March 1, 2026: Tough Week, Expect Another One

Last week, Dow Jones fell 1.3%, S&P 500 lost 0.4%, Nasdaq was down 0.95%, the weekend’s geopolitical developments could increase volatility next week. The market continues to grapple with the “AI as a headwind” thesis, as traditional software giants faced a reckoning. Salesforce and Snowflake stocks lost 5% and 2% respectively on decelerating growth forecasts. The most dramatic move was IBM’s 13% tumble following Anthropic’s claim that Claude Code can automate the modernization of 65 year old COBOL systems, direct strike at IBM’s high-margin mainframe services moat. Block co-founder Jack Dorsey said the company plans to lay off 40% of its staff as it believes AI tools can help a smaller workforce “do more and do it better.” Nvidia delivered stellar results, yet again including 73% revenue growth to US$68.1 billion. The company is doubling down on its ecosystem, joining Amazon and SoftBank in a massive US$110 billion funding round for OpenAI, which now equates to a US$730 billion pre-money valuation. Meta is diversifying its silicon supply, striking a 6-gigawatt compute deal with AMD that includes warrants for a 10% equity stake, signaling a shift toward co-designed, proprietary infrastructure. CoreWeave is seeking US$8.5 billion in new debt, but for the first time, it’s seeking a credit rating to appease wary lenders. Stripe is reportedly exploring a massive acquisition of PayPal. Netflix walked away from Warner Bros. Discovery, labeling the Paramount-Skydance bid “superior” and the financial math no longer attractive. In Canada, Sophic client, Cybeats Technologies secured a landmark OEM partnership with Keysight Technologies to operationalize SBOM management for safety-critical environments. CPPIB anchored a US$4 billion deal for Nordic data center operator atNorth. The Canadian federal government’s RDII initiative deployed its first $15 million into Ontario-based defense tech like Wolf Advanced Technology.

Sophic Client Cybeats Technologies Corp. (CYBT-CSE,CYBCF-OTCQB) and Keysight partner to OEM Cybeats’ SBOM platform for software supply chain security.

Cybeats announces a partnership with Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), a global leader in design, emulation, and test solutions. Through the partnership, Keysight will OEM and sell Cybeats’ SBOM Studio and SBOM Consumer as the Keysight SBOM Manager platform. Keysight is already applying Cybeats’ SBOM Studio in customer environments, with early commercial activity demonstrating demand for integrated SBOM-driven security and assurance workflows across complex product ecosystems. The partnership also allows Cybeats to resell Keysight binary analysis. The partnership brings together Cybeats’ SBOM and Vulnerability lifecycle management platform with Keysight’s deep expertise in binary analysis, SBOM generation capability, and security validation and assurance. The partnership enhances customers’ ability to translate SBOM data into actionable security and compliance outcomes. Together, the companies aim to help organizations operating in highly regulated, safety-critical environments improve visibility into software components, manage third-party risk, and meet complex, evolving regulatory and customer requirements. “As regulatory and customer expectations evolve, SBOMs are no longer just compliance artifacts; they must be operationalized across validation, assurance, and life cycle management,” said Ram Periakaruppan, Vice President and General Manager, Keysight’s Network Test and Security Solutions. “By integrating Cybeats’ lifecycle capabilities with Keysight’s deep binary analysis and validation technologies, we are enabling customers to move from static transparency to continuous software risk intelligence.” “Keysight works with organizations that operate in highly complex and security-sensitive environments,” said Dmitry Raidman, CTO of Cybeats. “Working closely with Keysight reinforces the importance of treating SBOMs as living operational assets rather than static documents. This partnership reflects a shared view that connecting software transparency and auditability with testing and assurance can help teams make more informed software supply-chain risk decisions.” The partnership supports organizations across industries, including industrial automation, aerospace and defense, automotive, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure, where software supply chain risk and regulatory scrutiny continue to increase. https://t.co/1pigyIDSSc

Sophic Client Renoworks Software Inc. (RW-TSXV, ROWKF-OTC) strengthens Board with the appointment of Andrew Choi as a Director.

