July 11, 2026: Good Week For NASDAQ and S&P 500

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.5%, S&P 500 was up 1.2%, Nasdaq composite rose 1.7%. SK Hynix raised US$26.5 billion in a record U.S. IPO. Blue Origin is raising US$10 billion at a US$130 billion valuation led by Coatue. Zhipu is seeking to raise US$4 billion following a massive stock rally. Amazon is looking to raise US$25 billion via a U.S. bond sale to fund AI infrastructure. Bank of America extended a US$520 million credit line to OpenAI. TeraWulf shares soared after securing a 20-year, US$19 billion AI data center lease with Anthropic. Nvidia shed US$1 trillion in market value, and now trades at its lowest valuation multiple since 2019. SpaceX slid 6.8% upon joining the Nasdaq 100. Microsoft is cutting 4,800 jobs primarily in its Xbox and sales units while divesting several game studios. Disney Plus is reportedly exploring a free streaming tier. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Work and a desktop superapp to challenge Anthropic’s enterprise offerings. Meta released its Muse Spark 1.1 model to developers via API. SpaceXAI and Cursor debuted their joint Grok 4.5 model. China’s MiniMax is developing a 2.7-trillion parameter AI model, while Beijing considers restricting overseas access to its top domestic AI models. The U.S. CISA and G7 partners released minimum guidelines for AI software bills of materials. In Canada, Meta will build a US$9 billion, 1-gigawatt AI data center in Alberta. MDA Space is acquiring a 70% stake in French satellite firm CLS for €567 million. Well Health is spinning out its Wellstar software subsidiary onto the TSXV. Alchemy Labs completed a $13.7 million TSXV IPO. Dominion Dynamics closed Canada’s largest-ever defence-tech Series A and could win initial business in the US. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Legend Power Systems secured multiple public-sector SmartGATE orders. Sophic client Intermap launched an automated Orthorectification service while expanding its European risk analytics platform. Sophic client Hybrid Power Solutions received a C$370,000 purchase order. Sophic also published a few introductory reports on client, Sparq Systems, an innovative microinverter player in the solar space.

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) announces multiple public-sector SmartGATE orders addressing facility operating and capital cost risk.

Legend Power Systems announced new public-sector SmartGATE orders in Ontario, including a specified SmartGATE project for a municipal social housing facility and a follow-on order for two additional systems from an Ontario school district. The orders reflect growing public-sector recognition that poor incoming power conditions can create real challenges for facility operations, operating expenses, equipment performance, and long-term capital planning. The municipal social housing order was awarded through a public RFP process issued for a SmartGATE system and related installation services. SmartGATE was specified as the required solution in the procurement, with the project awarded to an authorized Legend Power reseller for delivery and installation. The system will be deployed at a multifamily housing facility within a large Ontario regional housing portfolio that includes more than 3,000 residential units across an additional 40 community housing properties beyond the first installation. This procurement structure is significant because it reflects a scalable public-sector sales model for Legend Power. Public agencies and institutional owners can specify SmartGATE based on facility needs, while reseller and installation partners support local procurement, project execution, and delivery. Legend Power is actively expanding this partner-enabled approach as part of its broader government, education, housing, and institutional market development efforts. The additional order from Canada’s largest geographically dispersed northern school board includes two additional SmartGATE systems for facilities where ongoing power conditions were identified as contributing to operational issues, higher facility expenses, and increased capital risk. The order is significant because the customer had previously purchased an earlier generation of SmartGATE primarily for energy savings, while the new systems are being purchased to address broader facility performance and infrastructure protection needs. “Facility leaders are dealing with power-related problems that directly affect operations, expenses, and capital planning,” said Mike Cioce, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Legend Power Systems. “These orders show two important public-sector pathways developing around the same issue. In social housing, SmartGATE was specified in the RFP and delivered through a reseller partner, which supports the way many government and institutional customers prefer to procure and execute infrastructure projects. In education, an existing customer is expanding its use of SmartGATE because the value has moved beyond energy savings to solving real operating and capital asset challenges.” Legend Power continues to expand its public-sector sales efforts through direct customer engagement, reseller partnerships, and procurement pathways that make SmartGATE easier for government, education, housing, and institutional customers to evaluate, specify, and purchase. The Company believes these markets are well aligned with SmartGATE’s ability to optimize incoming power at the building level, helping improve electrical stability, reduce unnecessary equipment stress, and support more predictable facility performance. https://t.co/25Qw6SwBz6

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) launches automated Orthorectification service on UP42 platform.

