December 14, 2025: AI Trade Under Pressure

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1.05%, S&P 500 fell 0.6%, Nasdaq Composite lost 1.6%. The AI trade slumped following Broadcom and Oracle earnings reports. Oracle’s unprecedented ~US$10 billion quarterly cash burn and higher FY2026 capex outlook (US$50 billion) highlights the financing and execution risk in hyperscale buildouts, with reports of some OpenAI-linked site timelines slipping. Sentiment is also twitchy, an AI data-center REIT (Fermi) plunged after a tenant walked away. Broadcom sold off on guidance/backlog optics. IPO and mega-deal momentum is rebuilding, and bankers are positioning for a busier 2026 calendar. SpaceX is reported to be advancing toward a 2026 IPO, with scenarios ranging up to a ~US$1.5 trillion valuation and revenue scaling driven primarily by Starlink. Wealthfront priced its IPO at US$14. IBM agreed to acquire Confluent for ~US$11 billion. Disney committed US$1 billion to OpenAI alongside a character-licensing partnership for Sora. U.S.-China chip policy whipsawed yet again, the White House signaled Nvidia could sell H200-class chips into China. Additional signals of the “next interface” race include, Meta’s confirmed stake in EssilorLuxottica, even as Meta’s mixed-reality glasses were delayed to 2027, and Google guided to AI glasses in 2026. Microsoft committed $7.5 billion over two years to expand Azure regions in Canada, while the market continues to debate what “data sovereignty” really means. In Canada, the public-market backdrop remains structurally challenged, TSX issuer count has fallen materially over time (down 45% since 2008 to 678 by Q3). Take-privates and delistings have continued to outpace IPOs even as the TSX Composite has been strong. Private capital’s depth (continuation funds, private credit) is increasingly a feature, not a bug, illustrated by General Fusion’s reported $51.5 million raise (mostly SAFEs) alongside pressure from at least one backer to pursue a public listing path (potentially SPAC). In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Kraken Robotics demonstrated its KATFISH USV launch-and-recovery system on TKMS ATLAS UK’s ARCIMS unmanned surface vessel. Boardwalktech presented at the Q4 Investor Summit, reiterating its growth strategy and near-term catalysts.

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) and TKMS ATLAS UK demonstrate KATFISH USV launch and recovery system on an in-service UK Royal Navy ARCIMS USV.

Kraken Robotics Inc. announces the successful demonstration of its KATFISH Unmanned Surface Vessel Launch and Recovery System (USV-LARS) from TKMS ATLAS UK’s (ATLAS UK) 11-meter ARCIMS USV. The systems offer a comprehensive autonomous survey package for maritime security missions including mine countermeasure operations and critical underwater infrastructure inspection. Together, ARCIMS and KATFISH USV-LARS provide the industry’s first air-deployable, 300-meter depth rated autonomous towed SAS survey system. “With the surge in unmanned systems for defence, naval forces need the best technology available to protect national security,” said Greg Reid, President and CEO of Kraken Robotics. “With its ability to safely and autonomously launch and recover KATFISH from USVs, our USV-LARS allows small naval platforms to collect KATFISH’s high resolution synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) data, significantly increasing their capabilities and acting as force multipliers.” https://tinyurl.com/3mrfptxn

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) presented at the Q4 Investor Summit Group.

Watch the replay of Boardwalktech CEO, Andy Duncan presenting at the Q4 Investor Summit Virtual as he shares updates on growth strategy, market positioning, and upcoming catalysts. https://tinyurl.com/2kkuzve5

Canada needs IPOs to reverse a shrinking number of stocks.

Canada’s largest stock exchanges are atrophying, with the number of publicly traded companies shrinking for a fourth straight year even as the country’s stock benchmark soared past the S&P 500. Delistings and companies taken private continue to outpace IPOs on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the junior TSX Venture Exchange, a stark contrast to the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index’s 26% increase. The number of corporate issuers on the TSX has fallen 45% since 2008 to 678 as of the end of the third quarter, data from exchange operator TMX Group show. Underlying the trend is a market that has rewarded firms with either staying private or being taken private. In 2025, 11 Canadian companies went private in transactions totaling US$45.4 billion, including companies being acquired by other publicly traded firms. The growth of private equity continuation funds and private credit have contributed to companies staying away from the public markets in both Canada and the US, said Ari Pandes, associate finance professor at University of Calgary. https://tinyurl.com/36ads69h

General Fusion reportedly faces pressure to go public after $51.5 million raise.

