August 22, 2026: Tough Week Ends Lower

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.85%, S&P 500 lost 1.4%, Nasdaq composite was down 2.05%. Next week investors can expect Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole speech, and Nvidia earnings. Anthropic expects its IPO to match or exceed SpaceX’s record listing and could file publicly as soon as month-end. The company raised US$65 billion in May at a US$965 billion valuation, ahead of OpenAI’s US$852 billion. Preliminary Q2 revenue topped US$11.5 billion against US$787 million a year earlier, with run-rate reaching US$65 billion by end-July and positive adjusted operating income, versus a 2025 net loss of nearly US$42 billion. OpenAI’s Q2 revenue grew 18% sequentially to US$6.7 billion. Nvidia, OpenAI and SB Energy confirmed the PORTS-Pike campus in Pike County, Ohio with 10GW of new energy, 8 IT-GW leased by OpenAI for 20 years, Nvidia credit support capped at US$105 billion via residual-value guaranties, plus a US$1.5 billion Nvidia investment in SB Energy. Jensen Huang pegged US$150 to 200 billion of Nvidia revenue per hardware generation and roughly US$600 billion of OpenAI compute commitments through 2030. Marvell granted Google rights to 58.97 million shares at US$206.58, or US$12.2 billion, alongside an expanded TPU partnership. Marvell stock rose 9.9%, and Broadcom fell 4.6%. Stripe is acquiring OpenRouter for a reported US$7.5 billion, versus a US$1.3 billion valuation in May. Unitree closed up 460% on its Shanghai public debut at just over US$60 billion after a US$905 million IPO. Alibaba guided AI ARR to US$10 billion this quarter from US$7.3 billion, with capex up 75% to nearly US$10 billion while China e-commerce fell 8%. Its 27-billion-parameter Qwen3.8-27B passed 1 million downloads and matched GPT-5.6 Luna on the Artificial Analysis index. Klarna fell 20% on a cut full-year outlook; Walmart fell 9% on 2.6% U.S. comps. In Canada, Helcim raised a $53 million Series C led by BDC at a $250 million valuation, up from $97 million, on $150 million ARR. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Replenish Nutrients closed a $7.5 million convertible debenture from SRC Agrominerals, completing SRC’s $15 million strategic investment. Intermap appointed former U.S. Senior Foreign Service officer John T. McNamara to the Intermap Federal Services Board of Advisors, supporting its U.S. federal and allied-nation expansion.

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) closes $7.5 million Convertible Debenture investment from SRC Agrominerals.

Replenish Nutrients closed the $7.5 million convertible debenture investment (the “Debenture Investment”) from SRC Agrominerals Sales Inc. (“SRC”), completing the $15 million strategic investment from SRC, as previously announced on July 20 and July 23, 2026. Proceeds from the Debenture Investment will be used to fund the expansion of the Beiseker facility, working capital, inventory purchases, debt repayment, and general corporate purposes. https://tinyurl.com/3xm8m387

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) appoints former senior diplomat John T. McNamara to Intermap Federal Services Board of Advisors.

