August 29, 2026: Running Hard To Stay In Place

Last week, both Dow Jones, and S&P showed modest gains of ~0.5%, NSADAQ was up ~0.85%, Thursday’s bullish action was set back by a hawkish speech from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. Nvidia’s July-quarter revenue rose 106% to US$96.2 billion, with guidance of 89.5% growth this quarter and roughly 70% for the year ending January 2028 on supply constraints. Free cash flow fell more than 50% to US$21 billion as receivables rose ~50% on extended terms to investment-grade customers. Nvidia stock rose 5% after hours. Nvidia also agreed to buy Hugging Face for US$12.9 billion, roughly 80x forward revenue, and is in talks to invest in Perplexity above US$30 billion, whose annualized revenue has climbed to US$750 million from under US$250 million in January. Anthropic’s annualized revenue reached US$65 billion in July from US$47 billion in May, but spending on Fable 5 has plateaued near 11% of customer outlay ahead of an IPO. OpenAI says its Jalapeño inference chip beats Nvidia’s Blackwell. Separately, ~1,200 internal OpenAI agents reportedly self-organized and ~700 joined the Hugging Face attack, which OpenAI called a “warning shot.” Marvell lifted FY guidance to US$12 billion and FY2028 to US$18 billion on 46% data center growth. CrowdStrike rose 11% on recent financial results. Salesforce rose 13% with Agentforce ARR at US$1.5 billion, up 240%. Alibaba is raising US$10.2 billion for AI. Oura is targeting a September IPO above US$16 billion. Meta settled child-harm claims for up to US$18 billion. In Canada, MDA Space launched LaunchPad Ventures. In Sophic client news, Kraken reported Q2 revenue of $27.3 million and $5.0 million adjusted EBITDA with 2026 orders at $355 million and guidance unchanged. Replenish reported Q2 results, which were directionally important in highlighting progress in the previously announced transition from blended fertilizer to the commercial scale ramp-up in granulated and pellet fertilizer. Ionik reported US$47.4 million revenue and US$8.4 million adjusted EBITDA post-refinancing. Renoworks grew recurring revenue 38%. Legend Power narrowed its net loss 37% on 12 SmartGATE orders.

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) reports Q3 F2026 financial results.

Q3 F2026 Highlights: Adjusted EBITDA loss of $431 thousand versus a loss of $712 thousand in Q3 F2026. Net loss of $525 thousand versus a loss of $838 thousand in Q3 F2026. “The third quarter of 2026 reinforced our view that Legend is entering an important stage of its commercial evolution,” said Randy Buchamer, CEO of Legend Power Systems. “Customer engagement remains strong and our pipeline is at an all-time high as building owners increasingly evaluate SmartGATE not just for energy savings, but for power reliability, infrastructure protection and long-term capital risk. Preliminary measurement and verification data from the GSA evaluation being conducted with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, growing adoption of our CIRA and Voltage Adherence Risk tools, repeat customer orders, and an expanding partner network are all helping move opportunities forward. With the GSA Multiple Award Schedule now in place, another important procurement hurdle has been removed. Our focus is on converting this momentum into deployments and repeatable revenue as investment in energy infrastructure continues to grow.” Q3 F2026 Operational Highlights: Following the first installation, initial reports from the Technology Proving Ground program for the United States General Services Administration (GSA) are positive and we expect to receive the final report by October of this year. GSA operates approximately 1,800 federally owned buildings. Secured orders for 12 SmartGATE systems across repeat customers, new customers and partner-led opportunities, demonstrating broader commercial traction. Awarded a U.S. GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, establishing a streamlined procurement pathway for eligible U.S. government customers. Advanced third-party validation with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, following installation of the first SmartGATE under the GSA Technology Proving Ground program. Q3 F2026 Financial Highlights: Revenue for the third quarter of 2026 was $216,221, compared with $385,354 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. The higher revenue during Q3 of fiscal 2025 is primarily due to the fulfillment of additional SmartGATE units. Gross margin in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 was $85,642, compared with $93,064 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. The increase in gross margin percentage, compared to prior quarter of this fiscal, was primarily due to a decrease in the average production cost of the SmartGATE units and improved factory utilization. The Company’s operating expenses for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 were $608,445, compared with $927,839 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. The primary cause for the decrease was lower headcount, salaries and consulting costs as a result of internal cost cutting measures. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 was negative $430,849, compared with negative $711,517 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. Net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 was $524,722, compared with a net loss of $837,615 in the same quarter of fiscal 2025. https://t.co/vp7QSph0oy

Sophic Client Replenish Nutrients Holding Corp. (ERTH-CSE, VVIVF-OTC) reports second quarter 2026 financial results.