Intermap Technologies announced the launch of its AI-enabled Orthorectification Service on the UP42 geospatial platform. The service enables users to generate analysis-ready satellite imagery directly within their existing and customized workflows. The automated solution converts 2D satellite imagery into accurately positioned geospatial data for commercial, government and defense applications. Intermap’s service combines automated processing with global terrain data to provide a scalable foundation for analysis-ready imagery across imagery types and resolutions. As commercial satellite capacity expands, demand is increasing for scalable image correction and analytics. According to the Satellite Industry Association, the global space economy generated approximately US$429 billion in revenue in 2025, with the commercial satellite industry accounting for US$303 billion, representing 71% of the global space business. A record 4,434 satellites were deployed into orbit in 2025, bringing the total number of operating satellites to 14,266, supported by approximately 800 remote sensing satellites. This growth is shifting the bottleneck from image collection to image correction and analytics. Accurate ground positioning at high resolution and scale allows users of satellite imagery to expand applications beyond visual inspection into mapping, measurement, AI-based analysis and operational decision-making. Intermap Orthorectification Service corrects distortions in satellite imagery caused by terrain variation, sensor geometry and viewing perspective. Using Intermap’s global bare-earth 3D terrain model, the service accurately rectifies imagery to real-world ground locations, supporting imagery from virtually any sensor and resolution. By substantially reducing image warp and other distortions commonly found in uncorrected 2D imagery, the service enables more reliable mapping, measurement, AI-powered analysis and operational decision-making without extensive rework of existing workflows and processes. Intermap is the only company with a seamless, global high-resolution digital terrain model purpose-built for scalable orthorectification and geospatial analysis. The model spans more than 300 million square kilometers across over 150 countries and provides a consistent global foundation for high-accuracy image correction. High-resolution imagery may show roads, buildings, utility corridors and transportation networks, but those features must also be accurately positioned on the ground to support reliable decisions. Accurate orthorectification helps customers align imagery with maps, elevation models and other geospatial datasets, improving infrastructure monitoring, building footprint extraction, utility planning, transportation planning, property boundary assessment and change detection. Intermap’s service simplifies a historically complex step in satellite imagery processing to make satellite data more reliable. Users no longer need to source elevation data, license software or manage manual workflows. Instead, they can select Intermap’s service directly within the UP42 ordering workflow and receive corrected imagery in minutes, depending on image size and input characteristics. The launch expands Intermap’s role within the commercial satellite imagery ecosystem and positions the Company to capture growing demand for analysis-ready data across enterprise, government and defense markets. It also supports deeper integration with satellite operators, platform partners and customers requiring consistent, scalable image correction across regions and use cases. Orthorectification represents another example of Intermap’s strategy to transform proprietary 3D geospatial data into scalable intelligence services. By combining unique global terrain data with automated processing and AI-powered analytics, the Company continues to expand its role in the rapidly growing commercial space and Earth observation markets. https://t.co/WQqXvGDtL8

Sophic Client Intermap (IMP-TSX, ITMSF-OTC) expands Aquarius RMA platform with property valuation analytics and accelerates European growth.

Intermap announced the expansion of its Aquarius RMA risk analytics platform with integrated property valuation analytics, continued adoption by leading Czech insurers and plans to enter additional European markets. The expanded solution combines Intermap’s natural hazard and climate risk quantification capabilities with Flat Zone’s residential real estate data and valuation models, enabling insurers to assess property values within the same workflow they use to evaluate flood and other natural hazard exposures. Intermap combines proprietary 3D geospatial data with hazard, climate, property and valuation intelligence to help insurers improve underwriting, portfolio management and risk assessment. By integrating these capabilities into a single platform, insurers can evaluate increasingly complex risks with greater speed, consistency and accuracy. The new functionality has been adopted by a growing group of Aquarius RMA users in the Czech Republic, including Generali Česká pojišťovna, Česká podnikatelská pojišťovna, Slavia pojišťovna, ČSOB Pojišťovna, PVZP and Direct pojišťovna. These insurers are using the solution to determine market values of residential units, replacement values of family homes and appropriate insured values for underwriting, portfolio review and customer-facing insurance processes. Intermap will launch the service in Slovakia in July 2026 and plans to extend property valuation capabilities across additional Aquarius RMA markets over time. Accurate property valuation is increasingly important as insurers respond to rising construction costs, changing real estate values and growing exposure to natural hazards and climate-related risks. By integrating valuation analytics directly into Aquarius RMA, insurers can connect property characteristics, replacement costs and risk exposure in a single workflow, supporting stronger underwriting decisions, more accurate coverage limits and improved portfolio management. “Resilient insurance markets require a precise understanding of natural hazards and an accurate understanding of the value of the assets being protected,” said Patrick A. Blott, Chairman and CEO of Intermap Technologies. “Aquarius RMA now combines proprietary hazard, climate and property intelligence with AI-powered analytics to help insurers make better decisions faster. Adoption by leading Czech insurers demonstrates the value of integrating these capabilities into a single platform and we are now preparing to extend this offering across additional European markets.” The expanded Aquarius RMA solution addresses a critical challenge facing insurers: Ensuring insured values reflect current market conditions and replacement costs while accounting for evolving natural hazard and climate-related risks. The integrated workflow helps insurers improve underwriting decisions, review portfolios more effectively and provide clearer guidance to policyholders regarding appropriate levels of coverage. https://t.co/ntR7C0gs2Q

Sophic Client Hybrid Power Solutions (HPSS-CSE, HPSIF-OTC) receives C$370,000 Purchase Order from Kiikew Renewables Corp.