Renoworks announces the appointment of Andrew Choi to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Choi is a seasoned technology investor and capital markets professional with deep expertise in software, emerging technologies, and growth-stage companies. He brings extensive experience in evaluating, investing in, and advising technology businesses across multiple sectors, with a particular focus on scalable SaaS platforms and data-driven enterprises. Throughout his career, Mr. Choi has demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. He previously worked at Burgundy Asset Management Ltd., a global investment management firm overseeing billions in assets for institutional and high-net-worth clients. At Burgundy, Mr. Choi focused on analyzing and evaluating high-quality growth businesses across global markets, developing deep expertise in capital allocation discipline, long-term value creation, and the assessment of scalable, technology-enabled platforms. Mr. Choi commented, “Renoworks has built a differentiated technology platform at the intersection of AI, visualization, and the building products industry. The Company is well positioned to capitalize on the increasing digitization of home improvement and construction workflows. I am excited to join the Board and support management in scaling the platform, deepening enterprise relationships, and driving long-term shareholder value.” “Andrew brings a rare combination of capital markets experience and deep knowledge of the technology and software ecosystem,” said Doug Vickerson, CEO of Renoworks. “As we continue to position Renoworks as a data-driven, AI-powered platform for the building products industry, his perspective as both an investor and a technology-focused strategist will be invaluable. On behalf of the Company, I want to welcome Andrew, and we look forward to his contributions as we execute on our growth strategy and expand our recurring revenue base.” https://tinyurl.com/mwkxdcka

Hybrid Power Solutions (HPSS-CSE, HPSIF-OTC) announces repeat orders for industrial and mobile applications.

Hybrid Power Solutions announces it has secured orders for a total of twelve (12) Batt Pack units across its two flagship product lines. This includes: Two (2) units for the Batt Pack Pro (BPP) from a customer in the transportation and logistics sector, building on prior relationships; Eight (8) units for BPP consisting of multiple repeat purchases from established customers in the mining sector; One (1) new order for the Batt Pack Jupiter (BPJ) specifically configured for specialized marine and underwater applications; and An additional repeat order for a BPJ unit from a Western Canada municipality. These twelve units reflect increasing customer confidence in Hybrid’s reliable, fuel-free technology for off-grid, remote, and vehicle-integrated applications. Growing order volumes and repeat deployments highlight expanding adoption as fleets and operators standardize on the platform across multiple vehicles and job sites. “It is encouraging to see renewed activity within the mining sector, with recent orders and repeat engagements across key product lines demonstrating robust market validation of our fuel-free power solutions in real-world, high-intensity applications,” said Francois Byrne, CEO and Director of Hybrid Power Solutions. “A new custom order within marine applications also highlights the durability and versatility of our battery platform as it expands into additional end markets. We continue to see increasing interest from professionals across transportation, defence, marine, municipal, and industrial sectors who require rugged, portable clean energy for mobile and remote operations. This sales activity positions us well for continued growth as we broaden distribution channels and increase awareness throughout North America and internationally.” This momentum aligns with Hybrid’s broader strategy to accelerate the use of clean, portable energy solutions across work trucks, contractor vehicles, specialty automotive upfits, remote operations, heavy-duty trucking, and other mission-critical environments. The Company’s battery systems support improved productivity, lower operating costs, and enhanced environmental compliance for its growing customer roster. Hybrid’s Batt Pack series is designed for seamless integration into vehicles, trailers, and off-grid configurations, delivering high-efficiency power without the noise, maintenance, or emissions associated with traditional generators. Hybrid remains focused on continued product innovation and strategic partnerships to expand availability and drive broader adoption of these solutions. Deliveries are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter ending May 31st, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/2wku4b43

Sophic Client Boardwalktech, Inc. (BWLK-TSXV, BWLKF-OTCQB) reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 financial results.