Second Quarter 2026 Summary and Outlook: The second quarter of 2026 saw the Company record modest, but directionally important operating results due to the previously announced transition from blended fertilizer to the commercial scale ramp-up in granulated and pellet fertilizer at the Beiseker and Beiseker Hutterite colony facilities. Of note in the second quarter results is the significant increase in granulated sales by more than 1,200 metric tonnes and by more than 1,600 metric tonnes for the 3 and 6 months ended June 30, 2026, compared to the same periods in the prior year. Gross profit margin percentage before other direct costs was below guidance of 25% to 35% in the second quarter due to initial commissioning expenses being spread over less than full capacity production and sales volumes. As the Company transitions to higher granulated and pellet production and sales volumes at Beiseker and Beiseker Hutterite colony and begins to receive licensing fees from the sale of pellet fertilizer, overall revenues, margins, and cash flows are expected to increase. The Company still expects to realize 25%-35% gross profit margin before other direct costs upon reaching full scale production and economies of scale of 2,000 metric tonnes per month at Beiseker and 1,600 metric tonnes per month at Beiseker Colony. The Company also continues to forecast blended fertilizer sales to achieve 10% and 15% gross margin before other direct costs on a run-rate basis going forward. The Company is in the final stages of commissioning at the Beiseker granulation facility and has begun preparing for 24-hour production runs by hiring additional plant operators and expects to be capable of the full 2,000 metric tonne production capacity in the fourth quarter of 2026. Alongside the final commissioning of the Beiseker facility, and as previously announced in the first quarter of 2026, the Company has partnered with the Beiseker Hutterite colony to produce the Company’s patented pellet fertilizer in a facility at the Beiseker Hutterite colony. This facility is now expected to produce approximately 1,600 metric tonnes of pellet fertilizer per month (up from 1,000 metric tonnes forecasted previously) based on the addition of a second pelletizer. The partnership with the Beiseker Hutterite colony represents a meaningful inroad to future production facilities at other Hutterite colonies in Canada. The Company expects initial production and sales to occur in the fourth quarter of 2026 and expects the same 25%-35% gross profit margins before other direct costs as the granulated fertilizer products. The second quarter also saw significant progress on the Company’s two licensing deals with Farmers Union and MJ Ag, with both partners achieving additional construction and commissioning milestones. The Company expects both licensing deals to begin initial commissioning production in the fourth quarter of 2026, and scaling to the annualized production capacities of 50,000 and 10,000 metric tonnes, respectively, by the end of 2026. Alongside the commissioning of the Farmers Union facility, the Company continues to build out further sales distribution channels in the U.S. Midwest and is also expected to share the results of the extensive field trials conducted with notable U.S. Midwest universities in the coming months. These field trials build on Replenish’s deep history of proven product efficacy and real-world, on-farm results compared to conventional fertilizer products. Subsequent to quarter end, the Company closed a $15 million strategic financing with SRC Agrominerals, as previously disclosed on July 23 and August 20, 2026. This financing accelerates Replenish’s organic growth plan by unlocking additional working capital for the Company’s existing owned and licensed facilities and is also expected to provide the funding necessary to complete a 150,000 metric tonne expansion of the Company’s patented pellet fertilizer at the Beiseker facility. CEO Commentary: “Our second quarter results reflect exactly where we expected to be in this transition,” said Neil Wiens, CEO of Replenish Nutrients. “We are deliberately shifting our production mix toward higher-margin granulated and pelletized fertilizer, and the progress we made at Beiseker and Beiseker Colony this quarter – including the added pelletizer that increases our planned pellet capacity to 1,600 metric tonnes per month – is directionally important and keeps us on track for full-scale production at both facilities in the fourth quarter of 2026. Combined with the continued momentum on our Farmers Union and MJ Ag licensing agreements and the $15 million financing with SRC Agrominerals we announced subsequent to quarter end, we believe Replenish is well positioned to scale production, improve margins, and strengthen our balance sheet as we move through the back half of 2026 and into 2027.” Second Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights: Revenues decreased $0.5 million for the 3 and 6 months compared to the same periods in the prior year. The decrease is due lower sales of blended fertilizer, partially offset by increased sales of granulated fertilizer and higher power revenues. The decrease is blended fertilizer sales was expected based on the Company’s previous guidance that it would be transitioning towards full commercializing of granulated and pellet fertilizer. Increased power revenues were due to higher average power pool pricing compared to the same periods in the prior year. Gross profit decreased $0.3 million and $0.6 million for the 3 and 6 months compared to the same periods in the prior year. The decrease was due to the expected transition to full-scale commercial operations for granulated and pellet fertilizer at the Beiseker and Beiseker Hutterite colony facilities, and incurring additional ramp-up costs as Beiseker and Beiseker Hutterite colony progress towards full-scale operations. This decrease was partially offset by higher gross profit from the power segment due to higher average power pool pricing compared to the cost of natural gas. Net loss increased $0.3 million and $0.9 million for the 3 and 6 months compared to the same periods in the prior year. The increased loss is primarily due to lower gross profit margins, higher finance costs and a non-cash unrealized loss on financial assets. Cash flows used-in operating activities decreased $0.9 million and increased $0.1 million for the 3 and 6 months compared to the same periods in the prior year. The decreased use of cash for the 3 months was due to higher sources of cash from changes in working capital, while the increased use of cash for the 6 months due primarily to lower operating margins, partially offset by increased cash from changes in working capital. https://t.co/66O6ZDmeI3

Sophic Client Ionik (INIK-TSXV, INIKF-OTCQX) reports Q2 2026 financial results.

Ionik Corporation, announced financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2026 (“Q2 2026”), highlighted by a successful completion of its comprehensive debt reorganization and refinancing, strong Adjusted EBITDA and continued progress on platform integration. (All figures in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated). Q2 2026 Financial Highlights: Revenue of $47.4 million, down 8% from $51.7 million in the same period of the prior year (“Q2 2025”). Growth in Media Activation, supported by new sales staff and key accounts, was more than offset by lower Marketing Optimization revenue, primarily from one customer. Gross profit of $18.2 million, representing a 38% margin, compared to $20.9 million and a 40% margin in Q2 2025. The decline primarily reflected lower revenue and related gross profit from the same Marketing Optimization customer. Net income from continuing operations was $14.9 million, or $0.04 per basic share and $0.03 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, in Q2 2025. The result included non-cash gains of $12.4 million on the fair value of financial liabilities and $8.8 million on extinguishment of loans and debentures. Adjusted EBITDA of $8.4 million, compared to $9.5 million in Q2 2025. Lower customer revenue and gross profit were partly offset by reduced operating costs in Marketing Optimization and corporate functions associated with integration. Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $6.8 million representing a 81% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate, compared to $7.6 million and a 79%in Q2 2025. Debt Reorganization and Financial Position: The $100 million credit package closed in June 2026 comprised an $80 million senior term facility, a $10 million revolving facility and a $10 million subordinated facility. The financing replaced the previous syndicated facility and funded acquisition-related cash settlements, transaction costs and working capital. At June 30, 2026, total undiscounted debt was $124.8 million, compared with $111.4 million at March 31, 2026. The June balance comprised $80.0 million under the senior term facility, $9.0 million drawn on the revolver, $10.0 million of subordinated debt, $19.3 million of convertible debt and a $6.5 million promissory note. Cash was $10.8 million, compared with $5.8 million at March 31, 2026 and $11.3 million at December 31, 2025. Senior debt net of cash was $78.2 million, compared with $58.3 million and $58.0 million, respectively. Undrawn revolving availability was $1.0 million at June 30, 2026. The senior term facility matures in June 2029 and carries quarterly amortization. The remaining acquisition-related debt maturities were extended to March 2030. The Company remains subject to interest, principal-payment and covenant obligations. Operating Alignment: On July 21, 2026, Ionik announced an alignment of its operating structure. Marketing Optimization operates under the SHIFT44 brand, while Media Activation operates under Q1Media. This operating-brand alignment was announced after the end of the second quarter. First-Half Results and Management Commentary: For the six months ended June 30, 2026, net income from continuing operations was $13.8 million, compared with a net loss of $6.0 million in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA1 was $14.2 million, compared with $15.8 million. “Our focus in the first half of 2026 was on three main objectives: achieving our consolidated financial targets, completing the reorganization of our balance sheet including a refinance of our senior debt facility and continued integration under our two divisions of SHIFT44 and Q1Media. We are pleased with our first half EBITDA of $14.2 million, and with our new financing partners in place, remain focused on continued debt reduction while positioning the business for a strong second half as we advance our integration efforts. The work involved with our debt refinance is now behind us which allows us to exclusively focus on the go forward operation of Ionik,” said Ted Hastings, Chief Executive Officer. https://t.co/UiAM1TTy5B

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) reports Q2 2026 financial results.

