June 08, 2025: S&P 500 & Nasdaq Approaching All-Time Highs

Markets closed the week up, despite the social media drama between Musk and Trump. Dow Jones was up 1.2%, S&P 500 closed up 1.5%, Nasdaq composite gained 2.2%. IPO momentum strengthened, with Circle surging 180% in its debut, and Gemini filed confidentially for an IPO. Banking app Chime set a tentative IPO valuation around US$10.7 billion, while Voyager Technologies aims for a US$1.6 billion IPO valuation. Despite these bright spots, enterprise software IPO activity has remained muted, constrained by valuation challenges. Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek notably reduced startup investments significantly, shifting toward lower-risk assets. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s xAI prepared a US$300 million secondary share sale at a valuation of US$113 billion. SpaceX is on track for US$15.5 billion revenue. Samsung is close to a deal to invest in Perplexity and put the AI startups’s search tech onto its phones. Meta aims to fully automate Ad creation using AI. Meta signed a nuclear power deal with Constellation Energy. Shares of data center developer Applied Digital rose 50% after the company said it leased part of a large facility to CoreWeave, a firm that rents out Nvidia chips to artificial intelligence developers. Amazon will test robots for delivering packages. Walmart and Wing will expand drone delivery to five more US cities. In Canada, Sophic Capital client, Ionik reported strong Q1 2025 results, highlighted by 62% Adjusted EBITDA growth. Plurilock announced record quarterly revenue growth and secured new critical-services contracts totaling $1.3 million, underscoring its leadership in cybersecurity services. Legend Power Systems received a follow-on order for four additional SmartGATE units, reinforcing customer adoption and margin expansion opportunities. Cybeats Technologies expanded its SBOM Studio contract with a Fortune 500 water infrastructure firm by 34%. AMD will acquire the engineering team from Toronto-based Untether AI. Crypto startup Rails raised US$14 million, launching its hybrid exchange platform to blend decentralized control with centralized performance.

Sophic Client Ionik (INIK-TSXV, INIKF-OTCQX) reports strong Q1 2025 results led by 62% Adjusted EBITDA growth.

Financial Highlights for the First Quarter 2025: Revenue of $41.8 million, a decrease of 1% compared to $42.1 million in the same period of the prior year (“Q1 2024”), and 14% over the prior quarter (“Q4 2024”). The change versus the prior year was mainly attributable to: i) modest deferrals in activation of advertising budgets from our customer base related to general economic uncertainty, ii) a strategic prioritization of higher-margin internal monetization sources over some external monetization options resulting in an increase in intercompany revenue (and corresponding cost of sales) eliminations upon consolidation, and iii) typical first quarter seasonality as compared to Q4 2024. Gross profit increased 21% to $17.4 million (42% gross profit margin), compared to $14.4 million (34% gross profit margin) in Q1 2024. Adjusted EBITDA of $6.3 million increased 62% over Q1 2024.. Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $6.1 million (96% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate1), compared to $2.0 million (50% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate1) for Q1 2024. Net loss after tax from continuing operations of $3.6 million versus a net loss of $2.7 million for Q1 2024. Cash as at March 31, 2025 was $12.7 million, compared to $14.6 million at December 31, 2024 and $8.4 million at March 31, 2024. As at March 31, 2025, the Company had not drawn on its revolving facility of $10.0 million. Management believes that its current capital position is sufficient to execute its current business and operational strategies. Total undiscounted debt as at March 31, 2025 was $122.5 million, including $84.1 million of senior lender debt, $28.8 million of convertible debt, and $6.8 million in a vendor take-back loan and $3.0 million in working capital note compared to $126.5 million in total debt as at December 31, 2024. Senior debt net of cash was $71.4 million at March 31, 2025, compared to $73.4 million at December 31, 2024. https://t.co/TFdHtgFS2Y

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) reports record first quarter fiscal 2025 financial results.