Boardwalktech is pleased to report its financial results for the three-month period ended December 31, 2025 (“Q3-FY26”). Financial Highlights: Revenues for Q3-FY26 totaled US$1 million, unchanged from US$1 million of revenue reported in Q2-FY26. Revenues for Q3-FY26 decreased 25% from US$1.3 million of revenue in Q3-FY25, primarily due to a decline in software and subscription services revenue from two previously disclosed non-renewals in Fiscal 2025. Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”), a non-IFRS measure, at December 31, 2025 was US$3.8 million. The Company defines ARR, as the annual recurring revenue expected based on trailing quarterly revenue from license subscriptions and certain recurring services. Gross margin for Q3-FY26 was 86.9%, versus 86.7% in Q2-FY26 and 88.4% in Q3-FY25. The improvement over Q2-FY26 is due to a decrease in cost of sales, primarily hosting costs that are anticipated to continue at a lower rate. The decrease from Q3-FY25 is due to lower revenue levels. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3-FY26 was a loss of US$(0.2) million, which was a 35% improvement versus US$(0.4) million of adjusted EBITDA in Q2-FY26 and a 19% improvement over US$(0.4) million in Q3-FY25. “We continue to see existing customers expand deployments across Velocity and our Digital Ledger platform,” said Andrew T. Duncan, CEO of Boardwalktech. “Recent upgrade initiatives and new opportunities are expected to drive incremental professional services revenue and increase high-margin ARR. During the quarter, we enhanced Velocity with AI capabilities and subsequent to quarter-end we formally launched Verity, our first purpose-built AI product focused on automating internal controls testing and monitoring for financial institutions. Early traction with large banks and global partners reinforces our confidence in Verity as a meaningful growth driver. Unity Central also continues to gain momentum with AI enhancements improving enterprise data management and one supply chain customer already live and expanding usage based on measurable ROI. With previous cost reductions now taking effect and improved operating efficiency, we remain focused on accelerating revenue growth and moving toward Adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the near term. We believe the combination of Verity’s launch, Velocity expansion, partner leverage, and continued cost discipline sets the stage for improved year-over-year performance and organic growth into Fiscal 2027 and beyond.” https://tinyurl.com/jj74mb4x

Shopify shows ads on behalf of its merchants in ChatGPT.

Shopify has started arranging for ads to promote its merchants to run in ChatGPT, the company told merchants, in an expansion of Shopify’s existing ad network. The e-commerce software firm buys ad space on various social media sites on behalf of its merchant clients, and charges merchants for their products to appear in the ads. It has now added ChatGPT to the list of outside sites that run the ads, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Google and Snap. A Shopify spokesperson said it sets terms directly with the platforms where ads are show, which it doesn’t disclose publicly. Shopify’s ad network, known as Shop Campaigns, accounts for a small portion of Shopify’s US$11.6 billion in annual revenue, but Shopify is trying to expand it. Merchants can set up an ad campaign, telling Shopify it is willing to pay a certain amount to reach shoppers. Merchants only pay if the ads get the targeted shoppers to make a purchase. OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT earlier this month, and other large retailers and marketplaces have been buying ad space on behalf of smaller brands that pay them to advertise on their sites and apps. Earlier this month, Target confirmed that it was participating in the ads pilot and that brands that advertise through its retail media ad business were also able to participate. https://tinyurl.com/37uncyfp

CPPIB and Equinix Agree to buy atNorth in US$4 billion deal.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Equinix Inc. have agreed to acquire atNorth Holding AB, a pan-Nordic data center operator owned by Partners Group Holding AG. The deal values atNorth at US$4 billion including debt, according to a statement Friday that confirmed a Bloomberg News report. CPPIB will invest about US$1.6 billion and own roughly 60% of atNorth. Equinix will hold the remainder. https://tinyurl.com/ybxstmuw

Summit Partners bets US$122 million on Montreal web sales startup Stay22.

Private equity firm Summit Partners is investing US$122 million in Montreal’s Stay22 Technologies Inc., a startup that offers technology to help publishers and creators earn money from online sales. Stay22, founded in 2016, allows social media influencers, bloggers and others to link their content to another company’s transactional website. When a consumer makes a purchase, Stay22 earns a fee, which it redistributes in part to those creators. https://tinyurl.com/2waz6hjy

Ottawa makes first RDII investments in Ontario with $15 million for CDL Defence and Wolf Advanced Technology.