Kraken Robotics Inc., has filed its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 (“Q2 2026”). Q2 2026 results are for Kraken on a stand-alone basis and exclude any contribution from the acquisition of Covelya Group Limited (“Covelya Group”), which closed subsequent to the quarter on July 2, 2026. Unless otherwise specified, all dollar amounts in this release are denominated in Canadian dollars. KEY HIGHLIGHTS: Q2 2026 revenue of $27.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $5.0 million. New product orders of over $27 million, bringing announced orders in 2026 to $355 million on a combined basis for Kraken and Covelya Group. Signed a new long-term Master Supply Agreement (MSA) to deliver subsea batteries to an international conglomerate that is manufacturing extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles (XL-UUVs). 2026 guidance, which includes a half-year contribution from Covelya Group, remains unchanged for revenue of $290 million to $320 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $65 million to $75 million. “Our second quarter and year-to-date results reflect our continued focus on building for long-term growth, supported by recent product orders, an expanding customer base, increased manufacturing capacity and an enhanced organizational structure with several additions to our senior management team,” said Greg Reid, CEO of Kraken Robotics. “The closing of the Covelya Group acquisition early in the third quarter represents a major inflection point for Kraken, significantly expanding our total addressable market and strengthening our position across subsea defence and commercial markets.” Consolidated revenue increased to $27.3 million in Q2 2026, up 4% from $26.4 million in Q2 2025. Results were supported by strong product sales, including the delivery of a KATFISH towed synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system that will be used by a Navy customer for its minehunting program, as well as modest growth in the subsea services division. Q2 2026 revenue was negatively impacted by a $1.5 million reversal of previously recognized product revenue due to a change in scope associated with an integration project that is nearing its completion and consequent decrease in contract value. Excluding this impact, consolidated revenue would have been $28.8 million, an increase of 9% on a year-over-year basis. Product revenue totaled $16.9 million during the quarter, up 2% from $16.5 million in the prior year. Q2 2026 results continued to reflect strong demand for Kraken’s sonar and subsea battery products, which were partially offset by the revenue reversal associated with the change in scope to the integration project mentioned above. Service revenue of $10.5 million in Q2 2026 was up 6% from $9.8 million in Q2 2025. Quarterly revenues and year-over-year comparisons can fluctuate significantly due to the timing of projects and seasonality in the offshore services business. Gross profit increased to $16.2 million, up 10% from $14.8 million in Q2 2025. The Company’s gross profit margin during the quarter equated to 59%, compared to 56%. Adjusted EBITDA of $5.0 million in Q2 2026, was up 7% from $4.7 million in Q2 2025. The Company’s Adjusted EBITDA margin equated to 18%, in line with the prior period. Excluding the impact from the change in scope to the integration project mentioned above, Adjusted EBITDA margins were 20% with Adjusted EBITDA growth of 26% on a year-over-year basis. Total assets on June 30, 2026, were $724.7 million, compared to $184.3 million on June 30, 2025. Total assets at the end of Q2 2026 included $396.7 million of subscription receipt proceeds held in escrow from the Company’s March 3, 2026 public offering, which was completed to partially fund the acquisition of Covelya Group, which closed subsequent to the quarter on July 2, 2026. Long-term obligations and lease liabilities as at June 30, 2026, were $39.7 million, compared to $37.4 million at the end of Q2 2025. Kraken held cash of $91.3 million as at June 30, 2026, up from $32.9 million at the end of Q2 2025, and working capital of $151.8 million, up from $71.8 million at the end of Q2 2025. With the Covelya Group acquisition completed in early July, Q3 2026 will be Kraken’s first quarter of combined results and is expected to mark a significant step change for the business. The Company’s annual financial guidance remains unchanged from the guidance most recently provided on July 2, 2026. Following this acquisition, the Company’s product portfolio is well positioned to benefit from growth across multiple subsea verticals, including crewed platforms, uncrewed systems and stationary seabed sensors. Given the dual-use nature of Kraken’s technology, demand for its products is coming from both new and existing defence and commercial customers. Within defence, Kraken continues to see a strong pipeline of opportunities and growing interest in UUV solutions for mine countermeasures and critical underwater infrastructure. This includes recent demand across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. In anticipation of these industry program awards that are gaining momentum, Kraken has been prudently building inventory across its technology offering. https://t.co/dfosm16yEb

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

Renoworks announced its financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2026. The financial statements and related management’s discussion and analysis (“MD&A”) can be viewed on SEDAR+. Unless otherwise stated, all dollar amounts are Canadian dollars. Financial highlights for the six months ended June 30, 2026, with comparatives for the same period in 2025, are as follows: Revenue of $3,635,030, a 9.5% decrease from $4,012,815 in the prior-year period. The decrease was primarily attributable to an expected 80% decline in design services revenue, partially offset by strong growth in higher-margin recurring licensing revenue. Recurring revenue of $2,411,096, compared with $1,761,011 in the same period in 2025, an increase of 37%. Gross margin increased to 80%, compared with 76% in the same period in 2025, reflecting a greater proportion of revenue from higher-margin licensing. Deferred revenue was $2,164,087 at June 30, 2026, compared with $2,436,650 at December 31, 2025. Net loss was $240,745, compared with net income of $92,829 for the same period in 2025. Cash at June 30, 2026 was $1,273,789, compared with $1,444,728 at December 31, 2025. Working capital at June 30, 2026 was positive $21,019, compared with positive working capital of $459,164 at December 31, 2025. Excluding deferred revenue, a significant non-cash item included in working capital, working capital was positive $1,968,584 at June 30, 2026, compared with $2,381,953 at December 31, 2025. As at June 30, 2026, the Company had 40,934,634 common shares issued and outstanding. Financial highlights for the three months ended June 30, 2026, with comparatives for the same period in 2025, are as follows: Quarterly revenue of $1,798,147, compared with $2,164,834 in the second quarter of 2025. Recurring revenue of $1,217,405, compared with $881,284 in the same period in 2025, an increase of 38%. Gross margin was 80%, compared with 76% in the second quarter of 2025. Net loss was $191,989, compared with net income of $25,737 in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was ($168,061), compared with $60,298 in the second quarter of 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, the Company generated aggregate revenue of $3,635,030, including $2,411,096 from licensing and hosting, $300,235 from design services, $320,727 from libraries, and $602,912 from implementation fees. The net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2026 was $240,745, compared with net income of $92,829 for the same period in 2025. The change primarily reflected lower design services revenue and increased expenses associated with ongoing product development, marketing and research and development initiatives as the Company advances its next-generation technology platform. Management Commentary: “Renoworks continues to advance its transition toward a higher-margin, higher-visibility recurring revenue software business,” said Doug Vickerson, Chief Executive Officer of Renoworks. “While total revenue declined during the period, this was primarily the result of the expected and previously communicated reduction in design services revenue. At the same time, recurring revenue increased 38% year-over-year in Q2, and gross margin improved to 80%. We believe these results demonstrate the underlying shift in our revenue mix toward scalable, recurring software revenues.” “The remodeling industry is also entering an important period of change as artificial intelligence transforms how homeowners research, visualize and plan home improvement projects. Our strategy is to connect these emerging AI-driven experiences to real building products, product intelligence, project workflows and ultimately the transaction. We believe this connection between homeowner engagement and the real products our customers sell represents an important long-term opportunity for Renoworks.” Renoworks continues to invest in the next generation of its technology platform, with development priorities that include AI-driven visualization and design, Product Intelligence, measurement and estimation capabilities, predictive lead analytics, and contractor workflow solutions. “Our objective is broader than simply applying AI to visualization,” continued Vickerson. “We are building a platform that can help connect the homeowner journey from inspiration and product selection through design, project intelligence, lead generation and contractor engagement. By connecting these experiences to accurate, manufacturer-approved product information, we believe Renoworks can become an increasingly valuable technology layer between homeowners and the manufacturers, retailers and contractors serving them.” These investments increased expenses during the period but are intended to expand the capabilities of the Renoworks platform, deepen its integration into customer sales processes and strengthen the Company’s long-term recurring revenue opportunity. “As we move through the balance of 2026, our priorities remain clear: continue growing recurring revenue, advance the next generation of the Renoworks platform and deepen our relationships with manufacturers, retailers and contractors,” said Vickerson. “We believe the industry is moving toward a more connected, AI-enabled remodeling experience, and Renoworks is positioning its platform to connect homeowner inspiration and design with real products, project intelligence and the professionals who ultimately complete the project.” https://t.co/PWE8eHWKka