Last month, Richmond, BC-based General Fusion quietly secured another $51.5 million in funding, according to a Nov. 27 securities filing with Canadian regulators. Nearly $51.1 million of that was raised via simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs), with the remainder coming in the form of warrants to purchase common shares. Sixty-seven undisclosed investors from across BC, the United States, and five other countries took part in the financing. General Fusion is Canada’s entrant in the global race for commercially viable fusion power. According to The Globe, existing General Fusion backer PenderFund, which also participated in its August financing, invested $5 million via SAFE in the company’s latest round, with the expectation that General Fusion would look to go public as soon as possible and capitalize on current interest in the nuclear space, potentially by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, a path Canadian deep tech peer Xanadu recently took. https://tinyurl.com/4wehfmuc

Assetflo closes US$2 million to make clients’ every physical asset “searchable”.

While lost goods and machines can cost logistics and manufacturing businesses lots of money, tracking them more closely can also be a difficult and expensive task, according to Assetflo co-founder and CTO Elie Makhoul. Makhoul’s company has built patented mesh network technology designed to address this problem. Assetflo’s internet-of-things (IoT)-based tracking system aims to help companies monitor and avoid misplacing assets, both indoors and outside, in a more cost-effective manner by leveraging existing hardware. The Kitchener-Waterloo startup, which has already deployed its product with multiple undisclosed Fortune 500 customers, is now working to refine its tech and go-to-market strategy as it looks to bring its offering to more enterprise clients, with the help of US$2 million (nearly $2.8 million) in fresh seed financing, Makhoul announced today in an exclusive interview with BetaKit. Assetflo’s equity, all-primary seed round, which closed in August, was led by new investor GreenSky Ventures, a Toronto-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, with support from existing backers like Oakville fleet management tech company Geotab and Mega Innovation. Makhoul did not share Assetflo’s valuation. This seed round brings its total VC funding to approximately US$3 million; Assetflo has also secured US$1 million worth of grants. https://tinyurl.com/hbs8kt27

Microsoft to spend $7.5 billion on AI data centre expansion with pledge to protect Canada’s “digital sovereignty”.

Microsoft says it will spend $7.5 billion over the next two years to build new digital and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Canada–infrastructure that the United States tech giant claims will support Canadian digital sovereignty. The funding will go towards expanding computing capacity at Microsoft’s two primary Azure data centre regions: Toronto’s Canada Central and Québec City’s Canada East. Microsoft has pledged to “keep Canadian data on Canadian soil,” but experts say that storing data in Canadian data centres does not guarantee data sovereignty. https://tinyurl.com/9ctwt65s

AI-powered police body cameras, once taboo, get tested on Canadian city’s ‘watch list’ of faces.

Police body cameras equipped with artificial intelligence have been trained to detect the faces of about 7,000 people on a “high risk” watch list in the Canadian city of Edmonton, a live test of whether facial recognition technology shunned as too intrusive could have a place in policing throughout North America. But six years after leading body camera maker Axon Enterprise, Inc. said police use of facial recognition technology posed serious ethical concerns, the pilot project — switched on last week— is raising alarms far beyond Edmonton, the continent’s northernmost city of more than 1 million people. Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith contends that the Edmonton pilot is not a product launch but “early-stage field research” that will assess how the technology performs and reveal the safeguards needed to use it responsibly. The pilot is meant to help make Edmonton patrol officers safer by enabling their body-worn cameras to detect anyone who authorities classified as having a “flag or caution” for categories such as “violent or assaultive; armed and dangerous; weapons; escape risk; and high-risk offender,” said Kurt Martin, acting superintendent of the Edmonton Police Service. So far, that watch list has 6,341 people on it, Martin said at a Dec. 2 press conference. A separate watch list adds 724 people who have at least one serious criminal warrant, he said. If the pilot expands, it could have a major effect on policing around the world. https://tinyurl.com/57eb2zp7

SpaceX IPO plan puts US$2.9 trillion of listings back on the table.