The federal government has revealed a pair of new Canadian defence technology investments. The feds have allocated up to nearly $7 million in non-repayable funding to Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) to support the delivery of its new defence accelerator and a more than $8-million repayable contribution (or zero-interest loan) to help Aurora-based defence supplier Wolf Advanced Technology bolster its in-house production, inspection, and validation capabilities. The $15-million in commitments will be delivered through FedDev Ontario as part of the $358-million Regional Defence Investment Initiative (RDII), which supports Canada’s new strategy for shoring up its domestic defence industrial base and reducing the country’s dependence on the US. They mark the first two Ontario investments via the RDII. https://tinyurl.com/bdzxusf4\

OpenAI lines up US$110 billion in funding from Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank.

OpenAI said Friday it had secured US$110 billion in new investment at a valuation of US$730 billion before the new money, largely from three companies: existing investor SoftBank and two tech companies— Amazon and Nvidia—with which it announced commercial partnerships. SoftBank and Nvidia will each invest US$30 billion, OpenAI said. Amazon initially will invest US$15 billion and will invest another US$35 billion “in the coming months when certain conditions are met,” Amazon said. Amazon said it had agreed to invest the remainder by the time OpenAI goes public or meets “specified milestones.” It didn’t detail the milestones, but The Information, which previously reported the details of the fundraise, said they could be when OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence, generally defined as AI with humanlike intelligence. Microsoft has not decided whether to invest in the funding round, which will take place across multiple installments, according to someone with knowledge of the company’s thinking. Microsoft previously invested US$13 billion in OpenAI and has a significant agreement with the startup to share revenue and resell its AI. OpenAI is also raising money in this round from financial investors. It plans to raise money in this round from United Arab Emirates’ fund MGX, as well as a consortium of investors in the Middle East. OpenAI will use the new funding to expand distribution of its products and pay for the computing needed to power its models. It’s been fighting to catch up to Anthropic’s lead in coding. OpenAI said its Codex had reached 1.6 million users, triple what it was at the start of the year. https://tinyurl.com/5beua8df

Nvidia revenue growth accelerates—again—to 73%.

Nvidia’s revenue rose 73% to US$68.1 billion in the three months ended in January, 11 percentage points higher than the remarkable growth it reported in the November quarter. It also projected even faster revenue growth—nearly 77%—in the current fiscal quarter. The results shows Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is still in a league of its own in selling the primary hardware that powers AI and its performance is improving even as its stock gets cheaper on a multiple of its expected earnings. The stock is trading at 27 times forward earnings, according to S&P, down from 32 times forward earnings as of three months ago. As always, one of the main long-term concerns about the stock is that a handful of customers make up a majority of Nvidia’s revenue, and their increased spending on Nvidia chips is eating into their cash balances. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang responded to that concern by saying he believed the spending on AI chips was producing profitable revenue among Nvidia customers. Nvidia shares rose 3% in after-hours trading and was up around 4% so far this year before the close of normal trading Wednesday. Advanced Micro Devices, whose revenues are more than six times smaller than Nvidia’s reported revenue growth of 34% in the December quarter. Nvidia generated US$216 billion in the fiscal year that ended in January, with US$194 billion of that total coming from its data center business, which includes its AI chip and networking sales. In the January quarter, it generated US$11 billion in networking revenue, up 263% from a year earlier, as customers increasingly used its NVLink product to connect their AI server clusters. Nvidia’s gross margin improved 2 percentage points in the quarter, compared to the same period a year earlier, and free cash flow more than doubled to nearly US$35 billion. In addition to dividends and share buybacks, Nvidia has been making large investments in some of its biggest customers, and recently made its largest acquisition-like deal when it licensed technology from AI chip designer Groq. Nvidia said Wednesday it paid US$13 billion so far, with US$4 billion in additional costs related to the deal to be paid within a year. The company also has been considering making a US$30 billion equity investment in OpenAI, The Information has reported. “We are finalizing an investment and partnership agreement with OpenAI. There is no assurance that we will enter into an investment and partnership agreement with OpenAI or that a transaction will be completed,” Nvidia said in its annual filing. https://tinyurl.com/4mfh8xmt

Cerebras files confidentially for a U.S. IPO.