Intermap announced the appointment of Mr. John T. McNamara to the Board of Advisors of Intermap Federal Services, Inc. Mr. McNamara brings over four decades of leadership experience across diplomacy, defense and international affairs. He will advise Intermap Federal Services on strategic growth, government partnerships and international programs, helping customers apply geospatial intelligence to strengthen national security, infrastructure resilience and economic development. The appointment supports Intermap’s continued expansion of its U.S. federal and international business as the Company broadens its geospatial intelligence platform and deepens relationships with government, defense and allied nation customers. “John has spent his career helping governments build partnerships, strengthen institutions and address complex national security challenges,” said Patrick A. Blott, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Intermap Technologies. “His experience excelling in U.S. government service at home and abroad, in high-level international negotiations, and in working in difficult and dangerous environments will help Intermap deepen relationships with customers around the world and expand the application of our geospatial intelligence solutions. As we continue building the industry’s leading geospatial intelligence platform, John’s perspective and leadership will be invaluable.” “Governments are looking for trusted partners that can turn complex geospatial data into actionable intelligence and effective policies,” said John McNamara. “Intermap has built a differentiated platform combining proprietary 3D terrain data, advanced image processing, AI-powered analytics and mission-focused applications. I look forward to working with the team to help government customers and allied nations apply these capabilities to build data sovereignty and assurance, strengthen decision-making, advance operational readiness and fortify long-term resilience.” Mr. McNamara was a career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service. Most recently, he served as Chargé d’Affaires (Acting Ambassador), ad interim, at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, with concurrent responsibility for leading the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela until his retirement in February 2026. Previously, he served as Chief of Mission to the Dutch Caribbean in Curaçao and as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru. He also served as Political Counselor during the final two years of the Colombian government’s peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as well as Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim, at the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, The Bahamas. His overseas assignments also include senior leadership roles supporting U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Deputy Director of the Transition Team at Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, Deputy Director of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team and Director of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs section at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. In Washington, he served as Senior Venezuela Desk Officer, Political Officer and Deputy Director of the Office of Mexican Affairs, and as a faculty member at the National Defense University. During these assignments, he regularly interfaced with U.S. interagency partners, National Security staff and foreign governments. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. McNamara served a full career as an officer in the United States Army, including commanding a Special Forces “A” Team in combat, two Special Forces Companies, a Special Forces Battalion, as Executive Officer to the Commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. https://t.co/w99JMKfT9l

Helcim raises $53 million amid shakeup in Canadian payments.

The Calgary-based payments processor announced on Friday that it has raised a $53-million Series C round led by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)’s Growth Venture Fund. Credit union-backed Curql Collective, Los Angeles-based Gold House Ventures, and returning backers Headline, Aquiline, Information Venture Partners, Vesey Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, and Alberta Accelerate Fund also participated. The round valued Helcim, which mainly powers payments for small and medium-sized businesses, at $250 million, up from $97 million as of its Series B round two years ago. The market shift is part of a changing landscape for payments in Canada, as the Big Five banks have gradually sold off their payment processing divisions. Last year, TD sold part of its merchant solutions business to Fiserv, and this month, BMO- and RBC-owned Moneris announced its sale to a US private equity firm. Beique said the Moneris sale and related worries about sovereignty coincided with a boost in inbound calls for Helcim. But it was already growing quickly before then: the company said it crossed $150 million in annual recurring revenue last year. https://tinyurl.com/5cp5vv4a

Peripheral nets US$8.7 million to bring spatial intelligence tech to sports.

Toronto-based AI startup Peripheral Labs announced on Monday that it has secured another US$8.7 million ($12.1 million) in seed funding to accelerate the development and deployment of its spatial intelligence technology for the sports market. The financing was co-led by two new investors, Toronto’s Deloitte Ventures and Montréal-based Inovia Capital, with support from existing backers Khosla Ventures and Entrepreneurs First. It brings Peripheral’s total funding to US$12.5 million ($17.3 million), a figure that includes an initial US$3.6 million seed round from May 2025. https://tinyurl.com/ye2y3dtn

Campus safety platform Legio raises US$5 million from Klass Capital.

Toronto-based startup Legio has raised US$5 million ($7 million) in seed funding to build out its time-saving platform for campus security officers. Legio helps campus security teams manage their dispatch, incident response, casework, and patrols, while making it easier to keep up with reports and other compliance requirements. The AI-native platform helps officers file the right reports for the right incidents, automatically populates relevant information, and notifies any relevant department, if needed. It’s work Legio sees as vital for campus security teams that it says spend about 40 percent of their time on paperwork instead of on patrol. https://tinyurl.com/3cwknfcp

Anthropic expects to match or top SpaceX’s record IPO size.