The floodgates could be poised to burst open on Wall Street for US$2.9 trillion worth of private companies that have avoided going public for years. The prospect of a SpaceX IPO, preparing the ground for so-called centicorns valued privately at US$100 billion or more, raises a dangerous question for all involved: How eager will stock investors be to embrace companies with controversial leaders, little or no profits and private-market valuations so swollen that they’ll dwarf every company that has previously made its debut on a US exchange? Short answer: Very. “The median market cap of an S&P 500 company is close to US$40 billion; this is a completely different stratosphere,” said Paul Abrahimzadeh, a partner at 1789 Capital and a former co-head of equity capital markets for North America at Citigroup Inc. “A company like SpaceX will clearly cater to a wide swath of institutional investors — as well as retail — and is a must-own name.” IPOs have been more or less stuck in a rut since a record US$492 billion year in 2021, and companies like SpaceX, Stripe and ByteDance that once would have been candidates for listings have attracted valuations in private funding rounds that leave most public companies in the dust, all without being exposed to the scrutiny that quarterly financial reporting brings. The wailing of investors denied access to the hottest big companies was just about drowned out by investment bankers bemoaning the chunky IPO fees they’ve been missing out on. If Elon Musk’s rocket giant goes public at a valuation even close to the $800 billion it’s been seeking in its latest private round — or for that matter the $1.5 trillion value it’s considering in a listing — it would be a powerful vote in favor of leaving the private sphere. https://tinyurl.com/4xmznnfb

Bankers readying US IPOs at ‘overwhelming’ pace ahead of 2026.

Behind the scenes activity in the US IPO market is reaching a fever pitch, according to dealmakers, as companies lured by stock markets near record highs prepare to go public. The industry has been busy lining up underwriting mandates from companies that were forced to delay listing plans due to the US government shutdown. There’s also hope that some of the world’s biggest private tech companies might go public and make 2026 a breakout year after three years of gradual growth in activity. US IPO volume — excluding SPACs and closed-end funds — is poised to blow past US$40 billion this year when Medline Inc. prices its IPO next week. At the top of the price range, it would raise US$5.37 billion, making it the biggest debut globally. The 2025 haul would be a substantial increase over last year’s volume, but still well behind the US$100 billion-plus years in 2020 and 2021 when easy money flowed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Few bankers are willing to predict a return to those levels next year, but they do see plenty of companies doing the lead-up work to go public in 2026. The dismal debuts of StubHub Holdings Inc., Navan Inc. and Gemini Space Station Inc. have contributed to IPOs as an asset class underperforming the S&P 500 Index this year. That sits uneasily with the notion that companies that go public are supposed to have cheaper valuations than their listed peers. https://tinyurl.com/mrxj5ys9

SpaceX to pursue 2026 IPO raising far above US$30 billion.

SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for an initial public offering that would seek to raise significantly more than US$30 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in a transaction that would make it the biggest listing of all time. The Elon Musk-led company is targeting a valuation of about US$1.5 trillion for the entire company, which would leave SpaceX near the market value that Saudi Aramco established during its record 2019 listing. The oil major raised US$29 billion at the time. SpaceX’s management and advisers are pursuing a listing as soon as mid-to-late 2026, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The timing of the IPO could change based on the market and other factors, and one of the people said it could slip into 2027. EchoStar Corp., which has agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX, rose as much as 12% in New York, hitting a fresh intraday record. Space transportation company Rocket Lab Corp. extended gains to as much as 4.3%. The company is expected to produce about US$15 billion in revenue in 2025, increasing to between US$22 billion and US$24 billion in 2026, one of the people said, with the majority of sales coming from Starlink. SpaceX expects to use some of the funds raised in an IPO to develop space-based data centers, including purchasing the chips required to run them, two of the people said, an idea Musk expressed interest in during a recent event with Baron Capital. https://tinyurl.com/ypxj5k2x

SpaceX on track to generate US$15 billion in revenue this year.