Hybrid Power Solutions announced the receipt of a purchase order valued at C$370,000 from Kiikew Renewables Corp. The order includes the Company’s Spark 30 Hybrid Unit, Spark 60 Hybrid Unit, and Spark 30 Cube, together with associated battery packs, fast chargers, and shipping and delivery services. The Spark Hybrid systems integrate the Company’s compact, high-capacity Spark Cube lithium battery storage (30 kWh and 60 kWh configurations) with a 25 kVA generator add-on and towable trailer mount. This hybrid design delivers reliable, portable power for extended off-grid operation in Hybrid’s well established construction vertical, where the Company has demonstrated cost savings at numerous construction sites in North America by significantly reducing fuel consumption, and also reducing emissions, and noise. “The Kiikew team conducted a thorough evaluation and decided to make the Spark the flagship product of their rental fleet. We are excited to deploy these initial units to continue the momentum they have built in western Canada.” said Francois Byrne, CEO and Founder of Hybrid Power Solutions Inc. “This deployment reflects the growing acceptance of our Hybrid power systems across North America as the preferred fuel-free solution for reliable, sustainable power in remote and off-grid applications.” The Hybrid products are for a leading Canadian construction company and will be used at a project site in British Columbia. This order underscores growing commercial demand for Hybrid’s innovative, portable clean power technology within the renewable energy and construction sectors. https://t.co/jkq9Dh13ER

Alchemy Labs Inc. (ALCH-TSXV) completes Initial Public Offering and lists on TSX Venture Exchange.

ALCHEMY LABS INC. successfully completed its initial public offering (the “IPO”) of 13,738,447 units (each a “Unit”) of Alchemy at a price of $1.00 per Unit (the “Offering Price”) for total gross proceeds of $13,738,447. The IPO was completed pursuant to an agency agreement dated June 25, 2026 among the Company, Haywood Securities Inc., as lead agent, (the “Lead Agent”), together with ATB Capital Markets Corp., Beacon Securities Limited, Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Ventum Financial Corp. (each an “Agent”, and collectively with the Lead Agent, the “Agents”). Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (each a “Share”) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant of the Company (each whole common share purchase warrant, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $1.50 per share until July 9, 2028 (the “Warrant Term”), subject to the Company’s right to accelerate the Warrant Term. The Shares were approved for listing on the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) under the trading symbol “ALCH”. The Shares are currently halted, and the halt is expected to be lifted and trading is expected to commence on July 13, 2026. The Offering was conducted by way of prospectus dated June 25, 2026 filed in each of the provinces and territories of Canada (excluding Quebec). A copy of the prospectus is available under the Company’s profile at www.sedarplus.ca. In connection with the Offering, the Company paid and issued to the Agents in aggregate a cash commission of $671,841.18 and compensation options (“Compensation Options”) to purchase up to 533,617 common shares of the Company (the “Compensation Option Shares”). Each Compensation Option is exercisable to acquire one Compensation Option Share at the Offering Price until July 9, 2028. In addition, the Company paid a corporate finance fee to the Lead Agent in the amount of $150,000, which consisted of $75,000 cash and 75,000 Shares. The net proceeds of the IPO will be used by Alchemy to upgrade its facilities, additional research and development for its defence related Crypsis products, increase sales and marketing, general working capital purposes and such other expenses as disclosed in the Company’s prospectus. As a result of closing of the Offering, the Company has 54,549,120 common shares issued and outstanding, of which 14,722,612 common shares are held in escrow and subject to National Instrument 46-201. https://tinyurl.com/3nkd27d6

Well Health (WELL-TSX) to spin out and publicly list pure-play software business on TSXV.

Vancouver-based clinic network and healthtech company Well Health will spin out and list its Wellstar subsidiary on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) later this year. The news: Well Health announced on Tuesday that its pure-play software business has entered a deal to combine with a BC-based shell company before applying to list its shares on the TSXV. The deal will separate Well Health’s primary business, which operates around 270 medical clinics across Canada, from its clinical software tools business. However, Well Health said it expects to remain a “significant long-term controlling shareholder and growing customer” of Wellstar. The combination of Wellstar and the shell company is expected to close this September, contingent on receiving preliminary approval to list on the TSXV. As part of the deal, Wellstar is raising $50 million CAD through a private placement priced at $10 per subscription receipt, which will be converted to shares for backers. Well Health said that the capital will be released to Wellstar once its deal closes to help finance future acquisitions, AI-related innovation, organic growth initiatives, and other corporate uses. Well Health has been working toward this spinoff for nearly two years. In its Q2 2024 earnings call, Shahbazi said that the company was undervalued compared to the sum of its parts and floated the idea of unlocking value by making Wellstar (then Well Provider Solutions) its own, Well Health-controlled public company by early 2025. While it didn’t happen last year, Well Health spent the time loading Wellstar up with assets and capital in preparation. Wellstar has raised over $100 million across two separate equity financings and earlier this year acquired two Canadian medical billing companies to build out its offerings ahead of the spinout. https://tinyurl.com/3hpeauh2

MDA Space (MDA-TSX, MDA-NYSE) will buy €567 million majority stake in French satellite company.

MDA Space is purchasing a controlling stake in Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), a French earth observation company, for 567 million euros ($920 million) in cash Brampton-based MDA announced it will acquire an approximately 70- percent stake in CLS following market close on Wednesday evening. France’s national space agency, Centre national d’études spatiales, will hold the remaining stake. The acquisition will combine MDA’s physical satellite business with CLS’s earth observation services that are used to monitor and analyze the environment, fisheries, and other infrastructure from space. The transaction is slated to close either later this year or in early 2027. MDA is rapidly growing its worldwide footprint through acquisitions. Just last month, the company agreed to buy US satellite maker Blue Canyon Technologies in a cash deal backed by secured debt. Blue Canyon will add more than 400 employees and two manufacturing facilities in Colorado, a key aerospace hub, to MDA, while CLS will add another 1,200 employees across 40 sites worldwide. https://tinyurl.com/mrpb6m26

Alberta to invest $50 million into Amii over five years.