Cerebras Systems has again made a confidential filing for a U.S. public offering, according to people with knowledge of its plans. The designer of AI chips and systems has been meeting with prospective investors before a potential listing that could take place as soon as this April, they said. The company had aimed to go public last year, but announced last December it was withdrawing its IPO paperwork. Instead, in early February, Cerebras raised about US$1 billion in a private funding round that valued the company at US$23 billion including the new investment. It also announced that OpenAI had agreed to purchase 750 megawatts worth of computing power from the startup through 2028 for about US$10 billion. The OpenAI agreement could resolve public investors’ concerns that it is overly dependent on one customer. In its original prospectus in September 2024, it disclosed that its investor Group 42 Holding, the parent of United Arab Emirates conglomerate G42, made up a majority of its revenue. CEO Andrew Feldman late last year said it had withdrawn its earlier IPO paperwork because so it could re-file with updated financials and strategy information “including our approach to the rapidly changing AI landscape.” https://tinyurl.com/5xnzbw9r

Amazon’s US$50 billion investment in OpenAI could hinge on IPO, AGI.

Amazon’s decision to invest up to US$50 billion in OpenAI could hang on whether OpenAI goes public or reaches a loosely defined milestone known as artificial general intelligence, which generally refers to AI that is on par with human abilities, according to three people involved who have communicated with OpenAI executives. Under the terms of the investment, which are still being negotiated, Amazon would initially invest US$15 billion into OpenAI, these people said. The other US$35 billion could hinge on OpenAI reaching AGI or going public, the people said. The proposed Amazon investment is part of OpenAI’s current funding round, which could top $100 billion at a valuation of US$730 billion before the financing. In addition, SoftBank and Nvidia each plan to invest US$30 billion in three installments through the year as part of the round, said the people. Microsoft had been expected to invest low billions of dollars. In addition to Amazon’s investment in OpenAI, the two companies are working out the details of a separate cloud agreement. As part of it, OpenAI is in talks to significantly expand its previously announced US$38 billion cloud computing deal with Amazon to include the use of Amazon’s Tranium chips, said the people. The firms are also discussing OpenAI developing custom models for Amazon that would power its internal products, including the Alexa voice assistant. https://tinyurl.com/3jthyf23

CoreWeave to raise US$8.5 billion in chip-backed debt.

CoreWeave is nearing a deal to raise US$8.5 billion in debt backed by its AI chips and contracts from Meta Platforms to purchase cloud services, said a person with knowledge of the deal. The cloud company expects to pay an interest rate of about 6% for the debt, which it expects will receive an A- rating from the credit rating agencies, the person said. That would make it the first of CoreWeave’s chip-backed deals to receive a credit rating, an important stamp of approval for some lenders. CoreWeave, which reports earnings results this week, has continued borrowing heavily as it tries to compete with more established cloud providers and a growing number of copycats renting AI chips to developers. The new debt is cheaper for CoreWeave than its previous offerings, which carried interest rates stretching into the double digits. Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial are purchasing a portion of the CoreWeave debt and selling the rest to other firms, said the person with knowledge of the deal. CoreWeave and Meta spokespersons declined to comment. Representatives for Morgan Stanley and MUFG did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg first reported on the offering. https://tinyurl.com/2f26tpsn

Netflix drops out of bidding for WBD.

Netflix dropped out of the bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery, after the board of the entertainment firm concluded that Paramount Skydance’s takeover bid was “superior” to an existing deal it has with Netflix. WBD gave the streaming giant four business days to raise its offer or walk away. But in a statement issued later in the day, Netflix said it had “declined to raise its offer.” Given the price Netflix would have to offer to match Paramount, “the deal is no longer financially attractive.” Earlier in the day, WBD reported that its revenue fell 7% in the fourth quarter, while its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped 20%. The quarterly result showed that revenue from WBD’s cable channels business—its biggest unit but one that has been in decline—falling 12% while Ebitda fell 27%. Meanwhile, revenue at WBD’s film studio fell 13%, due to a lack of new film releases. The streaming operation lifted revenue 5%, thanks to strong growth in ad revenue. WBD finished the quarter with 131.6 million streaming subscribers globally, up from 128 million in the third quarter. Paramount is offering to buy all of WBD but Netflix is offering to buy only the streaming operations and the studio. https://tinyurl.com/4kbjhyn2

Stripe reportedly expressed interest in acquiring PayPal.