SpaceX is on track to generate about US$15 billion in revenue this year, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The Elon Musk-led space firm is also expecting to bring in US$22 billion to US$24 billion next year, with the bulk of revenue coming from its Starlink satellite internet service, according to the report. The fresh revenue numbers come as SpaceX is gearing up for a potential initial public offering in 2026, as first reported by The Information on Friday. SpaceX is also currently holding a share sale that would value the company at US$800 billion, double its valuation over the summer. Musk, who also leads artificial intelligence startup xAI, has repeatedly talked about the idea of building data centers in space in recent months. SpaceX expects to use some of its IPO proceeds to fund data centers in space, according to the Bloomberg report. https://tinyurl.com/yj6h8k3s

Wealthfront IPO could triple Tiger investment.

Wealthfront, an automated investment adviser, said late Thursday it had priced its initial public offering at US$14 per share, at the top of the marketed range. At that price it raised US$485 million, valuing the company at over US$2 billion, or US$2.6 billion if all stock options and potential shares were included. That’s a premium to the US$1.4 billion the company was valued at in 2022. Its largest shareholder, Tiger Global Management, invested around US$90 million to get its stake of US$310 million, netting the firm about US$220 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. The listing should boost cash returns for the New York-based hedge fund, one of the most aggressive venture investors during the pandemic-era startup boom. Other large shareholders in Wealthfront include DAG Ventures, which owned 12%, Index Ventures which owned 11% and Ribbit Capital, which owned almost 9%, according to securities filings. The business had raised almost $300 million from investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital and Greylock Partners, dating back to 2007, according to PitchBook Data. Wealthfront markets itself as a more efficient alternative to a wealth advisor, using technology to automate investment decisions. Its revenue for its most recent fiscal year ending in January was US$309 million, up from US$217 million the year before. The business is profitable. The listing comes during a year that has seen a number of financial technology listings, including Chime and Klarna, several of which have been off to a rocky start. Wealthfront listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker “WLTH.” Goldman Sachs is the lead underwriter on the deal. Fenwick & West and Latham & Watkins served as counsel. https://tinyurl.com/bdce6uny

Disney to invest US$1 billion in OpenAI.

Walt Disney Co. is investing US$1 billion into OpenAI as part of a deal in which Disney is licensing more than 200 characters from its program library for use in OpenAI’s Sora video-generating app. Among the characters that people will be able to use in Sora videos are Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The deal follows criticism from Hollywood figures that Sora could be used to steal images of actors without compensation. In striking a deal with Disney, OpenAI demonstrates it is willing to work with Hollywood. Disney drew an implicit contrast with Google: on Wednesday, Disney lawyers sent Google a letter demanding it stop infringing on its copyrights in its training of AI models, Variety reported. The announcement from OpenAI and Disney didn’t make clear, however, what the terms of the licensing agreement are, and whether OpenAI is paying money. Instead, what is clear is that Disney will be paying OpenAI. In addition to investing in OpenAI, Disney will become a major customer of OpenAI, the companies said, using the AI firm’s tools to build new products and experiences including for its Disney+ streaming service. Disney will be able to run some of the Sora videos on its streaming service, Disney+. The videos will include “costumes, props, vehicles and iconic environments” from the programs but not “talent likenesses or voices.” Disney CEO Bob Iger has ties to OpenAI, through Thrive Capital, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers. Iger was briefly a venture partner at Thrive and took a stake in its management company in 2023. He remains a limited partner in its funds. https://tinyurl.com/5n8sv29w

Trump to let Nvidia sell advanced AI chips to China.

