AnalytixInsight

Last week, Dow Jones rose 2.3%, and hit a 2023 high, just below its 52 week high, S&P 500 rose 2.4%, and Nasdaq composite was up, both setting fresh 52 week highs. It was the Nasdaq’s best weekly gain since the end of March. At the same time, according to market watchers, we haven’t seen a software IPO since the end of 2021 — this 18 month software IPO “drought” exceeds the last couple “droughts” of ~6 months each. Nvidia is in talks to be an anchor investor in Arm’s IPO, as the two parties discuss valuation and appear to be about US$40-45 billion apart. SpaceX, the most valuable private company in the US, is approaching a US$150 billion valuation in secondary share sales. Shares of Tencent and Alibaba on Monday gained after China’s central bank fined the companies, a sign that investors think the country’s regulatory crackdown is coming to an end. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is poised to score a US$1 billion profit after Microsoft beats FTC in Activision case. In Canada, Sophic Client OneSoft hit another 52 week high. Investors are beginning to think of the Company as a revenue generating Aritificial Intelligence Company, with a strong moat with unique data, trained machine, and proven tech with fortune 100/500 customers. Sophic Client UGE announces Q2 2023 milestones and business updates. In the second quarter, UGE’s project backlog (stages 3.1-5) increased 14% to 356MW from 313MW. Since the start of the year, the Company’s backlog has increased by 96MW, marking near-achievement of its 2023 annual goal to add 100MW to its backlog. UGE anticipates achieving and exceeding this goal during the third quarter, far ahead of schedule. HIVE debuts a strategic expansion to power the future of artificial intelligence with its NVIDIA GPU cards. Dye & Durham entered into agreement to sell TM Group for up to £91 million; with up-front proceeds to be used to reduce debt.

Last week, Dow Jones fell 2%, S&P 500 lost 1.2%, and Nasdaq composite gave up 0.9%, but held its 10-day moving average. Bitcoin has staged a comeback, rallying 25% since BlackRock filed for its crypto fund. Banks holding debt from Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout might consider selling it as soon as Labor Day, the Wall Street Journal reported. Tesla deliveries rose 83% in the second quarter, in a sign that customers are galvanized by the electric vehicle maker’s frequent price cuts and new government subsidies. Rivian delivered 12,640 electric vehicles in the second quarter, a nearly three-fold increase from the same period last year when the EV upstart was in the thick of supply chain problems. Apple has been forced to make drastic cuts to production forecasts for the mixed-reality Vision Pro headset, unveiled last month after seven years in development (~130-150K in the first year vs. an initial sales target of a million units). ChatGPT app downloads are slowing down, BofA finds. Bluesky reaches 1 million downloads as Threads topples 70 million. China will control exports of some metals widely used in the semiconductor industry, its commerce ministry announced on Monday, the latest salvo in an escalating war over access to high-tech microchips between Beijing and the United States. In Canada, we saw positive funding announcements from Char Technologies, Prostar Holdings, MiMedia, Geologic AI, and a $30 million acquisition from Tiny.

As H1 2023 came to and end this Friday, S&P 500 index hit a 14-month high, Dow Jones and Nasdaq are back near 2023 highs. Apple is at a US$3 trillion market cap, for the first time. CNBC highlighted that tech stocks closed out best first half in 40 years. Even more stunning, it happened while the U.S. economy is still at risk of slipping into recession, reckoning with a banking crisis, and the Federal Reserve steadily increased its benchmark interest rate to the highest since 2007. While global economic concerns persist, highlighted by uncertainty surrounding the war in Russia and Ukraine and ongoing trade tensions with China, the NASDAQ could likely be in for some near term volatility, or see improved market breadth – we prefer the second option. That said, a sign of skepticism is the absence of a tech IPO market. There hasn’t been a notable venture capital-backed tech IPO in the U.S. since late 2021, and investors and bankers tell CNBC that the second half of the year is poised to remain quiet. M&A remains robust, with five notable transactions in the US just last week. Visa will acquire Brazilian fintech Pismo for US$1 billion. IBM will buy Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for US$4.6 billion. Databricks will acquire generative AI startup MosaicML for US$1.3 billion. Nvidia quietly acquired OmniML, an artificial intelligence startup that helps machine-learning models run on devices, rather than in the cloud. Defense technology company Anduril Industries has acquired Adranos, a startup that manufactures solid rocket motors for in-space and terrestrial applications. SpaceX is planning a sale of insider shares that would raise the company’s valuation to about US$150 billion, a rise from the company’s US$137 billion valuation reported in January. Fidelity Investments valued its stakes in Discord and Reddit slightly lower than it had previously. Shein, the Chinese online fashion retailer worth more than US$60, has registered with regulators for an initial public offering in New York.

The markets last week took a breather from multi week rallies, as we pointed out the NASDAQ looked a bit stretched last week. Dow Jones fell 1.7%, and S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 1.4%. Tiger Global raised US$2.7 billion for its latest private tech fund, 55% less than the US$6 billion goal set last fall and 79% lower than its prior, US$12.7 billion fund. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said on Wednesday that his tech investing conglomerate plans to shift its stance to “offence mode” amid excitement over advances in artificial intelligence. Virgin Galactic raises US$300 million, seeks another US$400 million to expand spacecraft fleet. Cloud banking vendor nCino explores sale. Amazon’s iRobot deal faces EU antitrust investigation, sources say. Shares of UK online supermarket Ocado soared on talk of Amazon bid interest. Nvidia board member cashes out on the chipmaker’s surging stock, selling over 100,000 shares for US$51 million. Cisco launches new AI networking chips to compete with Broadcom, Marvell. Google and OpenAI talk to publishers about licensing content for AI. Rivian to adopt Tesla’s North American charging standard. In Canada, Quisitive announced $6 million bought deal financing, in sign that could potentially positive investor deal appetite in H2 2023. Railtown Technologies announced an increase to its LIFE non-brokered private placement to $2 million. Calgary-based startup Eavor, which offers geothermal technologies for producing energy, has raised approximately $80 million in what it called the first close of its Series B round. Québec City-based Poka, is set to be acquired by Swedish enterprise software giant IFS, in a reported $200 million deal. Sophic Client, OneSoft Solutions, is a compelling opportunity for investors who want to invest in an AI company currently monetizing its solution with globally known brands. OneSoft has commercialized machine learning for years with major industry customers, and is forecasting 151,000 miles of pipeline miles on SaaS subscription in 2023, or ~25% of the U.S. addressable pipeline market.