Q1 2025 Financial Highlights: Total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was $19,040,614 as compared to $12,835,308 for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025, is higher than the comparative period as a result of the timing on a few large orders, and significant growth in professional services along with revenue recognition of software over time. Comparable gross sales bookings under previous accounting interpretations would have been $11,720,167 and $11,254,274 for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively (unaudited). Gross margin for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was 12.2%, compared to 14.2% for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $(1,274,519), compared to $(1,034,999) in the prior year for the same period. Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash on March 31, 2025 was $2,661,180, compared to $1,419,463 on December 31, 2024. The Company has an additional $7,800,075 in unused credit facilities. https://t.co/f6mbCPvWTF

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) secures $1.3 million in new critical services contracts across U.S. commercial clients.

Plurilock has closed $1,319,709 in new contracts between April and May 2025. The deals include multi-year Critical Services engagements with key U.S. commercial clients, further strengthening Plurilock’s presence across regulated and high-risk enterprise environments. Highlights of the new contracts include: A new Critical Services engagement: a $270,484 annual penetration testing agreement with a U.S.-based in-home advertising company. Two contract extensions with a NASDAQ-listed semiconductor manufacturer: a $264,321 renewal for SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) engineering services, and a $784,904 extension for SOC (Security Operations Center) analyst support. These contracts are led by Plurilock’s Critical Services team and delivered in coordination with technology partners CrowdStrike and Abnormal Security. Plurilock remains the lead architect in these deployments, integrating partner technologies as needed while maintaining end-to-end accountability for customer outcomes. “These wins highlight our growing role as the preferred offensive security and advisory partner for organizations operating in complex, high-risk environments,” said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “Critical Services engagements are increasingly board-level initiatives. Our ability to lead comprehensive security programs, from physical penetration testing to SIEM and SOC support, demonstrates both the breadth of our expertise and the trust we’ve earned with enterprise clients.” All new contracts directly contribute to the expansion of Plurilock’s Critical Services business, which grew 178% year-over-year in 2025. https://tinyurl.com/4uym5n6m

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) receives follow-on order for four SmartGATE systems.

Legend Power® Systems, announced a follow-on order for four additional SmartGATE systems from a long-standing customer. These units will be deployed across new buildings within the customer’s existing real estate portfolio. This latest order increases the total number of SmartGATE Gen 3 systems sold to over 70 units since launch. The decision to expand comes after performance data from previously installed systems indicated operational and financial improvements in electrical stability, system reliability, and building operations. The customer has opted to manage installation using its internal team and preferred contractors. This “customer installed deal” structure contributes to improved gross margins, higher upfront deposit terms, and faster cash collection, consistent with Legend Power’s evolving model for customer-directed deployment. “This order reflects the continued execution of our land-and-expand strategy,” said Mike Cioce, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Legend Power Systems. “Customers begin with a small number of SmartGATE systems, assess performance, and then determine where additional systems can be applied across their portfolios. As customers realize the operation and financial benefits of SmartGATE we are beginning to see order size and velocity increase.” SmartGATE is designed to address deviations in incoming utility power by regulating voltage to match the design specifications of commercial building systems. In prior deployments, this has been shown to reduce operational disruptions, extend equipment life, and stabilize critical systems such as HVAC, elevators, and lighting. Repeat orders continue to represent a growing share of Legend Power’s SmartGATE sales. https://t.co/r9wymOpOu4

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) expands contract by 34% with Fortune 500 water infrastructure company to secure global treatment plants.

The Fortune 500 water-technology company first disclosed on May 30, 2024 has renewed and expanded its SBOM Studio licence effective May 1, 2025. The contract renewal and expansion extends Cybeats monitoring to additional treatment-plant controllers, pumping-station firmware, and cloud analytics platforms used on four continents. “Twelve months of solid performance led to a bigger license footprint with this Fortune 500 client,” said Justin Leger, CEO of Cybeats. “Regulations like the EPA’s 2024 advisory and the EU Cyber-Resilience Act are pushing water-sector operators to take SBOMs seriously. That’s driving interest in what we do, and it’s helping us grow within key accounts. These wins are a big part of our 148% net revenue retention and our strategy of building recurring revenue through long-term renewals.” https://t.co/UrERS4Dpi6

Sophic Client Kraken Robotics (PNG-TSXV, KRKNF-OTC) appoints defense industry veteran and former RTX and Boeing executive Kristin Robertson to board of directors.