The Trump administration will let Nvidia sell a relatively advanced set of artificial intelligence server chips to China, the president said in a social media post, ending a debate in Washington about whether to let a geopolitical adversary access state-of-the-art technology from the U.S. Trump implied that the White House is directing the Commerce Department to let Nvidia sell Hopper 200 chips, which are a generation behind the Nvidia’s Blackwell chips that are now being mass produced. Many of today’s best-known AI models, such as GPT-5, were trained using Hopper 100 or 200-series chips. Nvidia previously sold a much less powerful version of its Hopper chips, the H20, to China. One question is how the Chinese government will react to the availability of H200. China has instructed many of the company’s biggest AI developers to limit their use of Nvidia chips so that China’s homegrown AI server chips, including Huawei’s can flourish. Nvidia sales to China have petered out this year. But given that chips from Huawei are better suited to running existing AI models, known as inference, as opposed to developing new models, China may be more open to local companies using the Nvidia H200 chips for model-training purposes. Shares of Nvidia rose around 2% in after-hours trading on Monday. Spokespeople for Nvidia and Commerce didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Semafor earlier reported on the White House decision, which temporarily boosted Nvidia shares during normal trading hours. Nvidia previously said the Trump administration wanted the U.S. government to keep 15% of Nvidia’s sales to China. The White House decision is a win for Trump advisers such as David Sacks, a venture capitalist who has argued that restricting sales to China would help local Chinese chipmakers and that those firms would then make gains in selling chips to other nations that would otherwise buy American technology. https://tinyurl.com/2j683mtk

Ellisons’ Paramount SkyDance make US$108 billion tender offer for Warner.

The Ellison family-controlled Paramount Skydance made an all-cash tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery at US$30 a share, or US$108.4 billion, coming in over the top of the US$27.75 a share cash and stock deal that Netflix and WBD’s board agreed to last week. Unlike the Netflix proposed purchase, which is only for WBD’s studio and HBO Max streaming service, though, Paramount is offering to buy the whole company including the cable channels which now generate the bulk of WBD’s profits but are declining as viewers shift away from cable TV. In the Netflix deal, WBD shareholders will also get shares in a new company holding the cable channels, closing the gap between the two offers. WBD stock quickly jumped 4.4% to US$27.23, just below the Netflix price. Paramount said it had lined up US$54 billion in debt financing and US$41 billion in equity financing from Larry Ellison and a fund affiliated with RedBird Capital Management, several Middle Eastern funds and an investment fund controlled by Jared Kushner. Ellison, the Oracle co-founder whose son David runs Paramount, is worth at least US$255 billion based on the value of his Oracle stake alone. But the Paramount offer’s big advantage is that the Ellisons are close to the Trump administration and will likely have an easier time getting approval for the purchase. Warner said in a statement its board would review the Paramount offer and respond within 10 days. https://tinyurl.com/bdffnz4n

IBM agrees to buy Confluent for US$11 billion.

International Business Machines agreed to acquire data streaming firm Confluent for around US$11 billion in cash. Confluent provides technology that helps companies manage real-time data streams used in AI models, making it a logical fit for IBM as it looks to boost its software, cloud and AI offering. The AI boom has boosted companies’ need to get access to real-time data. IBM is paying US$31 a share in cash, which represents a roughly 33% premium of Confluent’s share price as of Friday. Confluent shares surged more than 25% in early trading Monday, while IBM’s stock fell slightly. The deal also marks one of IBM’s biggest acquisitions in recent years after it strikes the largest software deal in history buying Red Hat for US$$34.5 billion. Last year, it agreed to buy cloud management tool provider HashiCorp for US$6.4 billion. Centerview Partners advised IBM and Morgan Stanley advised Confluent. https://tinyurl.com/366jmzpa

Broadcom follows Oracle in disappointing AI-focused investors.