Alberta is investing $50 million into the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). Announced by Premier Danielle Smith at Platform Calgary, the $50 million will be distributed over five years and be drawn from five provincial ministries. The Ministry of Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Advanced Education are both contributing $15 million, while the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services is pledging $10 million. Primary and Preventative Health Services, as well as the Ministry of Education and Childcare, are both contributing $5 million. https://tinyurl.com/ya345j2m

Paraito raises $2.65 million to automate grunt work for Québec notaries.

A Montréal startup is using generative AI to try to speed up one of the most laborious parts of real estate transactions in Québec—and eventually, the rest of the country. Proptech startup Paraito announced on Monday it had raised $2.65 million in equity pre-seed funding, led by Inovia Capital and with participation from Boreal Ventures. It has also raised roughly $650,000 from friends and family, including individual notaries and lawyers. https://tinyurl.com/mr34vxsu

Canada’s getting its first Meta data center, and it’s built for AI.

Meta is bringing a data center to Canada. The company announced on Wednesday that it broke ground for a new AI computing center in Sturgeon County, Alberta, just outside Edmonton. The facility represents an investment of more than $13 billion, or roughly $9 billion, and is planned as a 1-gigawatt data center, the company said in a press release. It will be Meta’s first data center in the country. “This data center will be optimized for our AI workloads, helping bring to life the technologies that billions around the world use to connect, find communities, grow businesses, and experience the power of our wearables,” Meta said. The facility will be Meta’s 33rd data center globally. Meta said it expects the project to support more than 3,000 construction workers at peak and more than 300 “operational jobs” once it’s completed. The company said it will also spend about CAD $60 million, or about $42 million, on local infrastructure improvements. A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider that the data center will cover 2.9 million square feet and occupy 1,750 acres. https://tinyurl.com/4nnuwjku

Canada’s Arctic defender looks south?

Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics closed Canada’s largest-ever defence-tech Series A just before our national holiday. It’s the latest sign of Canada’s defence spending gold rush after the Government of Canada said it would pour half a trillion dollars into reducing the country’s military dependency on the US through domestic capacity. But while venture dollars are now flowing—Crunchbase found 2026 defence funding has already blown past record-breaking 2025—Dominion and many other Canadian defence companies are still waiting for federal commitments to turn into actual contracts. This includes the smaller firms expected to play a key role in helping Canada meet its ambitious targets, which include boosting the share of defence contracts awarded to domestic firms from 43 to 70 percent. A BDC-Icebreaker report from June indicates that a great deal of those businesses are still struggling to secure a seat at the table. “Small companies have to take risks, and we need, as a country, to get companies to take risks,” Pence told The BetaKit Podcast, in a soon-to-be-released episode (stay tuned). “We can’t have a procurement system that over-indexes on not taking risks.” While Pence has quickly garnered influence within the Canadian government, he still thinks there is a 50 percent chance Dominion’s first contract lands in the US, where the company plans to establish an office and subsidiary later this year. Historic fundraising aside, it would be a troubling sign for Canada’s ability to turn financial backing into buying if the first stop on Dominion’s quest to build Canada’s defence neoprime is south of the border. https://tinyurl.com/4p4jwm72

SK Hynix raises US$26.5 billion in record Nasdaq debut.

South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix raised US$26.5 billion in the largest initial public offering by a foreign company in the U.S., surpassing the record set by Alibaba’s 2014 IPO that raised US$25 billion. The company, already listed in Seoul, said it intends to use the proceeds for the construction of chipmaking facilities in South Korea. Its American depository receipts will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday. https://tinyurl.com/48cbe9j8

Amazon looks to raise US$25 billion in US bonds.

Amazon is seeking to raise at least US$25 billion from a US bond sale, Bloomberg reported, continuing a wave of borrowing underway by the company this year. Big tech peers including Google and Meta Platforms have also tapped the bond markets this year as the sector looks to fund a massive AI infrastructure build-out. Amazon sold US$36.8 billion in US bonds and around US$16.8 billion in European bonds in March, and around US$10 billion in Canadian bonds in June. The company also sold US$15 billion in US bonds in November, which was its first US bond sale in three years. Amazon has projected capital expenditures of US$200 billion in 2026, on data centers and other infrastructure, which will likely be significantly more than the cash its operations generate. The company had US$143 billion in cash and securities on its balance sheet at March 31, ensuring it has plenty of money to cover the shortfall. But Amazon is also making investments in companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI, and has committed to buy Globalstar. An Amazon spokesperson said “we regularly evaluate our operating plan and make financing decisions, like issuing bonds, accordingly” and that the proceeds from the bond sale could be used to support business investments, fund future capital expenditures and repay debt. https://tinyurl.com/uks2ds74

BofA extends US$520 million loan to OpenAI.

Bank of America has given a US$520 million credit line to OpenAI in the last couple of months as the AI giant prepares for an initial public offering, two people familiar with the agreement said. The loan brings OpenAI’s total available credit to more than $5 billion, one of the people said. The bank had previously passed on financing OpenAI in October 2024 when the company secured a US$4 billion credit line from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Banco Santander, Wells Fargo, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., UBS and HSBC. Bloomberg first reported on the new credit line. Earlier this year, OpenAI expanded its revolving credit facility to approximately US$4.7 billion. Bank of America has raised nearly US$500 billion in capital for AI-related companies over the last two years, accounting for 60% of such fundraising across investment-grade debt, leveraged finance and equity capital markets, according to one of the people. The new loan to OpenAI makes BofA one of OpenAI’s largest lenders. https://tinyurl.com/fpc4yuyp

AI firm Zhipu to sell $4 billion of shares after 1,500% rally.