Kristin Robertson has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors. Robertson, formerly of Boeing and RTX Corporation, is a highly experienced executive with more than 30 years of managing complex portfolios at top U.S. defense companies. She is currently President and owner of KBR Insights, a Virginia-based strategic consulting firm focused on operational excellence, strategy, and growth in the aerospace and defense sector. Robertson has extensive knowledge of disruptive technology, digital practices, and methodologies applied across the lifecycle of defense, space, intelligence, and commercial organizations. She led RTX Corporation’s (formerly Raytheon) space business as President of Space and C2 Systems from 2022 – 2023, providing cutting edge integrated space solutions for defense, intelligence, and commercial customers globally. Before that, she spent 28 years at Boeing in multiple senior leadership positions across military aircraft and autonomous systems programs. As Vice President and Manager of Autonomous Systems, Robertson led a portfolio of seabed projects including Orca extra-large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV) for the U.S. Navy and served as Board Chairman for five Boeing subsidiaries, including Liquid Robotics. Prior to Boeing, Kristin was employed by the U.S. Navy as a civilian electronics engineer at the Naval Aviation Depot in San Diego, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California San Diego and her master’s degree in international business from Saint Louis University. https://t.co/GEIM6kKhKK

American chip giant AMD to acquire Untether AI team.

Toronto-based artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Untether AI has ceased supplying and supporting its products and entered into “a strategic agreement” with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Untether AI announced the AMD deal and its shutdown yesterday in a brief blog post that indicated its team would be joining the American semiconductor giant and Nvidia rival. The exact details and financial terms were not disclosed. According to CRN, which was first to report the news, the transaction will see the California-based multinational acquire Untether AI’s software and AI hardware engineering employees. It is not clear at time of publication what will become of Untether AI’s assets. Untether AI had raised US$152 million (approximately $208 million in funding from a group that includes Intel, Tracker Capital, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Radical Ventures. Its last publicly announced round was a US$125-million financing from 2021. AMD already has operations in Toronto and Canada, dating back to its purchase of Markham-based graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies in 2006. https://tinyurl.com/8fay5a5v

Rails launches hybrid crypto exchange after raising US$14 million in token warrant sale.

Canadian-founded, Miami-headquartered Rails has raised US$14 million (about $19.1 million) through the sale of token warrants and launched its hybrid cryptocurrency trading platform in the United States (US). Rails aims to allow users to trade and retain control and custody of their digital assets while also providing performance typically reserved for centralized exchanges. The startup’s latest financing closed in April. It was led by Slow Ventures with support from fellow existing backers CMCC Global, Quantstamp, and Toronto’s Round13 Capital (including the Round13 Digital Asset Fund). Major crypto exchange Kraken also participated. This brings Rails’ total funding to approximately US$20 million, which includes $6.2 million from early 2024. Rails was launched in 2023 by a team with experience building and investing in tech and crypto companies. https://tinyurl.com/bdz2pd2y\

Circle shares soar 180% in blockbuster IPO.

Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle jumped more than 180% in their first day of trading, reaching a market value of US$17.8 billion as investors rushed into the first big crypto initial public offering under President Donald Trump. The debut could bode well for other crypto and fintech companies seeking to go public this year. Circle’s shares opened at US$69 per share, after pricing at US$31 apiece in its US$1.1 billion initial public offering. It surged to as high as US$103.7, triggering a circuit breaker. Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged 1:1 to U.S. dollars, backed by assets such as cash and U.S. Treasurys. Circle issues USDC, the second largest stablecoin with US$61 in market circulation. They are mostly used by crypto traders to park their money on the blockchain and for cross-border payments. Jeremy Allaire, chief executive officer of Circle, said it became clear during the roadshow last week that Circle could have a very successful IPO. “We met with a lot of investors, and virtually every single one of them placed an order in this IPO,” he said from the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. “I think what people see in this company is that the internet is colliding with the financial system.” Asked about earlier reports that Ripple and Coinbase had expressed interest in buying Circle, Allaire said Circle has not been for sale. It’s central for the company to be independent in order to provide a “neutral” product that can be used by a wide range of firms, including banks and fintech firms, he said. “This is a multi-decade project, and it’s still multiple decades ahead for me, at least,” he said. Allaire expects that Congress will pass stablecoin legislation this year. https://tinyurl.com/yjppbwpx

Crypto exchange Gemini announces confidential IPO filing.