Anthropic PBC expects to match or beat the size of SpaceX’s record-setting initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest sign of overwhelming demand from investors looking to profit from the artificial intelligence boom. The Claude developer is running the numbers as it prepares to file publicly for its potential mega-IPO as soon as the end of this month, the people said. Recent investor briefings led by Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao skirted the question of valuation, they said. Discussions are ongoing and details of Anthropic’s IPO including the size could change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Anthropic’s target reflects how the AI industry’s leaders are transforming the tech investment landscape. The five-year-old company raised US$65 billion in May at a US$965 billion valuation, surpassing rival OpenAI’s valuation of US$852 billion in March when the ChatGPT maker raised US$122 billion. Though Anthropic saw positive adjusted operating income for the second quarter, it had a net loss of almost US$42 billion in 2025, a roughly fivefold increase from about US$8.3 billion the year before, according to documents seen by Bloomberg News. Demand for AI has been growing at speed, as a sharp increase in Anthropic’s revenue shows. The company saw preliminary second quarter revenue of more than US$11.5 billion, compared to US$787 million in the corresponding period in 2025, and its run rate, a metric that projects full-year revenue from a shorter period, hit US$65 billion by the end of July, Bloomberg News reported. Anthropic is on track to make its public debut ahead of OpenAI, which is now looking at a listing in 2027, Bloomberg News reported. Both companies have filed confidentially for their respective listings. Ahead of its public filing, Anthropic is set to finalize a revolving credit facility that will raise more than its roughly US $10 billion target, people familiar with the matter have said. Anthropic is working with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. on the IPO, and other banks could be added, Bloomberg News has reported. https://tinyurl.com/d44ah4uj

OpenAI’s second-quarter sales show tepid growth compared with Anthropic.

OpenAI told investors its revenue grew by 18% from the first to the second quarter, while its losses deepened, results that disappointed some shareholders who had hoped the startup would show more progress catching up to rival Anthropic. The company said its revenue grew to US$6.7 billion in the three months ended in June, up from US$5.7 billion in the first quarter. Meanwhile, its operating margin sank further into the red, pushing the company farther away from profitability ahead of a much-anticipated initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said. Anthropic more than doubled its revenue to US$11.6 billion in the same period, marking the first time its sales surpassed its older rival. The company also swung to a small operating profit. The two companies’ diverging fortunes show just how drastically the artificial-intelligence race has shifted since the beginning of the year. A slowdown in the growth of ChatGPT, combined with the success of Anthropic’s hit coding tool, Claude Code, has put OpenAI on its back foot, forcing the company to pivot its business and overhaul its leadership team. OpenAI has told investors that its growth rate has picked up since the launch of a set of new models in July, the people said. For many startups, nearly US$7 billion in quarterly revenue would be extraordinary, but the expectations are different for OpenAI. The company has sold investors on a stratospheric pace of growth and signed large computing deals premised on its ability to soon generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue every year. The performance of Nvidia, Oracle, and other tech giants hinges on OpenAI’s ability to make good on its commitments to them. OpenAI’s sequential rate of growth was slower than Palantir over the same period, and also behind other AI highfliers such as CoreWeave and Micron. https://tinyurl.com/2a62c23v

Nvidia, OpenAI and SoftBank finalize deal for massive ohio data center project.