Broadcom Inc., a chip company vying with Nvidia Corp. for AI computing revenue, suffered the worst stock decline in 10 months after its sales outlook for the market failed to meet investors’ lofty expectations. The shares slid as much as 12% in New York trading Friday, their biggest intraday drop since late January, following unsettling commentary from Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan the day before on a conference call with analysts. He said the company has a backlog of US$73 billion in AI product orders that will be shipped over the next six quarters — a number that disappointed some investors. But Tan sought to clarify that the figure was a “minimum.” The conference call followed a dizzying run-up in Broadcom shares, and investors were seeking more clarity on when and how the company will get a payoff from AI. Instead, they got a vague timetable without an AI revenue forecast for 2026 — mixed with some concerns about tightening profit margins. https://tinyurl.com/2s4p2scv

Oracle burned US$10 billion as AI investments rise, shares fall 11%.

Oracle shares fell more than 11% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the database and cloud firm said it burned roughly US$10 billion in the November quarter due to spending on data centers for artificial intelligence customers such as OpenAI. The cash burn, unprecedented in Oracle’s history, has prompted the firm to borrow heavily for such projects, including an US$18 billion bond offering in September. Executives said Wednesday that capital expenditures would hit US$50 billion in the fiscal year ending in May 2026, up US$15 billion from the fiscal-year capex projection it provided three months ago. Bankers and infrastructure lenders have grown wary of the amount of debt tied to Oracle’s data center projects. Co-CEO Clay Magouryk said that while analysts had estimated Oracle would need US$100 billion to complete its data center plans, “we expect we will need less if not substantially less…than that amount to go fund this buildout.” In any case, the company says the investment is worth it. The increased capex in the current fiscal year will result in US$4 billion of extra revenue in the following fiscal year, CFO Doug Kehring said. Oracle reported US$523 billion worth of signed contracts as of the end of November, up US$68 billion from three months earlier thanks to new cloud-server rental deals with Meta Platforms and Nvidia, whose chips Oracle buys for AI data centers. The question is whether OpenAI and other customers will be able to pay those amounts, and whether Oracle can set up complex facilities for such customers on time. Oracle has projected cloud revenue of US$166 billion in its fiscal 2030. Since Oracle announced large contracts with OpenAI and others, which boosted its stock to record levels, shares have fallen 30% on concerns that the future won’t play out the way Oracle has projected. Oracle has a market capitalization of more than US$600 billion. Oracle recently tried to reassure investors that as revenue surges in the years ahead, its business of renting out servers packed with Nvidia chips will become far more profitable than it currently is. In the November quarter, Oracle reported 14% revenue growth compared to the same period a year earlier. Its cloud-server rental revenue rose 68% year-over–year to US$4.1 billion, and Kehring implied that such revenue growth would accelerate in the current fiscal quarter. The November figures means Oracle’s cloud business about a tenth of the size of Amazon Web Services’. https://tinyurl.com/4fnyfdsx

Oracle’s data centers for OpenAI are reportedly delayed.

Oracle has delayed the completion of some of the data centers it is developing for OpenAI to 2028 from 2027, according to a Bloomberg report. Oracle shares fell 5% Friday morning after already dipping earlier in the week, after the firm reported that it burned roughly US$10 billion in the November quarter due to spending on data centers. Spokesperson for Oracle Michael Egbert said “there have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.” “We remain fully aligned with OpenAI and confident in our ability to execute against both our contractual commitments and future expansion plans,” he said. Bloomberg said the delays are due to labor and material shortages. The report didn’t say which data centers Oracle is pushing out to 2028. Oracle is developing a large facility for OpenAI in Abilene, Texas. Delays in the data center industry are common, especially for developers that are trying to build these types of facilities faster than ever before. The high-stakes race to develop server clusters for developing AI is causing tension in the industry, as companies involved in the work try to avoid being on the hook for missed deadlines. The deadlines impact when cloud providers can generate revenue from renting out the servers. Oracle doesn’t build data centers by itself; it works with developers such as Crusoe and Vantage Data Centers. https://tinyurl.com/yw5hukux

Shares of Rick Perry-founded AI data center firm plunge after tenant walks away.