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, said Friday it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering. The announcement came after Circle’s blockbuster IPO yesterday and confirmed a March report by Bloomberg that Gemini has filed S-1 paperworks confidentially. Investors rushed into the first big crypto listing under President Donald Trump and the first since 2021. The public market has been embracing crypto-related companies, including by betting on firms like Michael Saylor’s Strategy that invest in crypto tokens. Circle’s shares continued its rally on Friday, jumping 30% and giving it a market value of US$22 billion. It rose 168% during first-day trading on Thursday and is now up 245% from its IPO price. Gemini, founded in 2014 and one of the oldest crypto exchanges, said its IPO is expected to occur after the SEC completes its review, subject to market and other conditions. It’s ranked as a top 5 crypto exchange in the U.S. by volume in the past 24 hours, according to Coingecko. https://tinyurl.com/4m6dru47

Chime sets tentative IPO price at around US$10.7 billion.

Banking app Chime plans to sell shares in an initial public offering at a price that would value it at between US$10.3 billion and US$11.1 billion, on a fully-diluted basis, the company said in a new securities filing Monday. The company set the price range ahead of a roadshow to meet investors over the next week, ahead of its IPO. The per-share price of the range, between US$24 and US$26, is more than 60% below the price at which it sold shares to investors privately in 2021. It is the latest in a streak of so-called down-round IPOs. The company plans to sell about 26 million shares in the IPO, raising about US$650 million for the business, while existing shareholders plan to sell about US$150 million worth of shares. By far the largest selling shareholder in the IPO is Cathay Innovation, the Paris-based venture capital firm that led Chime’s Series B round in 2017. It plans to sell about US$100 million worth of shares. The updated IPO filing also shows that Chime’s founders, Christopher Britt and Ryan King, each own between 4% and 5% of the company, on a fully-diluted basis. They own a special class of shares that give the two founders a combined 74% of the voting power. https://tinyurl.com/5cv6f7cm

Space firm Voyager Technologies seeks US$1.6 billion valuation in IPO.

Voyager Technologies said on Monday it is aiming to raise up to US$319 million in an initial public offering that could value the defense and space company as high as US$1.6 billion. Denver-based Voyager is developing Starlab, a private space station in a joint venture with Airbus, Mitsubishi, MDA Space and Palantir. The project received a US$217.5 million development grant from NASA and is meant to replace the International Space Station by the end of 2030. The planned IPO comes as the space industry is capitalizing on planned increases in government spending on commercial exploration and other projects. https://tinyurl.com/4axxxcy5

Software remains the missing ingredient in US IPO rebound.

May’s string of successful technology company debuts is reigniting optimism that the once-prolific enterprise software sector will soon resurface as a significant contributor to the US deal mix. Robust initial public offerings last month from EToro Group Ltd., Hinge Health Inc. and MNTN Inc., as well as strong early demand for this week’s IPOs from Circle Internet Group Inc. and Omada Health Inc., point to a much improved market for first-time stock sales from companies spanning fintech, digital health, adtech and crypto. Technology IPOs on US exchanges have raised US$3.55 billion in the year to date, a slight increase on the same period last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Yet activity in the software-as-a-service sector remains anemic. This year’s only US enterprise software IPO so far, Thoma Bravo-backed SailPoint Inc.’s US$1.4 billion debut, has struggled, with shares sagging around 25% below the offering price on Monday. Sharply lower valuations versus 2021, when enterprise software companies were among the most sought after IPOs, linger as a sticking point and the clearest reason why potential debutantes from the sub-sector are choosing to wait longer before unveiling plans to go public. Public SaaS companies are trading at a median one-year forward revenue multiple of just 5.5 times, down from about 19 times in early 2021, according to Meritech Capital data. The equity value weighted average multiple — which gives more heft to the much higher valuations attached to premium software names, such as Palantir Technologies Inc., Cloudflare Inc. and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. — stands at 18.6 times, down from nearly 30 times at the 2021 peak. https://tinyurl.com/yck3ffee

Thoma Bravo raises $34.4 billion, defying industry slowdown.