Chinese artificial-intelligence model maker Zhipu is seeking to raise about US$4 billion from a share sale after its stock soared almost 1,500% since a January listing in Hong Kong. Zhipu, which trades as Knowledge Atlas Technology, is offering 19.8 million shares at HK$1,588 to HK$1,698 each, according to terms of the deal that confirmed a previous Bloomberg News report. That represents a discount of as much as 13% to the close on Wednesday. https://tinyurl.com/5dbbnxxj

Blue Origin to raise US$10 billion at US$130 billion valuation.

For the first 25 years of Blue Origin’s existence, its founder, Jeff Bezos, solely funded the space company from the fortune he made at Amazon. No longer. Blue Origin has signed a term sheet to raise its first outside capital as part of a US$10 billion funding round that will value the company at US$130 billion before the funding, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Coatue is expected to lead the round with a US$4 billion check, while Bezos has committed to put in US$2 billion as part of the round, the person said. Blue Origin is in discussions with other investors about contributing the remainder of the funding in the round, the person said. The round suggests that a rocket explosion that Blue Origin experienced on its launchpad in Florida in late May has not deterred outside investors from backing the company. Prior to that setback, the company had launched and landed its reusable New Glenn rocket twice—key milestones on its path to building a self-sustaining business. In January, it announced an effort dubbed TeraWave to build orbital data centers, which could provide Blue Origin with a lucrative new revenue stream. And the company has contracts with NASA to deliver astronauts and rovers to the moon. “You’re going to see a lot of Blue Origin hardware on the Moon in the coming years,” the person familiar with the matter said. The success of the June IPO of SpaceX, Blue Origin’s biggest competitor, also brought considerable investor attention to the space category. https://tinyurl.com/yu6nmnbr

Maritime defence startup Kraken Technology hits unicorn status.

British-founded maritime defence startup Kraken Technology today said it had achieved unicorn status. The startup, founded in 2020 by former speedboat racer Mal Crease, said it had raised US$175 million in a Series B funding round at a US$1 billion valuation, according to a press release. The funding round was led by Digital Transformation Capital Partners (DTCP), with support from the British Business Bank, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Rheinmetall, Inocea group as well as VC firms Hico Ventures, Thesiger Capital, and BOKA Capital. Kraken designs and builds autonomous maritime platforms, such as uncrewed subsurface vessels, for military and security purposes. Its tech is used by NATO, the UK Ministry of Defence and the US Navy. It also counts US defence outfit Anduril as a partner. It says it will use the funding to develop its uncrewed surface vessels while expanding manufacturing facilities. ” https://tinyurl.com/fhj3syhr

The Pentagon’s new budget signals next bull market in defense stocks.

Global military spending hit a record US$2.9 trillion last year, driven by significant increases in Europe and Asia, signaling a durable rearmament cycle. A major shift in defense priorities is underway, with the Pentagon’s FY2026 budget dedicating a new US$13.4 billion line item to autonomy and autonomous systems, including drones and unmanned vehicles. This marks a fundamental reorganization of warfare, where value is migrating from traditional platforms to the advanced electronics, sensors, and processing power within these new systems. Companies like Mercury Systems, a defense electronics maker, are already experiencing this demand surge, reporting record bookings and a growing backlog. This indicates a new economic model for defense, focusing on consumable, adaptable weapons and their embedded technology. Investors are advised to look at these component suppliers, as their order books reflect future growth years before revenue. https://tinyurl.com/69njynvy

SpaceX stock slides nearly 7% as it joins Nasdaq 100.

SpaceX shares fell 6.8% to just below US$150 a share on Tuesday, as the company joined the Nasdaq 100 index. The decline suggests that buying demand from index-tracking funds might have tapered off as the date for SpaceX’s addition to the index got closer. SpaceX’s addition to the Nasdaq 100 was expedited under rules designed to incorporate newly public companies with large valuations. The company has less weight in the index than other tech giants like Nvidia and Tesla because only a small portion of its shares were initially available for public trading. Several Wall Street firms, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, initiated coverage of the stock with buy ratings and price targets well above the current share price. https://tinyurl.com/486wnzr5

TeraWulf shares soar on US$19 billion Anthropic data center deal.

TeraWulf shares jumped Monday after the data center provider announced it had entered a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic to provide the AI model maker a purpose-built AI campus at a site in Hawesville, Kentucky. TeraWulf shares jumped as high as 19% before closing the day up nearly 5%. TeraWulf said it is also selling its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy joint venture, a partnership TeraWulf formed with the London-based cloud provider startup Fluidstack in 2025, to a Fluidstack-led investor group for a premium on its roughly US$450 million investment. The deal is expected to generate approximately US$19 billion in contracted revenue, TeraWulf said. Developed in multiple phases, the campus will support 401 megawatt of compute, enough electricity to supply hundreds of thousands of high-performance AI chips. TeraWulf, which started as a bitcoin miner, leases hard assets, such as land and high-capacity power connections, to providers of AI compute. In August, the company agreed to lease a New York facility to cloud computing startup Fluidstack for US$3.7 billion over 10 years, with Google stepping in as a financial backstop to guarantee the lease payments. https://tinyurl.com/mbf25s8p

Magnificent seven’s weakness is starting to become a problem for Wall Street.