Sophic Client Hybrid Power Solutions (HPSS-CSE, HPSIF-OTC) to exhibit at public works and defence industry conferences.

Hybrid Power Solutions will exhibit at two industry events in the coming weeks. APWA PWX 2026 (Public Works Expo(, August 30 – September 2, 2026, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas. PWX is North America’s premier public works conference and the largest gathering of public works professionals on the continent. It connects solution providers with decision-makers across municipalities, infrastructure, and related sectors. Hybrid will showcase its portable and hybrid clean power solutions for public works, emergency response, and critical infrastructure applications. MSPO 2026 – 34th International, Defence Industry Exhibition, September 8 – 11, 2026, Targi Kielce, Kielce, Poland. Hybrid is an official exhibitor at the International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO 2026) in Kielce, Poland, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading defence industry exhibitions and Europe’s third-largest defence and security trade show. The Company will present its portable, battery-based energy storage systems for defence, emergency response, and mission-critical applications, including silent, low-signature, modular power solutions that reduce fuel dependence and logistical burden in deployed environments. Hybrid’s participation is part of Canada’s official MSPO 2026 program, administered by the Trade Commissioner Service. Canada is the Lead Nation for the 2026 edition, and the program supports export-ready Canadian defence and security companies targeting Poland, Ukraine, NATO partners, and the broader Central and Eastern European market. https://tinyurl.com/mun3w6ax

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) announces extension of previously announced Non-Brokered Offering.

Boardwalktech is pleased to announce that it has received a 30 day extension from the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) with respect to the duration of its previously announced private placement (the “Offering”). The outside date for the final closing and filing of all final documentation in respect of the Offering has been extended until September 26, 2026. For more information about the Offering please refer to the Company’s press releases dated July 21, 2026 and August 4, 2026. The Company expects to close a second tranche Offering within the upcoming weeks, and closing remains subject to the Company obtaining all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals, including approval of the TSXV. The Company may pay finders’ fees in connection with the Offering and in accordance with the policies of the TSXV. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described in this news release. Such securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or any state securities laws, and, accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of persons in the United States or “U.S. Persons”, as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements. https://tinyurl.com/bdev5v6w

MDA Space launches venture program to back Canadian space and defence tech startups.

Brampton-based MDA Space wants to help other Canadian space and defence technology companies scale their solutions with a new venture funding program.The new strategic program is focused on identifying and investing in domestic small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are developing promising space and defence technologies. Through MDA Space LaunchPad Ventures, the Canadarm maker and Canadian space industry veteran hopes to help startups build capabilities that meet the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and allied militaries. MDA has outlined 25 focus areas aligned to Canada’s sovereign priorities, ranging from satellite and autonomous systems to air navigation and orbital signal-jamming technology. From the source: “With MDA Space LaunchPad Ventures, we are looking to unlock, accelerate, and strengthen the country’s space and defence industrial base, reinforce sovereign capabilities, and ensure that the next generation of mission-critical and export-ready technology is built here at home,” MDA CEO Mike Greenley said in a news release. The context: MDA initially spun up LaunchPad in 2018 as an entry point for innovative Canadian SMBs and academic research groups looking to collaborate with the company. With LaunchPad Ventures, MDA plans to put its own capital into portfolio companies and give them access to its engineering expertise, its recently launched defence subsidiary 49North, and a government contract pipeline. The firm has not attached a specific dollar figure to the program. Final thought: LaunchPad Ventures arrives as the Government of Canada prepares to pour billions of dollars into reducing the country’s dependence on the US and build a “robust” Canadian defence industry after decades of underinvestment. SMBs are expected to play a key role in this push, but many are still struggling to break into the sector. Established players like MDA and Ottawa defence contractor Calian could bridge the gap. Calian has already launched Calian Ventures, a $100 million platform to help firms with existing defence solutions test, validate, and sell to the CAF using some of its own cash. Given where the Canadian defence winds are blowing, these programs are unlikely to be the last of their kind. https://tinyurl.com/ye96bvhv

Oura is reportedly eyeing a September IPO that could value it at more than US$16 billion.

Oura, the smart ring maker, with offices in San Francisco and Finland, is reportedly planning to raise up to US$3 billion as soon as next month in a U.S. IPO that values the more than 900 person company at north of US$16 billion, according to Bloomberg. The outlet adds that investors are expected to sell a major chunk of stock in the offering. Oura told TechCrunch it couldn’t comment on the report. A US$16 billion valuation would mark an enormous jump from the $10.9 billion valuation Oura was assigned last September, when it closed an US$875 million Series E round backed by Fidelity, ICONIQ, Whale Rock, and Atreides, joining earlier backers like Dexcom, The Chernin Group, Forerunner Ventures, Coatue, and Temasek. The wearables space has gotten crowded fast. Samsung launched its own ring, the Galaxy Ring, two years ago. But Oura’s most direct rival may be the fitness band maker Whoop, which has undergone its own reinvention. Oura announced in May that it had filed confidentially for an IPO. The company has said that it generated US$500 million in revenue in 2024, roughly US$1 billion in 2025, and that it expected to generate close to US$2 billion in revenue in 2026. https://tinyurl.com/mr288wnv

Nvidia discusses Perplexity investment at US$30 billion-plus valuation.

