second cybersecurity megadeal announced this year alongside Google’s planned US$32 billion acquisition of the cloud security startup Wiz. Palo Alto Networks has been steadily acquiring other cybersecurity firms in recent years, including the AI-focused security startup Protect AI for US$700 million earlier this year, and the secure browser startup Talon for over US$600 million in 2023. https://tinyurl.com/3u2ct3vj

Apple sales surge with iPhone boom.

Apple’s iPhone business grew at a rapid clip, as U.S. consumers bought up phones ahead of any possible tariff-related price increase. For the quarter that ended in June, iPhones sales grew nearly 13% from the prior year, the fastest growth the business has seen since a pandemic-era surge in sales in 2021. Total revenue grew 9.2% annually to US$94 billion, exceeding analyst expectations. The company’s stock rose 3% in after-hours trading. The market sentiment has been down on Apple lately, as the company has struggled with its artificial intelligence strategy. Apple hasn’t delivered a big AI-powered update to its Siri personal assistant that it announced a year ago. The company’s stock is down more than 17% since the beginning of the year and it has fallen from its former perch as the world’s most valuable company. It now has a market capitalization of US$3.1 trillion, while Microsoft and Nvidia have surpassed US$4 trillion market capitalizations this month on the strength of their AI strategies. Apple seems to be telegraphing its willingness to do deals to improve its position in AI. In comments to CNBC on Thursday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was open to mergers and acquisitions to “accelerate our roadmap.” https://tinyurl.com/48dkw3yp

Apple projects optimism about AI future at all hands.

Apple held a rare companywide all hands meeting on Friday to discuss the company’s investments in artificial intelligence and other topics. CEO Tim Cook struck a confident tone about Apple’s future in AI, telling employees that Apple has exciting plans that he couldn’t discuss, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Apple has struggled to deliver AI features that have impressed customers, including a new AI-powered version of Siri, prompting the company to shake up the leadership of the team overseeing the Apple digital assistant. An Apple employee asked Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, about Siri during the all hands, and Federighi acknowledged that it’s a topic he gets asked about the most lately, according to another person who heard his comment. It has been several years since Apple has hosted an all hands meeting. Despite its difficulties in AI, the company reported strong financial results for the June quarter, showing a 13% increase in the sales of the iPhone, the products best performance in years. Bloomberg earlier reported details of the Apple all hands meeting. An Apple spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. https://tinyurl.com/4bt6n7nh

Microsoft surpasses US$4 trillion market cap as AI business booms.

Microsoft’s market capitalization briefly exceeded US$4 trillion for the first time on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected cloud growth in the three months ending in June, before closing at US$3.97 trillion. Microsoft stock was up more than 4% from the day prior, and is up by more than 28% over the past year. Microsoft is the second company in history to achieve the milestone, following Nvidia, which crossed US$4 trillion in market capitalization earlier this month. The growth reflects Microsoft’s success in expanding its cloud computing business over the past decade, which has been its dominant source of revenue in recent years despite the company’s long history as an enterprise software provider. It also shows how Microsoft is cashing in on demand for the Nvidia-powered servers needed to run AI applications. Microsoft’s cloud growth has been driven in part by large commitments from customers like OpenAI, which uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to run ChatGPT and which has projected to spend more than US$6 billion on Microsoft servers this year alone. https://tinyurl.com/28bmenv5

Microsoft reports 18% revenue growth driven by better-than-expected Azure sales.

Microsoft’s revenue growth accelerated to 18% in the three months ending in June, driven by stronger-than-expected sales in its Azure cloud computing unit, the company said on Wednesday. Revenue in Azure grew 39%—a significantly higher rate than the roughly 34-35% growth the company had forecast, and faster than its 33% growth in the prior quarter. Shares jumped nearly 7% in after-hours trading. CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement that the growth was due to “cloud and AI” spending by businesses across every sector. The company told investors in April that its cloud unit was growing rapidly thanks to a large new commitment by OpenAI, one of its largest cloud customers. OpenAI has projected to spend more than $6 billion this year to run ChatGPT and other products, largely on Azure. Azure made more than US$75 billion in revenue in the past twelve months, Nadella said, up from roughly US$56 billion the year prior. By contrast, AWS—Microsoft’s biggest cloud rival—brought in US$107.6 billion in 2024. Capital expenditures were US$24.2 billion, up from US$21.4 billion in the quarter prior. That brings the company’s total capex for the past year to US$87.9 billion, exceeding the US$80 billion that the company told investors in January that it expected to spend during that period. Microsoft has said it expects capex to continue to grow in the year ahead as it builds out massive datacenters needed to power AI applications for customers including OpenAI. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said capital expenditures would rise to $30 billion in the coming quarter, implying that the company’s capex will continue to accelerate in the year ahead. That pace implies Microsoft’s capex could exceed US$120 billion in the coming year, or 37% higher than this year. https://tinyurl.com/2pbnnehk

Meta’s revenue rises 22% in the second quarter.

