Thought Leadership

Last week, Dow Jones gained 2.2%, S&P 500 was up 1.9%, Nasdaq composite rose 2.3%. Major indices hit record highs after a challenging few weeks. While the US Federal government shut down carries on, next week brings the Federal Open Market Committee meeting with an expectation of rate cuts as well as earnings from several MAG 7 names. Nvidia is discussing guaranteeing portions of OpenAI’s planned data-center loans and expanding chip-leasing arrangements. Anthropic is negotiating a multi-billion-dollar cloud deal with Google and plans to use up to one million TPUs, reinforcing Google’s alternative to Nvidia GPUs and reflecting rapid AI workload growth. Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla predicted that 2% to 3% of AI startups will account for 85% to 90% of the valuation of companies by 2035. The US Commerce Depart. denied that it is “currently negotiating equity stakes with quantum computing companies,” according to CNBC, countering an earlier news report. Warner Bros. Discovery is evaluating strategic alternatives. Netflix reported 17% year-over-year revenue growth to US$11.5 billion and guided to similar Q4 growth, but shares fell on an in-line print. Tesla’s profit fell 37% in Q3 despite end of tax credit boosting sales. Super Micro Computer shares fell 6% on Thursday after the company released weak preliminary results. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-Powered web browser. Amazon reportedly expects to avoid adding hundreds of thousands of workers due to robots. Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s developing AI-powered smart glasses for its delivery drivers, the company also launched new AI recommendation feature to help shoppers make decisions. In Canada, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez believes the Toronto-based artificial intelligence (AI) scaleup could hit the public markets “soon.” FINTRAC fined exchange operator Cryptomus (Xeltox Enterprises) ~C$177 million for extensive AML reporting failures. Sophic Client, Cybeats secured a multi-year renewal with Schneider Electric.

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1.6%, S&P 500 gained 1.7%, Nasdaq composite was up 2.1%. The majority of gains came Monday, which was a partial recovery from the previous Friday’s ugly sell-off. Headline moves masked volatility arising from headlines pertaining to US tariffs, regional banks/private credit concerns, US federal government shutdown, and AI margin questions. The continuing U.S. government shutdown has compressed the viable remaining 2025 IPO window to roughly four weeks into year-end. That said, Strava signaled an intent to list, along with a few other names. 54% of fund managers called AI stocks a bubble, according to a recent survey. An “investment surge” in artificial intelligence has helped the US avoid a sharp slowdown but risks stoking inflation, the IMF’s chief economist has warned, as the fund upgraded its outlook for the world’s largest economy. Quantum names ripped after JP Morgan earmarked US$10 billion for “frontier tech.” OpenAI announced a new chip design deal with Broadcom, the latest in a succession of announcements by OpenAI to assure itself of more computing capacity. Oracle raised its FY30 AI Cloud revenue and GPU rental target margins, despite near term skepticism. Meta will finance a Louisiana Data Center via ~US$27 billion SPV debt. Google will “backstop” TeraWulf Data Center bonds. A group of investors including BlackRock and Abu Dhabi’s MGX acquired Aligned Data Centers in a roughly US$40 billion deal, the latest big investment in companies building data centers for the tech giants. In Canada, Dominion Dynamics secured $4 million pre-seed round to build an Arctic multi-domain sensor fabric, supported by a high-caliber Canadian advisory bench. In news pertaining to Sophic Clients, Plurilock announced a $3.0 million non-brokered 10% convertible debenture with warrants (convert $0.23, warrants $0.25, 3-yr), to scale Critical Services, international expansion, and progress toward profitability.

Last week, Dow Jones fell 2.7%, S&P 500 lost 2.4%. Nasdaq composite was down 2.5%. The market was headed for a mixed week, owing to questions re. the AI trade and Friday’s tariff re-escalation led to the largest pullbacks in NASDAQ and S&P 500 in over six months. OpenAI’s dev event again showed a “halo effect,” with mere mentions lifting names like Figma, HubSpot, Salesforce, Expedia, TripAdvisor. At the same time, concern is building over dot-com-style stock pops (US$100 billion + intraday swings) and circular AI deal finance. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan flagged record AI-linked debt issuance. A report indicated Oracle’s Nvidia cloud margins averaged ~16%. Jensen Huang countered Oracle will be “wonderfully profitable” over a system’s life and noted AI compute demand has surged in recent months, with power constraints pushing toward on-site generation (natural gas, eventually nuclear). Prediction markets saw financings as Kalshi is raising at a US$5 billion valuation, and ICE will invest up to US$2 billion in Polymarket. xAI is targeting a US$20 billion round with an SPV to finance Nvidia GPUs. SoftBank will acquire ABB’s robotics arm for US$5.4 billion to fuse AI + automation. Reuters says Confluent is exploring a sale. ASML fell on renewed U.S. scrutiny of China exposure. In Canada, investors are rotating to defense, construction, and metals as Ottawa signals higher military spend and accelerated nation-building projects. A new US$100 million TSX SPAC targeting mission-critical Canadian tech (space/defense/services) was launched. Toronto legaltech, Spellbook raised a US$50 million Series B. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Legend Power signed a North America–wide channel deal with a Fortune 500 facilities franchise network, with 150+ partners, and ~10,000 buildings, broadening access for SmartGATE™ and aligning with an equipment-only, contractor-installed model. Plurilock announced a dedicated federal capture team, new Critical Services wins, and repeat U.S./Canadian federal orders.