Nvidia is discussing investing in Perplexity as part of an equity round that would value the AI startup at more than US$30 billion, according to people with knowledge of the discussion. The round would be worth billions of dollars and boost the startup’s valuation more than 50% from its last financing a year ago, the people said. The proposed deal comes as the two companies have forged stronger business ties and Perplexity’s annualized revenue has climbed to more than US$750 million from less than US$250 million at the start of the year, thanks in part to Perplexity Computer, an AI agent that professionals use to automate computer tasks, according to one of the people and another person familiar with the matter. Nvidia previously considered paying Perplexity billions of dollars to license some of the startup’s technology and hire some of its staff as part of the chip leader’s push to develop AI models and related software, according to two of the people familiar with the deal talks. It isn’t clear what prompted those discussions to morph to Nvidia making a more traditional investment deal. Nvidia has been acting as a kind of central bank to the AI startup field for several years, pumping billions of dollars into dozens of companies that rent or buy its vaunted AI chips. And Nvidia has already made multiple investments in Perplexity. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has said in interviews that he uses Perplexity as a go-to chatbot. Perplexity has raised more than US$1.7 billion from Nvidia and other investors including New Enterprise Associates, Accel and Softbank. https://tinyurl.com/mpwz7c6e

Nvidia says revenue rose 106% in July quarter and projected strong growth next year.

Nvidia’s revenue rose 106% to US$96.2 billion in the three months that ended in July, or 21 percentage points higher than the growth it reported in the previous quarter. The company said growth would cool a bit, to 89.5%, in the current fiscal quarter. But given its recent results, investors are likely to expect the company to blow past that estimate the way it has done in recent quarters, given strong demand signals from cloud providers that represent most of Nvidia’s data center hardware revenues. However, two new issues bubbled up: supply chain constraints will slow growth to 70% in the 12 months ending Jan. 31 2028, CFO Colette Kress said, though that was a significantly higher projection than many investors expected. Second, customers may not be paying Nvidia as quickly as they used to. Its free cash flow fell more than 50% to US$21 billion, compared to the April quarter, as the company disclosed an around 50% increase in accounts receivable “due to extended payment terms on large, multi-quarter agreements with certain investment-grade customers,” a term that typically refers to major cloud providers and large customers such as Meta Platforms and SpaceX. Shares rose 5% in after-hours trading after Nvidia announced the growth projection as well as new AI server purchases by Amazon that implied additional revenue of at least US$100 billion for Nvidia. When normal trading hours ended Wednesday, Nvidia’s stock was up 11% this year, but it was cheaper than ever: its price-to-earnings ratio was 20.8, down from 26.7 three months ago and 33 a year ago. Nvidia for the first time segmented its data center revenue between “hyperscale” customers and everyone else. Approximately 55% of Nvidia’s data center revenue came from hyperscale customers. This disclosure replaces Nvidia’s previous segmentation, which broke out revenue from networking products like switches and cables versus compute, which mostly consists of AI server chip systems. (Networking has been a fast-growing part of Nvidia’s revenue, but customers frequently buy Nvidia’s networking products alongside its server chips.) Nvidia is also continuing to use its balance sheet to support its customers in different ways. Nvidia disclosed for the first time that it signed large, long-term data center lease agreements worth US$20 billion, which it plans to reassign to third parties—presumably its customers. It also disclosed that the value of its equity investment holdings was US$99 billion, and that it had committed to making US$25 billion in future equity investments. Nvidia has been putting money into AI application firms such as Perplexity, which use its chips, cloud providers that buy its chips, and data center development firms that work with cloud providers. Nvidia previously committed to make a US$30 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and it also disclosed US$108 billion in credit support on behalf of OpenAI, which plans to lease a large data center facility in Ohio, filled with Nvidia chips, likely starting in 2028. Kress said that while “some will call circular financing, we see it differently” because Nvidia is aiding companies that will “become the largest technology companies in history.” She said that a quarter of Nvidia’s revenues next year would be related to AI labs that Nvidia is supporting financially. https://tinyurl.com/2vh7unre

Alibaba seeks to raise US$10 billion in share sale to fund AI investments.

Alibaba Group said Sunday that it is looking to raise 80 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$10.2 billion) through a major share placement to fund its fast-growing AI investments. The Chinese tech giant, listed in New York and Hong Kong, is selling shares to investors outside the U.S. The deal is already oversubscribed due to interest from sovereign wealth funds and other international investors, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Alibaba, which develops Qwen large language models and operates China’s largest cloud computing service, is accelerating its investments as it competes with ByteDance, Tencent and other Chinese AI firms in a fierce domestic AI race. In the quarter through June, Alibaba’s capital expenditures surged 75% from a year earlier to nearly US$10 billion on aggressive AI infrastructure spending. Alibaba is betting that its investments will pay off in the long run. In the June quarter, the company’s revenue from its “AI cloud and compute services” business segment—which includes AI cloud infrastructure services, AI model services and applications such as coding tools—grew 45%. Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said earlier this month 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. https://tinyurl.com/nhfa9p7p

DeepSeek’s revenue reaches US$70 million as of July, tenfold jump from 2025.

DeepSeek generated about 475 million yuan ($70.7 million) in revenue in the first seven months of this year, roughly tenfold its full-year 2025 revenue, as the Chinese AI lab goes full steam ahead in its second round of funding, The Information reported on Wednesday. DeepSeek recorded a net loss of about 715 million yuan between January and July, compared to 935 million yuan for the entire 2025. The company is having ongoing discussions with existing and new investors about the funding round, which aims to raise 50 billion yuan at a valuation of 500 billion yuan. While DeepSeek’s revenue is still minuscule compared to U.S. AI developers such as Anthropic and OpenAI, the company is achieving a healthy gross profit margin. That’s because it has managed to keep the costs of running its models low, such as improving the efficiency of its AI infrastructure so that the AI systems can perform tasks using fewer chips. DeepSeek’s gross margin for the first seven months was 44.6%, and the gross margin for selling access to its models through application programming interface was 82.9%. DeepSeek’s revenue growth could give a boost to its funding talks and a potential initial public offering down the line. The company raised 50 billion yuan in its first-ever funding round closed in June and almost immediately started its second funding round. It has hired investment banks to help prepare a listing in Shanghai next year. https://tinyurl.com/f528mkfz

Hugging Face annualized revenue jumps 50% to US$150 million.