Meta Platforms on Wednesday reported second-quarter revenue of US$47.5 billion, up 22% from a year earlier. That exceeded its own forecast of US$42.5 billion to US$45.5 billion, showing the strength of its digital advertising business and sending its shares up as much as 11% in after-hours trading. Meta forecasted that, in the third quarter, growth could tick up to 24% or slow to 17%. The company did not share an estimate for its fourth-quarter revenue, but said it expected growth to slow for that quarter as it lapped “a period of stronger growth” from a year earlier. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp raised its estimate for capital expenditures this year to US$66 billion to US$72 billion, up from a previous forecast of US$64 billion to US$72 billion. Meta also projected rapid growth in operating costs due to “infrastructure costs” and “employee compensation.” The company has been on an aggressive dealmaking and hiring spree over the past several months as it seeks to improve its position in artificial intelligence. Meta’s second-quarter profits rose 36% to US$18.3 billion. https://tinyurl.com/5ef423bv

Alibaba unveils AI smart glasses.

Alibaba Group unveiled its first artificial intelligence glasses, as Meta Platforms’ success with its Ray-Ban AI smart glasses prompts Chinese tech giants to follow suit. Alibaba announced the new product, the Quark AI glasses, at a tech conference in Shanghai over the weekend. The glasses, powered by the company’s Qwen large language models, allow users to make hands-free calls, stream music, transcribe meetings and translate languages real-time, it said. Alibaba plans to start selling the eyewear in China by the end of this year. Alibaba said the glasses will integrate with the company’s widely used online services in China, such as mapping, payment, e-commerce and travel apps. https://tinyurl.com/3c99u5j8

Sales of Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart glasses tripled in the first half of 2025.

Sales of Meta Platforms’ Ray-Ban smart glasses more than tripled in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier, Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica said in a press release on Monday. EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri said on Monday that the company expected “a very fast ramp up” in the availability and distribution of a new line of Meta smart glasses, which will be under another EssilorLuxottica brand, Oakley. The full set of Meta’s Oakley smart glasses will be available later this summer. In February, EssilorLuxottica announced plans to grow its annual production capacity for smart glasses to 10 million units by the end of next year. The company did not say its previous production capacity but said at the time that it had sold 2 million pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses since September 2023. Milleri also said on Monday that the company believed it would need to grow its production capacity even further “at a certain point.” https://tinyurl.com/4e6k32wb

Meta might be making another smartwatch, and it still has a camera.

According to a report from DigiTimes, Meta has a revival in store for the smartwatch project it canned back in 2022. Unlike most other smartwatches from brands like Samsung and Google, Meta’s wearable is allegedly designed to compliment both its smart glasses and its Quest headsets, focusing primarily on examining the world around you through built-in cameras rather than focusing on health tracking and incoming notifications. In fact, whatever Meta has in the works here sounds pretty similar to what the company was cooking up back in 2021. At the time, reports suggested Meta — or Facebook, as it was still known — planned to launch a pair of smartwatches in the summer of 2022, utilizing a pair of cameras to differentiate itself from the rest of the market. Leaks suggested a 12MP main sensor located on the bottom of the device, thus requiring the user take the watch off, while the 5MP “front-facing” camera was meant for wrist-based video calls. Remember, this was in the era of Facebook’s long-forgotten Portal smart display, when the brand was all-in on video conferencing. https://tinyurl.com/cmp7t8ns

Microsoft Edge is now an AI browser with launch of ‘Copilot Mode’.

With demand for AI-powered browsers on the rise, Microsoft on Monday launched a new feature in its Edge browser called Copilot Mode, which allows users to browse the web while being assisted by AI. The idea is that the AI can become a helper that can understand what the user is researching, predict what they want to do, and then take action on their behalf. How well it works in practice remains to be seen, but Microsoft notes that Copilot Mode is still considered an experimental feature. It’s also opt-in by default during these tests and is currently free for any Mac or PC users with access to Copilot. https://tinyurl.com/4en47s6d

Spotify says ad business is moving too slowly.

Spotify executives on Tuesday signalled that the departure of its ad chief, Lee Brown, on Monday was in response to their unhappiness with the speed of changes with the company’s ad business. In a second quarter earnings conference call, Spotify co-president Alex Norstrom responded to a question about Brown’s exit, said that “we need to see more progress within ads…we felt it was the right time for a leadership change.” Earlier on the call, CEO Daniel Ek said “the one area that hasn’t yet better expectations is our ads business. We’ve simply been moving too slowly and it’s taken longer than expected to see the improvements we initiated to take hold.” Spotify has for years had trouble making its advertising business contribute meaningful revenue, having trouble having solutions that work well for all types of advertisers, especially small ones, the Information has previously reported. Spotify reported operating income of €406 million, which was below the company’s previously stated guidance of €539 million. Spotify’s revenue of €4.2 billion also missed previously stated guidance of €4.3 billion, though was still up 10% year over year. The company’s business was hurt by foreign exchange movements. Advertising revenue fell 1% year on year, although excluding foreign exchange movements, ad revenue grew 5%. Spotify stock fell more than 9%. https://tinyurl.com/5fpcmxrd

Tesla found partially liable for fatal autopilot crash.