Payments fintech Stripe is considering a whole or partial acquisition of struggling rival PayPal, according to Bloomberg. A Stripe spokesperson declined to comment on any expressions of interest the company may have made for all or parts of PayPal. The publicly-listed PayPal has a market capitalization of more than US$40 billion, although the company’s share price has fallen more than 80% since 2021. Stripe’s 2024 acquisition of stablecoin company Bridge, at a valuation of US$1.1 billion, was the company’s largest acquisition to date. Separately, Stripe on Tuesday said it had signed agreements with investors for a share tender offer that values the startup at US$159 billion. In the company’s annual letter, Stripe said it processed US$1.9 trillion in payments volume last year, an increase of 34% compared to a year earlier. https://tinyurl.com/2s3mz36c

Bytedance valued at US$550 billion in share sale, report says.

General Atlantic is selling part of its stake in TikTok-parent ByteDance at a US$550 billion valuation, according to a report from Reuters. A sale at this level would be a marked jump from the US$330 billion the company was valued at in a share buyback last year, the report says. In January, the U.S. government approved new ownership of a joint venture called TikTok U.S. in order to comply with a U.S. law requiring TikTok’s U.S. operations separate from China’s ByteDance. General Atlantic first invested in Bytedance in 2017, when it was valued about US$20 billion, and has a board seat. As of early 2024, when ByteDance was valued at about US$200 billion, the investment firm hadn’t sold any of its stake, a senior executive previously said. The report also says that Bytedance hit $48 billion in revenue in the second quarter of last year. https://tinyurl.com/cxpb7u8p

Short-Seller Andrew Left is betting SanDisk stock will fall.

Andrew Left thinks he sees a big mismatch between investor perception and reality when it comes to SanDisk stock. SanDisk has been on a tear, surging more than 1,200% in six months as the market eyes a shortage of memory capacity that’s driving up pricing power for companies in the space. Yet, Left thinks the stock is highly overvalued, laying out in an X post why his firm, Citron Research, is shorting the shares. Left has expressed skepticism that certain tech stocks can continue to rally, citing fellow AI standout Palantir as another example of an overhyped and overvalued name. https://tinyurl.com/4jarsjyn

Block cuts workforce by 40% in AI bet.

Block co-founder Jack Dorsey said his payments company plans to lay off 40% of its staff as it believes artificial intelligence tools can help a smaller workforce “do more and do it better.” In a letter to investors published Wednesday, Dorsey said Block plans to cut its 10,000-strong workforce to under 6,000 employees. “We believe Block will be significantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-native company,” he said. Shares in Block, which operates payments brands Square and Cash App, are down roughly 80% from their peak in 2021. The stock rallied in extended hours trading on Wednesday. https://tinyurl.com/jv5vt93y

IBM stock tanks after Anthropic says Claude code can modernize legacy code.

IBM stock dropped 13% on Monday after Anthropic said that its Claude Code tool could be used to automate the modernization of legacy code. IBM mainframes, computers that process a large portion of the world’s financial transactions, run applications written in COBOL, a programming language developed in 1959 that is widely used by banking institutions, insurance companies and government agencies. COBOL supports 80% of in-person credit transactions, for example. Anthropic said Monday that Claude Code can be used to automate the translation of COBOL systems into modern coding languages. The drop in IBM shares follow a selloff by other software stocks on fears new agentic AI tools will lower demand for the older software. Notably, IBM also has a partnership with Anthropic, announced in October, to integrate Claude into the software giant’s products. https://tinyurl.com/msnmhswf

Salesforce stock slips 5% as investors wait for its AI products to boost growth.

Salesforce shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading as the enterprise software firm said Wednesday that revenue in the January fiscal quarter rose 12% to US$11.2 billion, including sales from Informatica, a data management firm it acquired late last year. Excluding revenue from Informatica, Salesforce revenue climbed 8% in the period, 1 percentage point lower than its growth in the prior quarter. Salesforce projected revenue would climb 8% to 9% in the April quarter, excluding Informatica sales. Investors have been waiting for Salesforce to show that its internal AI products, namely Agentforce, will boost overall revenue. On the bright side, Agentforce annual recurring revenue—typically defined as the current monthly subscription multiplied by 12—rose nearly three times to US$800 million. “Agentic AI is a tailwind for our business,” CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. Salesforce stock had fallen nearly 28% so far this year before the market closed Wednesday, as software equities have been hammered by investor fears about the impact of AI on sales growth in the sector. https://tinyurl.com/htx3jk42

Snowflake shares dip on slower sales growth forecast.