Nvidia, OpenAI and SB Energy confirmed plans to team up on a massive data center in southern Ohio for which Nvidia will provide credit support covering up to US$105 billion and OpenAI will commit to a 20-year lease. The project, at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, Ohio, will exclusively house Nvidia hardware, the companies said in a statement Monday. As part of the deal, Nvidia will invest US$1.5 billion in SB Energy, the SoftBank-backed firm developing the data center and power plant, the statement said, confirming a report Saturday in The Information, which said Nvidia could invest another US$1.5 billion in SB Energy at its upcoming IPO. The PORTS-Pike project will entail 10 gigawatts of new energy but only “8 IT-GW of AI factory capacity,” the companies said, without explaining where the remaining 2 gigawatts would go. OpenAI committed to lease those 8 gigawatts, with Nvidia agreeing to provide unspecified credit support on land, power, and shell buildout for the first phase of 4.25 gigawatts, plus an option to take the remaining 3.75 gigawatts. The Information also previously reported that Nvidia was in talks to provide credit support on around US$100 billion for OpenAI for the first phase of the project. Nvidia said in a filing Monday that its aggregate payment obligation is capped at US$105 billion for its initial commitment and subject to specified conditions. That support is in the form of residual-value guaranties, under which, if OpenAI were to default on its lease, Nvidia would cover the shortfall between the guaranteed minimum value of the lease and amounts recovered through a replacement lease or sale, the filing said. Nvidia may choose to also support the second phase of the buildout, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a blog post Monday. A person involved in the deal said it’s not technically on the hook to do so and has a couple of years to decide. The project—exclusively using Nvidia’s full stack of chips, networking equipment and data center architecture—could represent US$150 billion to US$200 billion in Nvidia revenue per generation of Nvidia hardware, Huang wrote. He added that OpenAI has committed to a total of roughly US$600 billion of Nvidia compute through 2030 in PORTS-Pike and other projects. OpenAI is already one of the largest drivers of demand for Nvidia hardware, and US$600 billion would likely represent a significant share of Nvidia’s revenue going forward. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan advised SB Energy, while Morgan Stanley advised Nvidia. https://tinyurl.com/3axcsjbt

Chinese humanoid maker Unitree shares soar on Shanghai debut.

Shares of Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics soared on the debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday, after raising 6.1 billion yuan (US$905 million) in an initial public offering. The shares surged more than seven times its IPO price before closing 460% up, valuing the company at slightly more than US$60 billion, underscoring Chinese investors’ euphoria in humanoids. Unitree is the first among the new generation of Chinese humanoid makers founded in the generative AI boom to go public. Its strong debut raises expectations for the future listings of other startups such as AgiBot, Galbot and LimX Dynamics. UBTech, another Chinese robot maker founded in 2012 that later also started to make humanoids, is already listed in Hong Kong. https://tinyurl.com/5d4r3aae

Marvell gives Google the right to buy up to US$12.2 billion in stock as part of chip deal.

Marvell Technology granted Google rights to acquire a stake of up to US$12.2 billion as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies. Under the new deal, which sent Marvell shares up 9.9% in Wednesday’s trading, the companies will collaborate on development of a range of semiconductor products related to tensor processing units, Google’s in-house AI chips, Marvell said in a securities filing. That includes storage, networking and memory controllers, inference accelerators and near-memory compute. Google will have the right to buy a total of 58,970,907 of Marvell’s shares at US$206.58 each, or roughly US$12.2 billion if exercised in full. Google has been working with Marvell to diversify its sourcing for custom AI chips beyond Broadcom, its longtime design partner for TPUs. The Information reported in April that Google and Marvell were in talks to develop custom AI chips for Google’s chip infrastructure. Broadcom shares fell 4.6% on Wednesday. Google and other major hyperscalers such as Amazon have spent years developing their own AI chips to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Google has gone from renting TPUs inside its own cloud to selling them for other companies’ data centers. https://tinyurl.com/3z48bj2x

Stripe confirms acquiring AI marketplace startup OpenRouter.

Stripe announced Wednesday that it agreed to acquire OpenRouter, a marketplace that aggregates AI models, seeking to position itself at the center of payments to AI firms. Stripe is paying US$7.5 billion for OpenRouter, of which US$1.5 billion is paid to the startup’s founders and US$6 billion to investors, the New York Times reported, citing one person with knowledge of the deal. Stripe declined to disclose terms. With OpenRouter, “we’ll help businesses maximize profitability by routing their requests intelligently and spending their tokens efficiently,” said Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, in an announcement. OpenRouter was co-founded in 2023 by Alex Atallah, who previously co-founded NFT platform OpenSea. In May, it raised US$113 million in funding at about US$1.3 billion valuation, in a round led by CapitalG, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, and others. https://tinyurl.com/85aa9rtt

Alibaba CEO expects AI-related ARR to reach US$10 billion by September.

Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said on an earnings call Thursday that the company expects the annualized revenue run rate for its AI-related products to reach US$10 billion in the current quarter through September, up from US$7.3 billion in the previous quarter. Alibaba’s revenue in the quarter through June increased 9%, thanks mostly to a 45% growth in its “AI cloud and compute services” business segment, which includes revenue from AI-related products such as AI infrastructure services, model services and applications. Earlier this month, Alibaba launched a workplace AI agent called QwenWork. Wu said that the rising popularity of AI agents is driving demand for AI chips as well as traditional cloud services such as storage, database and networking. Alibaba’s aggressive AI push is also driving up its capital expenditures. The company also operates China’s biggest cloud provider and is trying to meet growing customer demand. Alibaba’s capex in the June quarter surged 75% from a year earlier to nearly US$10 billion. In contrast to the robust growth in AI-related revenue, Alibaba’s revenue from its China e-commerce business—its largest source of revenue—declined 8% in the quarter amid intense competition and continued weakness in domestic consumption. https://tinyurl.com/ykxteauc

Klarna stock plunges 20% on lowered outlook.

Shares of Swedish buy now pay later firm Klarna plunged 20% on Tuesday after the company revised down its projection for full year business, citing weakness in Germany, its biggest market. At the same time, Klarna announced that its longtime finance and marketing chiefs would leave early next year. Klarna said it was now expecting gross merchandise volume—the total amount of dollars that flow through its service—to be US$150 billion, compared with its earlier projection of US$155 billion. Klarna said that it had not changed its assumptions for the U.S., which is Klarna’s fastest-growing large market. As a result, Klarna lowered its projection for full year revenue to US$4.08 billion from US$4.34 billion. The company meanwhile reported 27% higher revenue for the second quarter, based on 18% growth in GMV. Klarna said it earned US$27 million in operating income compared with a loss a year earlier. https://tinyurl.com/3th4kbmw

Walmart’s U.S. sales slowdown sends stock tumbling 9%.

Shares of Walmart fell 9% after the retail giant reported a sharp slowdown in growth of comparable sales at Walmart U.S., even as Walmart’s online sales continued to grow strongly. Overall, Walmart’s revenue grew 5.9% to US$187.9 billion. Walmart said comparable sales at its U.S. business grew just 2.6% in the 13 weeks ended July 31, compared with a 4.1% growth rate in the preceding quarter. Executives blamed weakness in its pharmaceutical business, partly due to federal government price caps on generic drugs. At the same time, executives said sales at Walmart’s physical stores fell, also due to the problems on the pharmaceutical side. Finance chief John Rainey pointed out, however, that the “role of our stores has evolved” as ecommerce sales have grown, implying Walmart is seeing sales shift to ecommerce from the stores. https://tinyurl.com/mtusx6bs

Alibaba’s small, on-device model gains traction.

Alibaba Group said its new small-size AI model that customers can run on their own personal computers has been downloaded more than 1 million times in just a few days since its release, making it one of the company’s fastest-growing models. Alibaba’s new Qwen3.8-27B, a 27 billion-parameter open-source model that understands text, image and video prompts, can be downloaded for free, and users can host it on their own machines instead of paying for cloud-based access to the model through application programming interfaces. By installing special software, users can run the model even on their laptops, Alibaba said. There is strong demand for such models from individuals and startups seeking low-cost options or enterprise customers who prefer to run models locally for privacy concerns. Early reviews suggest that the performance of Qwen3.8-27B, despite being a locally run model, is comparable to some proprietary models that are available through cloud services. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the Alibaba model has the same score as OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna, the cheapest and fastest version of the flagship GPT-5.6. “This is the first time a local model has scored frontier level capability,” U.S. coding agent startup Cline wrote in an X post about Qwen3.8-27B. While trying to capture the market for small models that can run on consumer hardware, Alibaba is also competing with other Chinese AI firms in a fierce battle to develop much larger, more powerful open-source models that challenge the most advanced U.S. models. Alibaba recently released its biggest-ever model, Qwen3.8-Max, which has 2.4 trillion parameters, in direct competition with rival Moonshot AI’s popular Kimi K3 open-source model. https://tinyurl.com/ye2xxsd7

OpenAI integrates ChatGPT into Apple Messages on Mac.