Tesla was partially to blame for a fatal crash involving its self-driving software, a federal court jury in Florida found on Friday, according to several news reports from the courtroom. Tesla will have to pay US$243 million in punitive and compensatory damages, the New York Times reported. The lawsuit stemmed from a 2019 incident when a driver using Tesla’s Autopilot software blew through an intersection, killing one person and severely injuring another. The jury found Tesla responsible for a third of the crash, while the driver of the vehicle was responsible for the other two thirds, according to reports from the courtroom. A Tesla spokesperson said the company would appeal the verdict, saying that the driver was solely at fault and that the verdict “only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla’s and the entire industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology.” The verdict is a setback for Tesla as CEO Elon Musk stakes the company’s future on humanoid robots and self-driving robotaxis. Tesla has launched ride-hailing services in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, but vehicles in both cities include backup humans who can take over if Tesla’s software fails. https://tinyurl.com/2npm59px

eToro launching tokenized US equities, ETF and futures trading amid regulatory clarity.

Crypto and stock trading platform eToro said Tuesday it is launching tokenized trading of U.S. equities, ETFs, and futures. Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia cited regulatory milestones as playing a role in eToro’s launch. “We’ve been long-term believers in a tokenized future. Blockchain technology will facilitate the greatest ever transfer of wealth, as traditional assets are tokenized and moved onto the blockchain,” Assia said in a statement. “New regulations, such as MiCA in Europe and the passing of the Genius Act in the U.S., make the tokenization of real world assets a new opportunity to create digital assets that are legally backed and regulated.” The plan will allow retail investors to trade tokenized versions of popular U.S. equities — likely those primarily listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq — via ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Through a collaboration with CME Group, eToro will also offer tokenized futures trading. “Our mission has always been to open the global markets. Extended hours trading was the first step, 24/5 takes it a step further, however tokenization brings 24/7 accessibility,” Assia also said. In 2019, eToro launched tokenized gold and silver products, it said in its statement. eToro warned that trading tokenized equities outside traditional hours could face “low liquidity and high volatility,” according to its statement. The tokenization of real-world assets, specifically U.S. equities, is seen as a major growth area across crypto. Trading platforms like Robinhood and Kraken are both interested in issuing digital tokens that mirror traditional stocks and trade 24/7. https://tinyurl.com/2rj33fsm

PayPal adds crypto payments for merchants.

PayPal will allow U.S. merchants to start accepting crypto in the coming weeks, with the payment giant adding support for transactions in more than 100 cryptocurrencies and crypto wallets from companies including Coinbase and Metamask. When a shopper pays with crypto, the funds will be converted into fiat or into PYUSD, PayPal’s stablecoin, when transferred to the merchant’s account. PayPal says the ability to accept crypto payments will help merchants lower costs and settle transactions faster, particularly for cross-border payments. PayPal will charge merchants a transaction fee of 0.99% for crypto transactions, lower than the cost of a typical credit-card transaction. Since 2020, PayPal has allowed users to buy and hold cryptocurrencies in their PayPal wallets, and later expanded that ability to Venmo. Other e-commerce and payments companies have been adding the ability for merchants to accept crypto and stablecoin payments: last month, Shopify and Coinbase said that Shopify merchants could begin accepting payments in USDC. https://tinyurl.com/y3azrwz3

JPMorgan and Coinbase inked deal to connect bank accounts and crypto wallets.

JPMorgan Chase and Coinbase signed an agreement to directly link customers’ bank accounts to their cryptocurrency wallets, a move that could undercut data aggregators between banks and companies. Under the new deal, which is expected to go into effect next year, customers can also fund Coinbase accounts with their Chase credit cards and redeem Chase rewards. This comes as fintech and crypto companies are clashing with banks over fees accessing customers’ account information. Earlier in July, JPMorgan began to notify fintech companies that it would charge them each time a customer’s information was accessed, which they now get for free. https://tinyurl.com/56r8khke

Samsung to make Tesla chips through US$16.5 billion deal.

Samsung will produce chips for Tesla through a multiyear deal worth US$16.5 billion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Monday. Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip will be manufactured by Samsung in the U.S., Musk said on X. Samsung said in a Monday securities filing that it had signed a deal with an unnamed large global company worth US$16.5 billion that will run through 2033. Samsung shares closed up 7% on Monday. Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call last week that the AI6 chip, alongside Tesla’s next-generation planned Dojo 3 chip, will go in self-driving cars, data centers and Optimus humanoid robots. Samsung currently manufactures Tesla’s AI4 chip, according to Musk. Rival chipmaker TSMC will manufacture the AI5 chip, which “just finished design,” initially in Taiwan and then in its Arizona facility, Musk said. Samsung will then make the AI6 in its Taylor, Texas plant, according to Musk. https://tinyurl.com/mrxn6kcn