Thoma Bravo raised US$24.3 billion for its main buyout fund and a total of US$34.4 billion across three funds, marking its biggest fundraising year ever. The software-focused buyout firm raised US$8.1 billion for its midsize software companies-focused Discover Fund and US$2 billion, or 1.8 billion euros, for a new European fund. It has been on an active spending spree, striking a deal in April to buy part of Boeing’s Digital Aviation Solutions unit for more than US$10 billion. Thoma Bravo’s haul shows a sharp divide between top performers and the wider private equity industry. Firms have struggled to raise new money and exit portfolio companies they bought at high valuation. A Bain report shows that private equity firms are holding a record 29,000 companies worth US$3.6 trillion, while total capital raised dropped 23% in 2024 from a year earlier. https://tinyurl.com/ya3u6unk

Singapore’s Temasek cuts back on start-up investments.

State-owned US$300 billion fund says it is adopting a ‘more cautious approach’ on early-stage companies. Temasek, one of the world’s biggest investors, has become more bearish on high-risk unlisted companies, believing it is harder for them to go public, according to people with knowledge of the group’s investment strategy. The change in approach comes after it wrote down hundreds of millions of dollars on a spate of collapsed start-ups, including the crypto exchange FTX, where it was one of the biggest investors, and eFishery, an Indonesian agritech business that imploded last year under allegations of fraud. “Temasek’s investment portfolio has taken some pretty big hits in recent years,” said a fund manager briefed on the group’s strategy. “They are changing their approach to get more diversity and also reduce the volatility of returns.” Temasek’s investments in early-stage companies dropped from US$4.4 billion in 2021 to US$509 million last year, according to data provider Tracxn, with just US$70million committed so far this year. Over the same period, Temasek cut the number of first-round investments it made in unlisted companies from 82 in 2021 to 11 last year. https://tinyurl.com/272mc2st

Samsung in talks to invest in Perplexity.

Samsung is close to a deal to invest in Perplexity and put the AI startups’s search tech onto its phones, Bloomberg reported, a potential blow to Google. Samsung has long been Google’s most important partner in Android, giving Google distribution for its apps on Samsung devices. The Bloomberg report said that Samsung and Perplexity were in talks to preload Perplexity’s app on Samsung phones and its web browser. The report highlights how AI startups are increasingly focused on securing distribution for their apps, by striking deals with phone makers, just as Google has long done for its search and other apps. In testimony in a Google antitrust trial, an internal Google presentation from last year showed that OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta Platforms had each approached Samsung about striking deals to put their AI chatbots onto Samsung phones. https://tinyurl.com/bddthuk5

XAI plans US$300 million share sale at US$113 billion valuation.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is allowing employees to sell US$300 million worth of shares to investors, in a deal that values the company at US$113 billion. That’s the same price for the company Musk announced in March, when xAI bought his social media service X. The secondary offering follows similar sales by xAI’s biggest competitors, Anthropic and OpenAI, and are part of a rising trend in Silicon Valley to offer employees a way to liquidate a portion of their shares. Musk’s other company, SpaceX, also regularly arranges sales for its employees. XAI is also raising a US$5 billion debt offering, arranged by Morgan Stanley, said one person familiar with the matter. The offering was first reported by Bloomberg. https://tinyurl.com/5epp7759

Meta signs power deal with Constellation Energy.