One notable group has been absent from the 2026 stock rally: the American tech giants that have charged a nearly four-year bull run. The Magnificent Seven Index, which includes companies like Nvidia Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., has gone nowhere this year, even as the artificial-intelligence boom it’s bankrolling continued to propel other technology names. The group as a whole has trailed 300 stocks in the S&P 500 Index this year, including relative minnows like Dollar Tree Inc. and Hubbell Inc. The shift is vexing Wall Street forecasters, who had counted on the group, which makes up a third of the S&P 500, to help the index rise to 7,824.09 by the year-end, on average. If the trend of tech titans sitting idle continues, the remainder of the S&P 500 would need to rally 6.8% by late December, on top of 13% that group has already gained this year, for that target to become a reality. “From here, I think it would be hard for the S&P to keep powering forward without participation from the Mag 7, specifically because so many sectors that have run up significantly, like energy for example, are subject to some downdraft too,” said Alonso Munoz, chief investment officer at Hamilton Capital Partners. “These names, the Mag 7, have a significant impact on the indexes being up or down.” While the green light is being given for a return to the Magnificent Seven, some believe the S&P 500 does not even need their participation to reach the average year-end target. Sameer Samana, head of global equities and real assets at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, is not sure an improvement in the Magnificent Seven is necessary for the broader gauge to rise. He points to the performance of the S&P 500 excluding the seven mega-capitalization names: they’re currently up 14% year to date. https://tinyurl.com/mry7ku5j

Nvidia’s US$1 trillion slide sends valuation to pre-AI boom levels.

Nvidia Corp.’s stock is the cheapest it’s been since before the AI boom, after losing roughly US$1 trillion in market value in less than two months. The chipmaker’s stock has tumbled 16% since hitting an all-time high on May 14, as investors favor competing semiconductor manufacturers, particularly those in the memory market. Nvidia’s valuation isn’t the result of a deteriorating outlook, as Wall Street analysts have been raising their profit estimates for the coming quarters, with the company expected to deliver the fourth-fastest revenue growth in the S&P 500 this year. The selloff has Nvidia, not long ago the hottest stock on Wall Street, trading at 18 times earnings projected over the next 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The last time the shares were this inexpensive was early 2019. To get a sense of how dramatically it has fallen off, the erstwhile market leader is now cheaper than the S&P 500 Index, which is priced above 20 times forward earnings, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index, which is at almost 23 times. https://tinyurl.com/3nnyb4up

Microsoft to cut 4,800 jobs in sales, Xbox; sell several Xbox Game Studios.

Microsoft is laying off 4,800 employees, primarily in its Xbox and sales units, chief people officer Amy Coleman said in a memo to staff Monday. Coleman said that the cuts in sales were due to reorganizations as Microsoft shifts its business to focus more on AI products, including the creation of a new AI consulting unit announced last week, but added that “the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI.” In a separate memo, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said Xbox will cut 1,600 roles immediately and sell at least four of its game studios. Xbox employs roughly 20,000 people, out of around 220,000 total employees at Microsoft. Sharma told staff the cuts were necessary to make Xbox’s business sustainable, echoing her calls earlier this year for an overhaul of the Microsoft-owned gaming unit following slowing revenue growth and rising costs. “Our business today is not healthy,” Sharma wrote. “We are operating at margins that are 3–10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma said that two studios Xbox owned, Compulsion and Double Fine, had been bought out by their management and would become independent. That will allow those studios to raise new capital and own the IP they created while they were a part of Xbox, according to someone with direct knowledge of the arrangements. While Xbox sold the studios to management for a nominal price, it also granted the studios enough cash to finish their current projects while raising new capital, this person said. Two other studios, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, had entered agreements to be bought by other companies, Sharma said in the memo without clarifying the buyers or price. A fifth studio, Arkane, was beginning legally required talks with regulators in France to explore a similar deal, she added. With the studio departures and other planned job cuts, Xbox expects to cut an additional 1,600 roles throughout the coming year, Sharma said. Over the past decade, Xbox had acquired many smaller game studios in an effort to own more original games to pad out its Game Pass subscription service. Acquiring those studios raised costs without significantly bolstering sales of Game Pass among PC and mobile gamers, according to the person with direct knowledge of the business. As the company sells smaller studios, Sharma is now planning to invest more in Xbox’s biggest in-house game properties such as Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Halo, where she believes it has more of an edge to compete against rivals like Sony’s PlayStation. https://tinyurl.com/fhex76py

OpenAI unveils Claude Cowork competitor, desktop ‘superapp’.

OpenAI, as part of its effort to attract more business customers, announced a new agent—called ChatGPT Work—which taps into corporate data to automate the creation of spreadsheets and presentations, and can also handle more complex tasks like updating financial forecasts and conducting research. ChatGPT Work is OpenAI’s answer to Anthropic’s popular Claude Cowork product, which that startup has used to expand the market for AI coding to non-technical users. ChatGPT Work shows how OpenAI is branching out from consumer-focused AI products as it tries to compete with Anthropic for corporate AI spending. OpenAI also unveiled a desktop “superapp” that marries ChatGPT with Codex and the new ChatGPT Work offering. This reflects OpenAI’s recent realization that Codex is better than ChatGPT in handling long-running tasks that involve multiple steps and require the use of external tools. https://tinyurl.com/mrx9j9kr

Meta courts developers with new Muse Spark 1.1 model.