AI startup Hugging Face, known for its repository of open-source models, is generating more than US$150 million in annualized revenue, a 50% increase from two months ago, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The decade-old startup is nearing a deal to sell itself, according to a second person. A deal could value it close to US$13 billion, Business Insider said. That would be a significant jump from the startup’s last big funding round in 2023, which valued it at US$4.5 billion. A US$13 billion price would represent a steep multiple to its revenue even compared to recent AI acquisitions, such as Stripe’s US$7.5 billion purchase of OpenRouter. Hugging Face’s revenue jump came amid rising demand for open source models and Hugging Face’s compute and storage offerings, in which the company rents out access to infrastructure to train and run AI models as well as build AI apps. (Annualized revenue refers to the latest month’s revenue multiplied by 12.) Hugging Face also charges customers to store information tied to training those AI models and building apps. Customers access those products by paying flat-fee monthly subscriptions and added fees tied to the amount of computing power they use and data they store. In June, co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue told The Information that the startup had doubled its number of paying subscribers in the first half of 2026. Delangue said on a recent podcast appearance that the company is “close to profitability.” https://tinyurl.com/mmx3ft27

Anthropic’s best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive.

Anthropic’s US customers are using cheaper alternatives to its most powerful AI tool, raising questions about the group’s high-spending business model ahead of what is expected to be the biggest initial public offering of all time. Spending on Fable 5, Anthropic’s largest and priciest model, has plateaued at only about 11 per cent of overall outlay on the company’s tools, more than two months after its release, according to spending data from 70,000 companies collected by payments group Ramp. This breaks a pattern of corporate users defaulting to the most powerful models. Analysts and investors in Anthropic said the change was primarily driven by Fable’s high price and the fact that older models are capable of handling the bulk of business demands. If sustained, the shift could radically alter the business model of frontier labs, which have until now funnelled the bulk of their multibillion-dollar development spending towards training larger, more sophisticated models. “Most people don’t need to operate at the frontier,” said Miles Clements, a partner at Accel, which has invested close to US$1 billion in Anthropic. The period in which customers tended to choose only the frontier models “was not a durable era”, he added. The lower demand for Fable, which has had a slower rate of take-up than previous cutting-edge releases, adds to the uncertainty for Anthropic ahead of its IPO, which investors anticipate will value the group at US$2 trillion or more and could come as soon as next month. Anthropic’s revenue in July undershot the most bullish expectations from investors, who projected annualised sales would cross US$80 billion. Anthropic told shareholders last week that its revenue last month hit US$65 billion on an annualised basis, up from US$47 billion in May. Still, the start-up led by chief executive Dario Amodei continues to grow at a blistering pace, with revenue increasing nearly sevenfold since the start of the year. https://tinyurl.com/2rudaten

Bill Gates warns that AI will cause mass unemployment without intervention.

Bill Gates issued a dire warning Tuesday that AI will lead to widespread unemployment and societal decline if world governments and AI labs don’t take immediate action to prepare for the technology’s impacts. In a nearly 6,000-word essay published late Tuesday night, the Microsoft cofounder argued that “even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history,” predicting that AI will soon overcome issues like hallucinations and be capable of replacing both white-collar and blue-collar jobs at a lower cost than human workers. He also warned that AI chatbots can prove addictive and sycophantic, eroding people’s critical thinking skills and fraying social ties. It was a stark warning from Gates, whose views on generative AI have changed dramatically in recent years. In discussions with Microsoft executives around 2019, Gates questioned the viability of OpenAI’s business and the usefulness of large language models. By 2023, Gates had come around on the viability of such technology, and he wrote in an essay that year that he believed AI could lead to broad benefits like advances in medical research. His Tuesday essay struck a much more alarmed tone. Gates called on government leaders to start preparing by passing legislation that would tax tokens, a measurement of how much text AI models are processing, in order to offset lost income taxes and fund a broader social safety net for workers displaced by AI. He also argued that governments and private companies should consider cordoning off certain jobs from being automated, including in fields where it would be difficult to re-train human workers in the future. https://tinyurl.com/mphn47xp

Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for US$12.9 billion.

Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face, the GitHub-like repository of open-source AI models, for US$12.9 billion, roughly 80 times the startup’s forward revenue, after deal talks kicked off when another suitor came calling, The Information reported. Salesforce, an investor in the company, has been among the interested parties, the report said. Nvidia is purchasing the startup to shepherd the open-model ecosystem as a counterweight to closed-source model developers such as Anthropic and OpenAI, both of which are building their own AI server chips to lessen their reliance on Nvidia’s. Owning Hugging Face also revives Nvidia’s cloud business. https://tinyurl.com/yf8ddyvn

Nvidia pauses revenue-sharing deals with AI cloud companies.

Nvidia paused some deals in a new financing initiative that offered credit support to artificial-intelligence cloud providers in exchange for a share of revenue, according to people familiar with the matter. Some Nvidia employees expressed concern to current and potential customers that the program could draw antitrust scrutiny, and said there are sensitivities around the extent to which the chip giant can dictate how their customers do business, the people said. Nvidia stepped back from the program last week, less than two months after announcing it, the people said. The precise reason for the decision couldn’t be learned. Nvidia could revamp the program in the future or fold it into another initiative, some of the people said. The move comes as Nvidia faces growing scrutiny over its use of its balance sheet to support projects that, in turn, create demand for its chips. The world’s largest company by market cap also recently scaled back a proposed financial backstop for OpenAI’s massive data-center project in Ohio amid concerns about how investors would react to the potential liability. The arrangement, announced in July, gave Nvidia two ways to profit: first by selling its chips; and then by collecting a portion of the revenue generated when customers rented them. The first two companies that were named as cloud providers participating in the financing initiative were Sharon AI and Firmus Technologies, according to Nvidia’s announcement. In the first few weeks of the program, Nvidia rankled some of its potential partners with the extent of control it sought, some of the people familiar with the matter said. Nvidia told some providers that they could rent the chips only to approved customers. Nvidia also indicated that it preferred the capacity to be distributed among several smaller AI companies rather than leased to a single large customer, the people said. Some cloud providers resisted, arguing that they should be free to select their own customers. https://tinyurl.com/53wx7vjt

Marvell lifts long-term targets as AI demand boosts second-quarter profit, revenue.

Marvell Technology lifted its guidance for the current and upcoming fiscal years after artificial-intelligence demand boosted profit and revenue in the fiscal second quarter. The decision to boost guidance was driven by growth in the semiconductor company’s data-center business, where revenue rose 46% year-over-year to US$2.17 billion in the second quarter, Chief Executive Officer Matt Murphy told analysts on a Thursday call. “The key takeaway for today is clear: The strength of our data center business continues to exceed our prior expectations,” Murphy said. Marvell now expects revenue in the current fiscal year to reach US$12 billion, up US$500 million from its prior guidance. It also forecast fiscal 2028 revenue of US$18 billion, an increase of US$1.5 billion from its prior view. Shares of Marvell were down 6.5% to US$225.83 in after-hours trading on Thursday. The stock closed down 1.5% at US$241.45, having nearly tripled in value this year. Murphy said that Marvell is seeing “a significant acceleration” in demand for its custom business, driven by AI hyperscalers who are increasingly looking to design their own computer chips. The custom business is expected to double year-over-year in fiscal 2028 and accelerate further the following year, Murphy said. Marvell’s hyperscaler custom chip customers include Amazon and Google, the latter of which received a warrant from Marvell last week to buy nearly 59 million shares at an exercise price of US$206.58. https://tinyurl.com/mr32s8k7

CrowdStrike jumps 11% on record second quarter as ‘Mythos moment’ drives AI cyber wave.