Meta Platforms is buying the power output from Constellation Energy’s Clinton, Illinois nuclear power plant under a 20-year deal announced on Tuesday, the latest sign of how tech firms are dealing with fast-rising need for electricity to power their AI data centers. It also shows how AI computing is lifting demand for nuclear power plants. Last September, Microsoft signed a deal to restart the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, to help power its AI data centers. That plant had shut down in 2019 for economic reasons. Similarly, the Clinton plant was slated to close in 2017 after “years of financial losses,” Constellation said Tuesday. But a new state law passed in Illinois provided for a program to support the plant through mid-2027, when Meta’s deal kicks in. https://tinyurl.com/4zetrvh8

SpaceX on track for US$15.5 billion revenue, Musk says.

SpaceX is set to make about US$15.5 billion this year, CEO Elon Musk said on his social media platform X, with only about US$1.1 billion of the private rocket company’s revenue coming from NASA. Next year, he said SpaceX’s commercial revenue will likely exceed NASA’s budget, which President Donald Trump hopes to slash by a quarter, from US$24.8 billion to US$18.8 billion. The latest figures suggest that SpaceX, which makes most of its revenue from its Starlink internet satellites, could become less reliant on government funding. Some investors expect Starlink to become its own public company in the next few years. Other companies and researchers with fewer resources are meanwhile bracing for cuts to NASA’s science division and dealing with the uncertainty of the agency’s leadership after Trump pulled his pick for the next administrator. https://tinyurl.com/yeyuf6b9

Anysphere, startup behind Cursor, hits US$500 million in annualized revenue.

Anysphere, the maker of popular coding assistant Cursor, has surpassed US$500 million in annualized revenue, according to Bloomberg. The revenue milestone is more than double its pace of US$200 million in annual recurring, or subscription, revenue as of March. It’s unclear what led to such a rapid revenue increase over the last three months. The San Francisco-based startup has also finalized its latest fundraising round, a US$900 million financing at a US$9.9 billion round. Investors in the round for the three-year-old startup include Thrive Capital, Accel and DST Global. With the new funding, Cursor has raised more than US$1 billion since launching in January 2023. https://tinyurl.com/3k27mnw4

Snowflake to acquire database startup Crunchy Data.

The surge in data company acquisitions continued Monday with Snowflake’s purchase of Crunchy Data. Cloud data platform A source familiar with the matter estimated the deal to be worth around US$250 million. The terms weren’t disclosed. Snowflake declined to comment on the deal’s valuation. It’s the latest in a string of tech giants buying data startups to bolster their underlying database offerings that power AI agents. https://tinyurl.com/5h5vuw4e

Indonesia mulls stake in possible deal between Grab and GoTo.

Indonesia’s largest sovereign wealth fund is in talks to participate in a potential deal where Singaporean ride-hailing and food-delivery firm Grab would acquire its Indonesian rival GoTo Group, Bloomberg News reported. The fund, Danantara Indonesia, is considering taking a minority stake in the merged entity, according to Bloomberg. The sovereign wealth fund’s participation in what could be Southeast Asia’s largest tech acquisition deal could help mitigate the Indonesian government’s concerns about Singapore’s Grab taking control of GoTo, Indonesia’s largest homegrown tech firm. The potential deal between Grab and GoTo, which could be valued at more than US$7 billion, has faced obstacles because of potential requirements from regulators, according to Bloomberg. https://tinyurl.com/mr355aj7

Shares of AI data center firm rise 50% after CoreWeave deal.

Shares of data center developer Applied Digital rose 50% after the company said it leased part of a large facility to CoreWeave, a firm that rents out Nvidia chips to artificial intelligence developers. The announcement confirmed earlier reporting that the firms were in talks about a deal. The surge gave Applied Digital a market capitalization of US$2.3 billion. Its North Dakota data center was a risky bet: Applied built it in a remote location and before locking in a major customer. Before the CoreWeave deal, Applied had struggled to find a large customer to rent the 400-megawatt facility. Applied said the deal with CoreWeave involves two leases that span 15 years and could generate US$7 billion in total revenue. One part of the North Dakota facility, which would require 100 megawatts of power, will be ready for CoreWeave to use before the end of this year. https://tinyurl.com/2s338btz

Microsoft reshuffles leadership to focus on AI agents.