OpenAI has announced an integration with Apple Messages on the Mac that allows ChatGPT to read, search and send messages. Mac users will be able to ask ChatGPT to analyze users’ messages, such as who are their most frequent contacts. The integration is happening in the midst of a tense situation between Apple and OpenAI. Last month, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that former Apple employees that have moved over to OpenAI’s new hardware team brought Apple trade secrets with them. OpenAI has denied any wrongdoing and theft of trade secrets. Apple’s response to the OpenAI integration with Messages is likely to be closely watched. Its Mac platform is much more open than the iPhone, making it potentially difficult for Apple to block an integration using normal channels that other developers are also currently using. https://tinyurl.com/3tjkpm6a

Mac software Beta reveals AirPods with camera.

Apple appeared to inadvertently confirm the existence of a new AirPods product with cameras through an unlikely channel: the beta release of a new Mac operating system. Apple news outlet MacRumors uncovered a short video clip included with the new operating system that shows a man holding a book up to the AirPods so they can identify and record its title. “With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable,” a voiceover says in the clip. The wireless earbuds, first released in 2016, have become a hit product for Apple. The company has steadily released new features, including turning some versions of AirPods into clinical-grade hearing aids. With the camera, the upcoming AirPods will use artificial intelligence to analyze the world around the user. Apple is also working on a wearable pin-like product that will come equipped with multiple cameras, The Information has previously reported. The new camera-enabled AirPods could be coming soon. Apple is holding its annual September event where it launches new hardware, including a new generation of iPhones. Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone at the event. https://tinyurl.com/yf8dcy2j

SEC proposes Crypto regulation for the first time.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday it is proposing new rules for certain crypto assets for the first time, after a landmark crypto legislation, the Clarity Act, ran into delay in Congress. The proposal is focused on fundraising through crypto token offerings. It includes exemption from some registration requirements for offerings up to US$5 million during a four-year period, and offerings of up to US$75 million each year if the issuer provides ongoing financial disclosures. It “seeks to provide crypto asset entrepreneurs and market participants with clear pathways to raise capital under the federal securities laws,” said SEC Chairman Paul Atkins in a statement. The rulemaking, if successful, will represent a more limited win for the industry than a comprehensive legislation, because it could be overturned by regulators under a different administration. https://tinyurl.com/497typ5h

Trump says regulators working to bring Hyperliquid to the U.S.

President Donald Trump said U.S. regulators are working to bring Hyperliquid, a popular offshore venue for perpetual futures, to the U.S. The price of Hyperliquid token jumped 22% after the remark. “I understand that Mike [Selig] is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” said Trump at a White House crypto meeting Wednesday, referring to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig. If Hyperliquid enters the U.S., it will bring a competitor to Coinbase and Kalshi, which recently got approval to offer perpetual futures, which are contracts that allow traders to bet on the price of crypto or other assets with leverage without an expiry date. Hyperliquid, an exchange and blockchain founded by Harvard graduate Jeff Yan in 2023, doesn’t operate a U.S.-regulated exchange and its interface prohibits U.S. users from trading through it. One regulatory pathway would be petitioning regulators to allow U.S.-regulated firms to offer perpetual futures to their clients on markets that trade, clear and settle on Hyperliquid’s public blockchain, Jake Chervinsky, CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center, told The Information in a recent interview. https://tinyurl.com/bdc59bn4