Shares of Snowflake dropped more than 2% after its fourth-quarter earnings report after the cloud database provider forecast slower revenue growth for its current quarter and fiscal year compared to last year. Still, investors seem to be less concerned about the potential threat AI poses to Snowflake’s business than they are about its impact on application providers like Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday, whose shares are all down significantly since the start of the year. The big question is how much AI products—which include the data analytics tool Snowflake Intelligence and AI coding agent Cortex Code—will contribute to Snowflake’s future growth. Snowflake revealed in December that its AI products hit US$100 million in annual recurring revenue, but executives didn’t provide an updated figure on the earnings call. On an earnings call, Snowflake CFO Brian Robins acknowledged that the profit margins for AI products aren’t as high as they are for the company’s older products. However, Snowflake has responded by using AI to run its business more efficiently, and as a result, laid off around 200 employees in the fourth quarter while only hiring 37 new employees, Robins said on the call. For its January quarter, Snowflake’s product revenue (the vast majority of its overall revenue) was US$1.23 billion, up 30% from last year’s quarter. For its current quarter, Snowflake is expecting product revenue of US$1.262 billion and US$1.267 billion, up 27% from last year. Snowflake is expecting revenue of US$5.66 billion for its fiscal year ending in January, up 27% from last year, compared to US$4.5 billion and 29% year-over-year growth last year. https://tinyurl.com/ms3tau6a

Meta strikes six-Gigawatt compute deal with AMD.

Meta Platforms struck a deal to buy enough AMD’s AI chips to power six gigawatts of data center capacity over several years, the companies announced Tuesday. In exchange, Meta stands to get 10% of AMD, currently worth US$34 billion, if it buys all of the chips. Six gigawatts is an enormous amount of capacity: for context, a traditional data center typically consumed up to 50 megawatts of power. The deal is a big legup for AMD, which badly trails Nvidia in the AI chip market. The Meta-AMD deal follows last week’s announcement by Meta and Nvidia of a long term “strategic partnership” in which Meta committed to using millions of Nvidia chips across its own data centers and through cloud providers. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed. As part of the AMD deal, Meta will receive warrants to buy 160 million shares of AMD, or 10% of its outstanding shares, for a penny each if it buys all six gigawatts of capacity. The deal is almost identical to the one that OpenAI and AMD struck last year. The deal further illustrates how the tech industry’s insatiable appetite for chips has been a boon to both Nvidia and AMD, neither of which can supply enough chips to meet the growing demand for AI apps and services. https://tinyurl.com/fjp5ne6a

Amazon says it will spend US$12 billion on Louisiana data centers.

Amazon said it plans to invest US$12 billion in data center campuses in Louisiana, to support AI and cloud computing. Amazon said it would take steps to ensure it pays all of the power costs associated with the data center, and is working with the electric utility in the region, Southwestern Electric Power Company, with that in mind. Amazon said its investment would strengthen overall grid reliability for the utility’s electricity customer, and that it was investing in solar energy projects in the state, as well as jobs in the region. Amazon’s commitment comes as political backlash against data centers grows, as consumers worry new data centers will increase their energy bills. Microsoft said last month that it will pay more for the electricity its data centers use to prevent passing costs along to consumers. https://tinyurl.com/2psyed9c

OpenAI strikes partnership with consultants to promote agent software.

OpenAI unveiled long term partnerships with consulting groups McKinsey & Company, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, and Capgemini aimed at promoting its “Frontier” software for managing AI agents to businesses, in OpenAI’s latest shot at enterprise software firms. The offering will compete with similar tools from Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, and other tech giants fighting to control the agent management software layer as AI upends traditional software-as-a-service business models. McKinsey Global Managing Partner Bob Sternfels said in a statement Monday that business executives are facing “unprecedented challenges” capturing value from agentic AI.” “McKinsey’s deep domain expertise and experience with high-impact tech transformations, infused with OpenAI’s leading Frontier technology, will help clients close this gap and capture real value,” he continued. Software stocks fell on the news. Salesforce, Snowflake, and ServiceNow shares sank around 4%, while Microsoft lost over 2%. https://tinyurl.com/rrbwrjrt

Intuit partners with Anthropic on agents.