Fermi, a young data center developer cofounded by former Texas Governor Rick Perry, said a tenant for its artificial intelligence server campus in West Texas had ended an agreement to lease the site, according to a regulatory filing. The firm’s shares fell more than 40% on the disclosure, signaling broader fears around AI data center demand. Fermi went public earlier this year as a real estate investment trust, hoping to capitalize on the boom for AI data centers. It now has a US$6.4 billion market capitalization. Fermi said its potential tenant was an investment-grade company, meaning it had strong finances, and had signed a separate deal to fund up to US$150 million in construction costs for the project. But earlier this week the exclusivity period for its letter of intent on the site expired before the companies could reach a final agreement, and the funding deal was terminated, Fermi said. Fermi said it has begun deal talks with other potential tenants for the data center site, which is expected to be powered in 2026. Fermi did not respond to a request for comment. https://tinyurl.com/4wcb9d6e

Adobe gives strong sales growth outlook, easing concern about AI.

Adobe Inc. gave an outlook for revenue in the coming year that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting that AI features are helping fuel growth of its creative software business. The software maker has been facing fears from investors that generative artificial intelligence will disrupt its business. While AI features in apps like Photoshop have already been used tens of billions of times, many other popular tools — such as Google’s video-generating model Veo — are made by somebody else. In an effort to ensure its features are seen by a wider audience, Adobe announced earlier Wednesday that Photoshop and Acrobat would be integrated into OpenAI’s ChatGPT and offered free to chatbot users.
The shares rose about 1% in extended trading after closing at US$343.13. The stock had lost about a fifth of its value this year, a decline that mirrors that of other application software incumbents like Salesforce Inc. https://tinyurl.com/4yyxx62y

Meta stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica ‘at least 3%’, board director says.

Facebook-owner Meta holds at least a 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica, a board director at the European firm behind Ray-Ban glasses said on Tuesday. The Meta stake has previously been reported from sources but not confirmed by either firm. The two companies are working closely together on Ray-Ban Meta AI-powered glasses. The Week in Breakingviews newsletter offers insights and ideas from Reuters’ global financial commentary team. https://tinyurl.com/4cbmp637

Meta reportedly delays mixed reality glasses until 2027.

Meta is developing new mixed reality glasses under the codename Phoenix, according to Business Insider — but their release date has been pushed back from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027. The Facebook parent company already sells VR headsets and Ray-Ban smart glasses, but these glasses sound a bit different; their format factor would reportedly be similar to the Apple Vision Pro, with a puck-like power source. BI says it’s seen memos from Meta executives announcing the delay, apparently after meetings in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg told them to take more time to make the business sustainable and deliver higher quality experiences. The company’s metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns reportedly wrote that the delay is “going to give us a lot more breathing room to get the details right.” Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Meta plans to slash its metaverse budget by up to 30%. https://tinyurl.com/5n7ep6mh

Google AI glasses expected to launch next year.

Google expects to launch its first AI glasses, including an audio-focused model and one with a built-in display screen, in 2026, the company said in a blog post on Monday. Google is collaborating with Samsung and the glasses companies Warby Parker and Gentle Monster on the hardware. Google will be entering a market currently dominated by Meta Platforms, whose Ray-Ban glasses with a camera and microphone have been a surprise hit (although not necessarily for the AI features). Meta has started selling Ray-Ban glasses with a display screen in some stores in September, with a wider rollout planned for next year. Snap, a much smaller rival, has explored raising outside capital for its own AR glasses, which incorporate some Google AI technology. https://tinyurl.com/3xj9pnfm

Bezos and Musk race to bring data centers to space.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have raced for years to build rockets and launch satellites. Now they’re racing to take the trillion-dollar data-center boom into orbit. Bezos’ Blue Origin has had a team working for more than a year on technology needed for orbital AI data centers, a person familiar with the matter said. Musk’s SpaceX plans to use an upgraded version of its Starlink satellites to host AI computing payloads, pitching the technology as part of a share sale that could value the company at US$800 billion, according to people involved in the discussions. Deploying satellites that provide significant AI computing capability will present difficult engineering hurdles and pose tough questions about the price of deploying swarms of the devices into orbit. Advocates acknowledge the challenges of making these systems work, including doing so in a manner that would match the performance of cavernous data centers stuffed with AI chips on the ground. Skeptics believe the technical risks are being underestimated and say space-based data centers won’t be competitive on cost, especially if power and other constraints ease on the ground. https://tinyurl.com/yw48nh8y

Google announces AI partnerships pilot with news publishers.