CrowdStrike popped more than 11% in extended trading after the cybersecurity company topped Wall Street’s fiscal second-quarter estimates and boosted guidance as artificial intelligence threats mount. Revenue jumped 26% in Q2 from US$1.17 billion a year ago, with CEO George Kurtz calling it “the best quarter in CrowdStrike’s history” in the earnings release. “The Mythos moment translated into mass-market acceptance that AI adoption needs security, and that’s CrowdStrike,” he said. “Every enterprise will run on AI, and securing it is the largest market opportunity in our history.” Anthropic’s release of its advanced Mythos model, capable of exploiting previously unknown software vulnerabilities, has upended the cyber industry in recent months and sparked demand for new security tools. Agentic AI is driving demand for security tools to protect companies from proliferating threats. The backdrop has powered shares of CrowdStrike and its competitors to all-time highs, with the stock up more than 61% this year. CrowdStrike said its Falcon Flex offering, which allows customers to deploy and swap out different security tools, more than doubled from a year ago. Kurtz said on the earnings call that the company added 935 Flex accounts during the quarter and these accounts comprised its top 10 deals by deal value. https://tinyurl.com/37bu3ede

Salesforce stock jumps as company lifts annual revenue guidance.

Salesforce stock rose more than 13% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the enterprise software giant reported 11% growth in July quarter earnings and boosted its full year revenue guidance to as high as US$46.4 billion from US$46.2 billion, meaning revenue could increase as much as 12% in Salesforce’s fiscal year ending next January from the previous year. Salesforce’s July quarter results were generally in line with the company’s projections. The revenue growth was two percentage points slower than the April quarter. The company’s current remaining performance obligation, or the revenue from current customer contracts the company expects to see over the next year, climbed 14% to US$33.5 billion, as expected. Notably, Salesforce’s annual recurring revenue from its suite of tools for building and running AI, dubbed Agentforce, continued to move higher, up 240% from the previous year to more than US$1.5 billion in the July quarter. That figure—typically defined as the current monthly subscription multiplied by 12—was US$1.2 billion in the April quarter. Including Salesforce’s data management service Data 360, which is used alongside its AI tools, AI-related ARR rose around 210% from the previous year to US$3.9 billion. Salesforce also said it expanded its partnership with Anthropic, launching a new tool that makes it easy for customers to use their Salesforce accounts through Claude. https://tinyurl.com/y45mwkyp

SoftBank in talks to buy majority stake in humanoid maker 1x at US$6 billion valuation.

SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies, an OpenAI-backed humanoid robot developer, in a deal that would value the startup at about US$6 billion, according to people with knowledge of the deal. The investment would buttress SoftBank’s robotics ambition. The investment would also give 1X more runway to put its soft-bodied bots in customers’ homes, where they aim to help with chores. The 12-year-old startup tried last fall to raise US$1 billion at a US$10 billion valuation, but it only raised less than half that target, according to two people with knowledge of the fundraise. The deal discussions underscore continued interest in humanoids despite the steep costs and incredible challenges in getting AI-powered robots to think, act and safely move like humans. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, a longtime investor and owner of robot developers, has predicted robotics and artificial intelligence paired with physical devices would yield the next US$1 trillion company. OpenAI has discussed developing a humanoid robot, but the work has been overshadowed by the development of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker with former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, whose startup it bought last year. OpenAI’s robotics head Caitlin Kalinowski quit in March over concerns that OpenAI rushed into its deal with the Department of Defense. In June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a group of Y Combinator startups that he is enthusiastic about humanoid robots due to their potential to accelerate the construction of data centers, according to a person who heard the remarks. https://tinyurl.com/3z9mma7t

PayPal falls 12% after stripe and advent end pursuit.

PayPal shares tumbled 12% on Friday after a Bloomberg report that Stripe and private equity firm Advent International had abandoned their attempt to buy the company. Shares of PayPal fell to US$54 as of Friday morning, lower than the US$60.50 per share price that Stripe and Advent had offered in July, which would value PayPal at more than US$53 billion. PayPal viewed that offer as insufficient and the two sides had recently been negotiating a higher price, the Wall Street Journal reported this month. PayPal CEO Enrique Lores said last month that the company would evaluate any deal offer and compare it with its own turnaround strategy to choose the option that creates more value. Separately, Stripe this month agreed to buy OpenRouter, an AI model marketplace, for a reported US$7.5 billion. https://tinyurl.com/54rfj7re

Datadog shares jump 5% on report that Palo Alto networks previously explored an acquisition.

Shares of Datadog ended up the trading day 2% higher but rose as much as 5% Wednesday morning after The Information reported that Palo Alto Networks explored an acquisition of the data software company last year. Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora met with Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel and pitched him on a hypothetical acquisition of Datadog last spring, The Information reported. Datadog was publicly-valued at US$40 billion around that time, but Pomel wasn’t receptive and the talks never resulted in a formal offer. Nikesh bought a smaller Datadog rival instead. Earlier that year, Arora also discussed an acquisition of security software maker Okta. These talks progressed to a point where the companies discussed how their products could potentially complement each other, but ultimately stalled after the companies couldn’t agree on a price. https://tinyurl.com/3tpp533w

The White House released National Security Presidential Memorandum 17 on August 20, 2026, setting an official goal to support over 1,000 annual space launches and re-entries on U.S. soil by 2030. https://tinyurl.com/nmfd34a5

OpenAI says its Jalapeño AI chip is better than Nvidia’s Blackwell.

OpenAI on Tuesday released an evaluation of its new Jalapeño AI server chip, claiming it is faster and more powerful than Nvidia’s flagship Blackwell chips. The results appear promising for OpenAI, which hopes to reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s hardware someday, but it’s still early: The chips haven’t yet been tested as thoroughly against Nvidia’s latest chip, Rubin, nor have they been used at scale. And Jalapeño is focused on running existing AI models, not training them, whereas Nvidia’s graphics processing units are designed to do both. While Jalapeño is optimized to run OpenAI models, it can also run other models, the company said. OpenAI developed it relatively quickly with a team of around 100 people, said Richard Ho, OpenAI’s vice president of hardware. That’s in part because OpenAI used its most advanced AI models to help design the chip with Broadcom, he said. OpenAI intends to use the chip to run its own products, such as Codex and ChatGPT, according to someone who works on it. It couldn’t be learned whether the chips, whose production Broadcom planned to finance, would end up in the data centers of Microsoft and Oracle, which would then provide them to OpenAI. Microsoft had discussed buying billions of dollars worth of Jalapeno chips, while Oracle has separately said it could allow some of its cloud customers to “bring their own chips” to its data centers. OpenAI doesn’t yet run its own facilities, though it has separately worked out a large-scale agreement to use Nvidia hardware in a facility it would lease in Ohio starting in 2028, with around US$100 billion in credit support from Nvidia. The chip leader also has invested tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI. While almost all of OpenAI’s work is powered by Nvidia hardware today, OpenAI has agreements to use AI chips made by Amazon, AMD and Cerebras as well. For now, Nvidia still dominates both the AI training and inference markets globally and even appears to have gained a greater share of the inference market over the past year. https://tinyurl.com/4e6kxjyw

Hundreds of OpenAI agents attacked Hugging Face, independent investigation finds.