TurboTax- and Quickbooks-maker Intuit announced a partnership with Anthropic on Tuesday to bring custom AI agents to businesses and consumers on Intuit’s service beginning this spring. The news sent Intuit shares up as much as 5% in pre-market trading. So far this year, Intuit stock has fallen nearly 46%. Anthropic will integrate its Claude agent software directly into Intuit’s platform, allowing Intuit’s business customers to build and deploy AI agents. The enterprise software firm gave one example: A regional restaurant could prompt Intuit’s AI software to scan its proprietary data and identify underperforming locations. Intuit Intelligence, as the AI service is known, is beginning to roll out in beta for its business customers, Intuit said. Intuit also partnered with OpenAI in November of 2025 to integrate its applications into ChatGPT. https://tinyurl.com/vbpkfbwj

Circle jumps 35% after strong revenue, profit growth.

Circle, the second-largest stablecoin issuer, jumped 35% Monday after reporting strong revenue and profit growth in the fourth quarter, paring most of the stock’s decline this year amid a crypto downturn. Circle’s performance shows the growing split between speculative cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC, whose market circulation has held steady despite the recent market sell-off. Revenue jumped 77% to US$770 million for the quarter, driven by growing demand for its stablecoin, partially offset by lower return rate on reserve assets. Circle paid US$461 million in distribution and transaction costs to distribution partners such as Coinbase and Binance, up 52% from a year ago. Net income for the quarter was US$133.4 million, up from US$3.1 million from a year ago. Circle currently has US$75 billion of USDC outstanding, up 31% from a year ago. Tether, the biggest stablecoin issuer, has US$184 billion of USDT in market circulation. Circle’s stock closed at US$83.14 per share on Wednesday, giving it a market cap of about US$20 billion. The shares are down slightly so far this year but have fallen 72% from their all-time peak of $299 per share last June. https://tinyurl.com/3v78kc2f

Nvidia, MediaTek to launch chip for consumer PCs this year.

Nvidia is planning to release a new chip in the first half of this year for consumer laptops and desktops in collaboration with Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek, The Wall Street Journal reported. PC makers such as Dell Technologies and Lenovo Group are working on products using the chip, which has both a central processing unit and a graphics processing unit on a single piece of silicon, the newspaper said. Nvidia hopes the chip will appeal to videogamers who are more willing to pay a premium for hardware, the Journal added. Although Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly confirmed the existence of the MediaTek chips last month, the PC brands that plan to use them and their release schedules haven’t been previously reported. Last year, Nvidia announced a collaboration with MediaTek to build a similar chip for a high-powered AI computer meant for researchers and developers, which went on sale in October. https://tinyurl.com/38t6bc2p

Altman says data centers in space idea is ‘ridiculous’.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the concept of putting data centers in space right now “ridiculous,” taking aim at rival Elon Musk’s argument for why he is taking the merged SpaceX-xAI public. “It will make sense some day,” Altman said, speaking at an event in India. He added that “the very rough math of launch costs relative to the cost of power we can do on Earth, to say nothing of how you’re going to fix a broken GPU in space and they do break a lot still unfortunately…we are not there yet.” Other executives have made similar points in recent months, as Musk has fuelled talk of data centers in space replacing earth-based facilities. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said a few weeks ago that existing technology was “pretty far” from making data centers in space. https://tinyurl.com/ytayaecv

Anthropic says Chinese firms used Claude data to improve models.

Anthropic accused Chinese model developers DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax of using data from Anthropic’s Claude models to train and improve their own AI. The Chinese model developers created over 24,000 fraudulent accounts and generated over 16 million chats with Anthropic’s Claude model to collect conversational training data, Anthropic said in a blog post on Monday. Anthropic described such behavior as an attack on its systems. The company said that such attacks are growing in intensity and sophistication and urged policymakers, cloud providers and model makers to work together to stop them. The announcement comes a few days after Anthropic announced its AI-powered security tool Claude Code Security, which sent cybersecurity stocks reeling in the aftermath. https://tinyurl.com/2dtuvcjm