Microsoft is reorganizing its top ranks of executives overseeing applications like Office 365 and Dynamics as the company prioritizes sales of AI agents, CEO Satya Nadella told staff on Wednesday. The move is a sign that Microsoft is throwing its weight behind AI products that can automate white collar tasks, especially in areas like sales, as it competes with similar AI agent products recently launched by Salesforce, ServiceNow, and SAP. Microsoft, like other tech companies, is betting that old-school sales software will be disrupted by generative AI applications capable of drafting outreach emails to customers and keeping track of customer accounts, according to an employee with knowledge of the company’s plans. Microsoft is already selling some AI tools powered by OpenAI’s models in its Dynamics software, which competes with Salesforce. https://tinyurl.com/5d9aamyh

Amazon to test robots for delivering packages.

Amazon is gearing up to test humanoid robots that walk on two legs to deliver packages, The Information reported Wednesday. The company has set up an indoor obstacle course to test robots from a variety of companies, including Unitree, a Chinese robot producer. Eventually, humanoid robots could ride in Amazon’s electric Rivian delivery vans and autonomously deliver packages. That could help the company reduce its reliance on the hundreds of thousands of human workers that deliver its packages. https://tinyurl.com/3rt3m7uz

Walmart and Wing expand drone delivery to five more US cities.

Wing, the on-demand drone delivery company owned by Alphabet, is spreading its commercial wings with help from Walmart. The two companies announced Thursday plans to roll out drone delivery to more than 100 Walmart stores in five new cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. Walmart is also adding Wing drone deliveries to its existing market in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The expansion signals Walmart’s growing confidence in drone delivery. Greg Cathey, who is senior vice president of Walmart’s U.S. Transformation and Innovation department, said drone delivery would remain a key part of its “commitment to redefining retail.” “We’re pushing the boundaries of convenience to better serve our customers, making shopping faster and easier than ever before,” Cathey said in a blog posted Thursday. The expansion also marks a turning point for Wing, from Alphabet X graduate to commercial enterprise. Wing partnered with Walmart in 2023 and launched a pilot program to test on-demand drone delivery at two stores in the Dallas metro area that reached about 60,000 homes. It has since grown to 18 Walmart Supercenters in Dallas-Fort Worth. https://tinyurl.com/khrfcyxw

Alphabet CEO expects to keep hiring engineers as AI advances.

Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai said his company will keep expanding its engineering ranks at least into 2026, stressing human talent remains key even as Google’s parent ramps up AI investments. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, Pichai said he will continue to invest in engineering in the near future. US tech leaders like Microsoft Corp. have trimmed more staff this year, reflecting in part the enormous investments needed to ensure leadership in AI. The firings have stoked fears about the technology replacing certain job functions. Google itself has conducted rounds of layoffs in recent years to free up resources. https://tinyurl.com/y6xtjvez

Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours.

Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife. While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace. At a lab in Wako city near Tokyo, the team demonstrated a small piece of plastic vanishing in a container of salt water after it was stirred up for about an hour. While the team has not yet detailed any plans for commercialisation, project lead Takuzo Aida said their research has attracted significant interest, including from those in the packaging sector. https://tinyurl.com/4u7u5s7t

Meta aims to fully automate Ad creation using AI.

Meta Platforms is betting that automation is the future of ads. The social-media company aims to enable brands to fully create and target ads using artificial intelligence by the end of next year, according to people familiar with the matter. Meta’s ad platform already offers some AI tools that can generate variations of existing ads and make minor changes to them before targeting the ads to users on Facebook and Instagram. Now, the company aims to help brands create advertising concepts from scratch. AI-powered advertising is part of Meta Chief Mark Zuckerberg’s grand vision for his company’s evolution. Advertising makes up the bulk of Meta’s business—it brought in more than 97% of overall revenue in 2024—and funds its multibillion-dollar investments in AI chips and data centers, and for training cutting-edge AI models. Using the ad tools Meta is developing, a brand could present an image of the product it wants to promote along with a budgetary goal, and AI would create the entire ad, including imagery, video and text. The system would then decide which Instagram and Facebook users to target and offer suggestions on budget, people familiar with the matter said. Meta also plans to enable advertisers to personalize ads using AI, so that users see different versions of the same ad in real time, based on factors such as geolocation, the people said. A person seeing an advertisement for a car in a snowy place, for example, might see the car driving up a mountain, whereas a person seeing an ad for that same car in an urban area would see it driving on a city street. https://tinyurl.com/5n9a9h54

Appeals court denies Apple request to pause order on App Store payments.