Meta Platforms said it is making its newest AI model available to developers through an application programming interface, looking to sell access to its AI for the first time after pivoting away from open source AI. Meta on Thursday said the new model, Muse Spark 1.1, improves on the previous version of Spark, which Meta released in April, and outperforms Gemini 3.1, Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on benchmarks for using software tools, answering multidisciplinary academic questions and performing financial analysis. Spark 1.1 will be available in a chatbot format in the Meta AI app and on the Meta AI website. Meta’s decision to also release the model to developers through an API is a first for the company, which had previously targeted its AI releases at individual consumers or released its models open-source for developers to freely download and modify. The cost of the model on the API is similar to the cost of Claude Haiku 4.5 or GPT-5.4-mini, a level that Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said is designed to draw developers. “The pricing is going to be very aggressive and attractive,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg, adding that the new release marks the first time Meta’s models are better than Google’s. Meta is already working on a better model, codenamed Watermelon, he said. To support its AI ambitions, Meta plans to add 7 gigawatts of computing power this year and double that amount in 2027, Reuters reported separately on Thursday, citing an internal memo. https://tinyurl.com/26zu7rpv

SpaceXAI and Cursor launch Grok 4.5, tout lower costs than rivals.

Elon Musk’s AI company, SpaceXAI, and Cursor released Grok 4.5, an AI model focused on coding and agentic work, on Wednesday. The model is the first joint AI model that SpaceXAI and Cursor have developed through their partnership. SpaceX agreed to acquire Cursor last month in a deal that values the coding startup at US$60 billion. SpaceXAI said in a blog post that the model was “trained on datasets spanning knowledge in coding, science, engineering, and math” and is geared towards engineering tasks, as well as basic office work. In a post on X, Musk described the model as an “Opus-class model, but faster, more token-efficient and lower cost,” referencing Anthropic’s flagship product. https://tinyurl.com/tvck4ufv

China’s MiniMax plans to launch 2.7-trillion parameter model.

Chinese AI developer MiniMax is working on a new large language model with 2.7 trillion parameters, larger than any other Chinese AI models currently on the market, according to two people with knowledge of the plan. The new model could be released as early as the third quarter, according to the people. The model is known as M3 Pro among MiniMax employees involved in its development, but it is unclear whether the company will use the same name when it releases the model. MiniMax is planning to open-source the model. The new model is much larger than Minimax’s current flagship model, M3, which has 428 billion parameters. Larger-size AI models can be more suitable for handling tasks that involve complex reasoning and multi-step instructions. MiniMax’s new model could help accelerate the ongoing expansion of Chinese open-source AI models around the world. Such models have gained popularity this year among developers who are looking for more affordable models to handle less critical high-volume tasks. The success of the new model will be crucial for MiniMax, which is facing tough competition from Chinese rivals such as Zhipu, DeepSeek and Moonshot AI. https://tinyurl.com/2c982j7s

Disney Plus is reportedly looking into a free streaming tier.

Disney Plus is considering making some of its content free to watch, according to a report from Business Insider. A source tells the outlet that Adam Smith, Disney’s chief product and technology officer, mentioned a free streaming tier during the company’s town hall on Thursday. It’s not clear which shows or movies the purported free streaming tier involves, or when Disney would consider rolling it out, but Business Insider reports that it’s “part of an ongoing discussion about concepts to better serve fans.” Disney didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment. With YouTube taking up a large portion of viewers’ time in front of the TV, Disney Plus, Netflix, HBO Max, and other streamers are looking for other ways to capture their attention. Disney Plus has already launched vertical video feeds, along with always-on channels, something Netflix is also rumored to be exploring. https://tinyurl.com/yc6r9auv