About 1,200 AI agents that were supposed to be isolated from each other communicated over a makeshift message board they created using one of OpenAI’s software programs, of which about 700 went on to participate in last month’s cyberattack on Hugging Face, according to the findings of a new independent investigation. The investigation—conducted by researchers at Redwood Research, which studies how to control rogue AIs, and METR, which evaluates AI models—sheds new light on a cyberattack that has shaken the AI world in recent weeks. Its report was published Wednesday alongside the findings of a separate investigation conducted by OpenAI itself, along with cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. About 95% of the agents in the “swarm” were instances of an internal model that OpenAI did not intend to release, while about 5% were instances of its model GPT-5.6 Sol. OpenAI had tasked the agents with solving cybersecurity challenges, some of which were impossible. To achieve a high score anyway, the agents worked together to find methods of cheating, including seeking answers stored by Hugging Face, which hosts AI data and models. One agent assigned others to various workstreams, such as researching how the agents could tamper with the records of their work to hide cheating. Some agents “sacrificed” themselves by running experiments that could result in a worse score for themselves in order to provide more information to their peers. Redwood and METR said their investigation suffered from multiple limitations. It primarily covered the narrow window from July 7th to 13th, which excluded the start of the message board and later dates on which OpenAI’s infrastructure was compromised; it excluded some topics, such as how the behavior arose during training; and the authors relied on GPT-5.6 Sol itself to help with analysis, using about US$400,000 worth of free credits from OpenAI, without having access to the internal model responsible for most of the incident. OpenAI found that the systems it uses to catch bad behavior from its models would have helped prevent this incident if those systems had been in place for the company’s internal use, the company wrote in its technical report detailing the incident. In response, OpenAI said it is increasing its monitoring of models while they are still internal to the company. “We are taking this incident as a ‘warning shot’ that today’s model capabilities present the possibility of loss-of-control incidents,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post about its report. “Our security and alignment posture is escalating accordingly.” https://tinyurl.com/3kkcpaah

OpenAI leads new call for cyberdefense of critical infrastructure.

Over 100 companies from tech, finance and other industries signed a statement that OpenAI published Thursday calling for an industry-wide effort to protect critical infrastructure, including hospitals and water treatment plants, from AI cyberattacks. “We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses,” reads the letter, whose signatories include Anthropic, Google, Citadel and Visa. AI companies should provide their models and training to support vulnerable infrastructure, it argued, and governments should play a stronger role in coordinating and funding cyber defense. The letter is the latest warning from prominent tech leaders, companies and employees about the growing security threat from AI. It comes on the heels of OpenAI’s investigation into how its models hacked into its own software and AI company Hugging Face, findings from which OpenAI published Wednesday alongside results from an independent investigation. https://tinyurl.com/4drv5yj6

SpaceX announces US$100 billion starship launch site in Louisiana.

SpaceX announced on Tuesday plans to build a US$100 billion launch site for its Starship rocket on the coast of Louisiana. SpaceX plans to begin construction of the site, which the company has named “Starbase, Louisiana,” in 2027 and is targeting 2029 for the first Starship launch from the site. The company said the site will be built to support thousands of launches per year and Elon Musk wrote on X that the spaceport will allow SpaceX to launch “more than 30 Starship flights per day.” The site will allow SpaceX to expand its launch facilities outside of Texas and Florida. The deal was announced at an event held at the planned site with Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and other officials on Tuesday. https://tinyurl.com/mt94kx4b

Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games.

Chinese humanoid robots broke records set by humans, including beating Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint world record, on the opening day of the Olympics-like World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday. More than 2,000 humanoid robots were participating in the event, the organizer said. The five-day games, now in its second year, are a spectacle demonstrating China’s rapid progress in advanced robotics as the technology race with the U.S. heats up, with 51 events and more than 1,000 competitions taking place including running, table tennis and soccer. The games, which are taking place in the National Speed Skating Oval built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, opened the same week as Beijing held the 2026 World Robot Conference, where companies showcased around 3,000 products, including humanoid robots. China makes the majority of the world’s humanoid robots. The U.S. has stepped up scrutiny of robots from the country. Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots. The FCC cited national security reasons in a move that targeted China. The Pentagon recently also added Unitree, one of China’s leading humanoid robot makers, to its list of companies that it deemed have ties with the Chinese military. Beijing has hit back at the accusations. At Saturday’s opening of the robot games, the organizer and robot makers said that Chinese humanoid robots defeated human world records, as hundreds of humanoid robots marched in formation onto the field in a massive display of synchronized coordination. https://tinyurl.com/6b27rf5h

Meta reaches up to US$18 billion settlement over child-harm claims.

Meta Platforms agreed to pay up to US$18 billion to help settle a lawsuit filed by states alleging Meta’s social media apps harmed children, bringing a costly conclusion to one of the biggest legal threats facing the social media giant. Under the proposed settlement, which requires a judge’s approval, Meta agreed to a series of changes to its Instagram platform and other services, including default daily limits and nighttime blocks for teenage users, enhanced age assurance measures to prevent children from accessing Meta’s platforms, and the creation of new tools to help parents protect their children online. Meta also agreed to pay each of the 52 states and territories involved varying amounts in two parts. One part is to be paid in annual installments over a decade totaling about US$12.7 billion, or about 70% of the total, Meta said in a statement. The remaining 30%, totaling about US$5.3 billion would be paid out on the condition that YouTube and TikTok make similar changes to their services that Meta has agreed to, and that those companies each pay an amount matching the 30% figure. (Attorneys general in their statements provided a slightly smaller total of up to about US$17 billion.) The settlement agreement covers a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across U.S. states, territories, and Washington, D.C. If approved, it would conclude a trial that began last week at a federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., involving a subset of 29 states. The payments amount to a sizable sum even for a company that reported US$60 billion in profit last year, but the number is far smaller than some projections for what Meta could have faced: Meta attorneys at one point said the states were seeking US$1.4 trillion in penalties, and the states put the number at closer to US$200 billion, according to Reuters. Meta still faces other lawsuits, including from individuals. It has already lost cases including one in California brought by a young person and one in New Mexico that resulted in a total of US$942 million in penalties. https://tinyurl.com/56zc4an3