A federal appeals court denied Apple’s request for a stay of a court order that forced it to allow external payments inside apps for Apple devices like the iPhone. The company sought the stay as it appealed an April order that required it to comply with a 2021 court decision that it had violated California competition law. In April, the judge in that case found that Apple had failed to comply with her earlier ruling and ordered it to immediately stop dragging its feet. Wednesday’s decision means that app developers can continue adding external payments to apps, allowing them to bypass Apple’s commission of between 15% and 30%. At The Information’s Future of Influence event on Tuesday, Substack CEO Chris Best said the company had added the external payments and the results so far have been “fantastic.” An Apple appeal of the April ruling is ongoing. https://tinyurl.com/mu4zt7nn

Reddit sues Anthropic for allegedly not paying for training data.

Reddit is suing Anthropic for allegedly using the site’s data to train AI models without a proper licensing agreement, according to a complaint filed in a Northern California court on Wednesday. Reddit claims in the complaint that Anthropic’s unauthorized use of the site’s data for commercial purposes was unlawful, and alleges the AI startup violated Reddit’s user agreement. Reddit’s lawsuit makes it the first Big Tech company to legally challenge an AI model provider over its training data practices, joining a litany of publishers that have sued tech companies on similar grounds. The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for training on its news articles without payment or permission. Notably, Reddit has inked deals with other AI model providers, including OpenAI and Google, that allow these companies to train AI models on Reddit’s data and have the site’s posts appear in their respective AI chatbots’ answers. However, in the filing, Reddit says it subjects OpenAI and Google to certain terms that protect its users’ interests and privacy. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has an 8.7% stake in Reddit, making him the third-largest shareholder, and was once a member of the company’s board of directors. https://tinyurl.com/4wha2sdh

Retailer Temu’s daily US users nearly halve following end of ‘de minimis’ loophole.

Daily U.S. users of PDD Holdings’ global discount e-commerce platform Temu fell by 48% in May compared to March, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, one of many headwinds the e-retailer is facing amid a U.S.-China trade war. Temu decided to slash ad spending in the U.S. and shift its order fulfilment strategy after the White House on May 2 ended the practice known as “de minimis” – which allowed Chinese companies to ship low-value packages to the United States tariff-free. Temu, along with fast-fashion giant Shein, had utilised that provision for years to drop-ship items directly from suppliers in China to consumers in the U.S., keeping prices low. Both Temu and Shein have suffered a sharp drop in sales growth and customer growth rates since U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs, according to data collected by consultancy Bain & Company, but Temu’s trends have been worse than its rival. Tariffs forced both platforms to raise prices, but Shein has been able to increase the amount of money spent per customer compared to a year ago, the data showed, while Temu has struggled. https://tinyurl.com/h65ztyky

Sophic Client Plurilock (PLUR-TSXV, PLCKF-OTCQB) Code and Country Podcast – Episode 13. Andrew Amaro – Former CSIS Ops Lead, Founder of Klavan Security. What do spies, skateboarders, and startups have in common? Security. In this episode of Code and Country, former CSIS technical ops lead Andrew Amaro shares how his background in physical infiltration and cyber operations shaped his approach to enterprise security. We cover why insider threats remain the most overlooked risk, how physical access is still a cyber problem, and why org charts are failing security leaders. Andrew also explains how intelligence tactics can improve security posture, and why collaboration between cyber, physical, and executive teams isn’t optional anymore. If you’re thinking about supply chain risk, insider threats, or how to align security with business growth, this episode is for you. https://tinyurl.com/8m2n7734