Google has struck pilot partnerships with some news publishers allowing the tech giant to get expanded access to the publishers’ content for testing of new experimental AI features, Google announced on Wednesday. The deals, with news publishers across the world including The Washington Post, Der Spiegel and The Guardian, will result in new features in Google News, including AI-generated article overviews on the publications’ Google News pages—before users click through to the link—and audio briefings. The announcement comes amid heightened tension between Google and news publishers, which blame Google among other AI chatbot providers for falling web traffic. The deals announced with news publishers on Wednesday fall short of what publishers have been increasingly calling for: payment for inclusion in AI features like AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search, which publishers say uses their content while hurting their traffic and thus businesses. As part of Wednesday’s blog post, Google did announce an expanded set of newswire partnerships, adding Estadão, Antara and Yonhap to their existing deal with the Associated Press to supply “real-time information” for the Gemini app. Also on Wednesday, Google announced new feature updates to how news is displayed on Google, including the global expansion of a “Preferred Sources” program that lets Search users see more links from news outlets they select. Google is also adding a feature in Gemini highlighting links from users’ news subscriptions, and increasing the number of inline links in AI Mode. https://tinyurl.com/3v8tayu6

Instacart launches ChatGPT app with instant checkout feature.

Instacart said Monday it would make its app available through ChatGPT Monday, including the ability for shoppers to make purchases through OpenAI’s Instant Checkout feature. The payment feature is powered by Stripe, the companies said, although consumers will be able to pay for purchases with their digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay soon. The launch is the latest tie-up between OpenAI and a retailer as the ChatGPT maker aims to push deeper into e-commerce. Walmart, Etsy and Shopify have all said they will make their products available through ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout feature, which allows shoppers to make purchases without leaving their chat window. Target announced plans to make its app available via ChatGPT’s new app feature last month, though it didn’t specify whether it would use Instant Checkout to facilitate purchases. Instacart has long had close ties with OpenAI—Instacart was an early partner for features like the company’s Operator agent, and OpenAI executives Fidji Simo joined after a stint as Instacart’s CEO. ChatGPT product head Nick Turley, who also previously worked at Instacart, has said one of his biggest priorities is enabling more personalization of ChatGPT through app integrations and helping users use ChatGPT to complete more tasks. https://tinyurl.com/8f8rc8xb

SEC authorizes DTCC to record stocks on Blockchain.

The Securities and Exchange Commission gave the greenlight to DTCC, the main clearinghouse for U.S. financial markets, to record stocks on blockchain. DTCC said it received a no-action letter from the regulator, allowing it to launch the feature in the second half of 2026. DTCC will allow its members to use blockchain to transfer stocks to each other, rather than exclusively going through its centralized ledger. Crypto companies have been pushing for regulatory approval to trade stocks on crypto platforms. That could potentially threaten the role of DTCC. With the new feature, DTCC is positioned to retain an essential role in blockchain-based stock trading. https://tinyurl.com/yvrpz342

China considers record US$70 billion chip incentive program.

Beijing is considering pouring as much as US$70 billion into its semiconductor industry in what would be the world’s largest state-backed chip support program, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The move elevates China’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency as the country’s tech industry confronts restrictive US export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment. The package under consideration ranges from 200 billion (US$28 billion) to 500 billion yuan (US$71 billion) in subsidies and financing, and Chinese government officials are still hammering out which companies will benefit and how much each sector will receive, according to Bloomberg. If rolled out at the top end, China’s proposed spending would dwarf comparable efforts worldwide and surpass funding the U.S. government has committed for the semiconductor sector through the Chips and Science Act. The investment will function separately from Beijing’s existing subsidy program for the chip industry, according to Bloomberg, and signals the government’s determination to reduce its reliance on foreign tech products such as Nvidia’s chips. https://tinyurl.com/3aba9xc7