US CISA, G7 Partners in Europe and Asia release minimum elements for AI Software Bills Of Materials.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), together with G7 partners from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, has released the joint guidance Software Bill of Materials for AI – Minimum Elements, intended to help public and private sector organizations improve transparency across artificial intelligence systems and supply chains. It could also help organizations comply with at least certain obligations under the EU AI Act and other applicable laws. While the guidance is voluntary and nonmandatory (unlike, for example, parallel obligations under the EU AI Act that will be binding once in effect), it may become an important reference point for AI governance, cybersecurity diligence, vendor contracting, procurement, and incident response. CISA describes the AI SBOM guidance as supplemental to general SBOM minimum elements because AI systems remain software systems but introduce additional components, including models, datasets, performance indicators, and AI-specific infrastructure. A software bill of materials, or SBOM, functions as an “ingredients list” for software, helping organizations understand what components are present in a system and how those components may affect security, vulnerability management, and supply chain risk. AI SBOMs are positioned as an extension of traditional SBOMs – Organizations should not treat AI inventory practices as separate from software supply chain governance. Instead, AI SBOMs should build on existing SBOM processes while adding AI-specific information. The guidance identifies seven core clusters of AI SBOM information -These include metadata, system-level properties, models, dataset properties, infrastructure, security properties, and key performance indicators. These clusters are intended to document the AI system as a whole, the models it uses, the datasets involved across the model lifecycle, the infrastructure required to operate the system, cybersecurity measures, and relevant performance metrics. As a result, preparing AI SBOMs based on the guidance could help organizations meet certain parallel technical documentation and disclosure obligations under the EU AI Act and other applicable laws. The guidance applies to both developers and deployers – AI vendors, enterprise AI adopters, critical infrastructure operators, and regulated companies may all face increased expectations to document AI system composition and provenance, even where no formal AI SBOM mandate applies. Dataset and model documentation are likely to become diligence focal points – The inclusion of model and dataset properties (similar to Annex IV of the EU AI Act) moves AI supply chain transparency beyond open-source software libraries and package dependencies. Procurement, security, privacy, and legal teams may increasingly ask vendors to identify model sources, dataset provenance, model limitations, and lifecycle-relevant performance information. The guidance may influence contractual and regulatory expectations – While voluntary, CISA and G7 guidance often informs procurement requirements, security questionnaires, vendor risk management programs, and future regulatory frameworks. The EU AI Act also requires “providers” of “high-risk” AI systems to provide SBOM-type disclosures to “deployers” of such AI systems. Companies that sell or deploy AI-enabled software should expect AI SBOM requests to become more common in enterprise and government-facing transactions. The AI SBOM guidance sits atop a layered and evolving US federal and international SBOM landscape – SBOM concepts already appear across federal cybersecurity policy, sector-specific regulation, and national security supply chain controls. The new AI-specific elements should be read against that backdrop, including the NTIA and CISA minimum-elements work, the US Food and Drug Administration’s statutory medical-device requirements, and the US Commerce Department’s use of SBOMs in its Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) supply chain rules. EU regulators are also likely to issue regulatory guidance with respect to technical documentation and disclosure obligations under articles 11 and 13 and Annex IV of the EU AI Act, which could potentially track elements of the G7 guidance. THE BROADER US GOVERNMENT USE OF SBOM: The AI SBOM guidance does not arrive on a blank slate. Over the past several years, the US government has incorporated SBOMs into cybersecurity policy, sector-specific regulation, and national security supply chain controls, with the legal force of those references varying considerably, ranging from binding statutory mandates to voluntary baselines and discretionary recordkeeping. STRATEGIC INSIGHT: While The CISA/G7 guidance is not binding law, it may still meaningfully affect the standard of care for AI governance and software supply chain risk management alongside parallel binding technical documentation and disclosure obligations set out in the EU AI Act and other applicable laws. In practice, voluntary cybersecurity guidance can become operationally important when incorporated into contracts, customer security requirements, insurance questionnaires, procurement rules, or regulatory expectations. For AI developers, the guidance suggests a need to align engineering, security, legal, and product documentation functions. An AI SBOM may require information that is not traditionally captured in a conventional SBOM process, including model lineage, dataset provenance, benchmark or performance metrics, infrastructure dependencies, and security controls. Companies should consider whether existing development pipelines can generate and maintain this information in a reliable, auditable, and customer-shareable format. For AI deployers, the guidance may provide a framework for vendor diligence. Organizations adopting third-party AI tools should consider whether procurement and security review processes ask for AI-specific SBOM information, including the identity and source of models, use of third-party or open-source components, dataset-related representations, performance limitations, and infrastructure dependencies. For higher-risk use cases, companies may also want to evaluate whether vendor contracts require timely updates to AI SBOMs when models, datasets, or system components change. https://tinyurl.com/2esb7dt9

Beijing considers restricting overseas access to top Chinese AI models.

Chinese officials have held meetings to discuss the idea of restricting overseas access to China’s most advanced AI models, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the discussions. In the meetings, led by China’s Ministry of Commerce, officials discussed putting limits on the most advanced Chinese modes, including both close-source and open-source ones, as well as those yet to be released, according to Reuters. The officials also talked about possible restrictions on who can invest in domestic AI startups, the report said. The talks in Beijing come amid a growing AI rivalry between the U.S. and China. Last month, the Trump administration announced export controls on Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, Mythos and Fable 5. While the White House has recently lifted the restrictions on Fable 5, Washington continues to view cutting edge AI technology as a national security matter. https://tinyurl.com/2s4dzj63

Sophic Client Sparq Systems (SPRQ-TSXV, SPRQF-OTCQB) – Report 1 – Shining a Light on the Bottleneck in Solar.

This report establishes the industry backdrop, highlighting the rapid growth of distributed solar, the importance of India as a key global market, and the unresolved trade-off between inverter performance and cost. It explains why traditional string inverters remain the lower-cost incumbent, why microinverters deliver superior performance, and why closing the gap between the two represents a meaningful opportunity within the solar value chain. https://t.co/QApkmA0uyL

Sophic Client Sparq Systems (SPRQ-TSXV, SPRQF-OTCQB) – Report 2 – A New Approach to the Inverter Problem.

This report introduces SPARQ Systems and its proprietary Q2000 “Quad” microinverter, which optimizes four solar panels with one device rather than using a traditional one-panel/one-inverter configuration. It outlines SPARQ’s technical differentiation, capital-light commercial model, relationship with Jio Things and Reliance Industries, and early order validation, positioning the Company as a potentially lower-cost, high-performance alternative within distributed solar. https://t.co/6UmEve4EgB

Sophic Client Sparq Systems (SPRQ-TSXV, SPRQF-OTCQB) – Report 3 – All (Sparq) Systems Go.

This report ties the investment thesis together by examining SPARQ’s commercial ramp, manufacturing expansion, capital structure, valuation framework, and addressable market across telecom towers, residential rooftops, and Reliance’s broader solar buildout. It highlights how current orders and planned production capacity could materially change SPARQ’s revenue profile, while using Enphase as a category benchmark to illustrate the potential value creation available if SPARQ converts early validation into repeatable scale. https://t.co/El0Y2lUCAW