Last week, Dow Jones gained 1.1%, S&P 500 index rose 1.1%, Nasdaq composite was up 1.3%, despite a modest pullback Friday. AI related stocks, nuclear names, quantum computing stocks remain strong. The OpenAI employee stock tender reportedly values the company at ~US$500 billion (with OpenAI now surpassing SpaceX as the highest valued private company). H1/25 revenue grew to US$4.3 billion and cash burn was US$2.5 billion. OpenAI will also reportedly release a TikTok-like social app alongside Sora 2. The new IPO Fermi, rallied to a ~US$21.5 valuation on its NASDAQ debut, despite no revenue, underscoring the land/power-AI adjacent trade. Wealthfront, Navan, TravelPerk, and Zelis Healthcare are planning IPOs. Meta will acquire chip startup Rivos, and OpenAI taps Samsung/SK Hynix for massive High Bandwidth Memory supply. Salesforce is targeting AI developers with a new vibe coding service. Stripe is pursuing federal and NY trust charters to power client-issued stablecoins. Amazon’s ‘NBA on Prime’ streams will include FanDuel bet tracking, shopping integration, and more. Wolfspeed shares surged 33% on Tuesday, after the chipmaker successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a substantially reduced debt load. In Canada, Shopify partnered with OpenAI as ChatGPT rolls out in-app shopping and “Instant Checkout” sending its stock up ~6%. In news pertaining to Sophic clients, Intermap closed its upsized bought deal for C$28.75 million, including the full shoe. Boardwalktech signed a multi-year Velocity deployment with an NYSE-listed global pro-services firm for US$70K ARR and US$40K follow-on. Plurilock made a key executive appointment to scale higher-margin federal/defence across U.S., Canada, NATO markets. Kraken Robotics, completed brand integration with 3D at Depth.

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.15%, S&P 500 was down 0.3%, Nasdaq composite lost 0.65%. September is tracking to be the busiest U.S. IPO month since Nov-2021 (US$7.6 billion excluding SPACs) with mixed after-markets (Netskope +18%, Stubhub −6%). Data-center land play, Fermi, is targeting a ~US$13 billion IPO valuation despite no revenue, underscoring the scarcity of land and power. Oracle upsized its long-dated bond sale to fund AI infrastructure to US$18 billion. Nvidia and OpenAI outlined up to US$100 billion of staged funding tied to ~10 GW of capacity. Nvidia could own, for an initial US$10 billion, ~2% of OpenAI equity, with chip-leasing models also under discussion. OpenAI expanded its Coreweave commitment to US$22.4 billion. Microsoft added Anthropic models into Copilot. Apple is testing an internal ChatGPT-like “Veritas” app for the revamped Siri. Google DeepMind released the latest version of its flagship language model designed for powering robots. Humanoid robots are Meta’s next ‘AR-size bet’. Micron beat expectations with +46% sales on strong High Bandwidth memory demand. Alibaba Group’s share price rose more than 9% on Wednesday, after the Chinese tech giant announced a slew of artificial intelligence related developments. Stripe is exploring a US$106.7 billion tender. EA is reportedly being taken private for ~US$50 billion. Tether is evaluating a speculated US$15–20 billion raise. Cloudflare is considering a USD stablecoin (NET Dollar) for AI agent payments. In Canada Sophic client, Intermap, launched a $20.1 million bought deal at $3.00, then upsized to $25.million (greenshoe to $28.8 million), for working capital and growth flexibility. Sophic client, Legend Power commissioned its first SmartGATE install with the U.S. Federal Government via GSA’s CEBT program.

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1.05%, S&P 500 was up 1.2%, and Nasdaq gained 2.2%. Following an as-expected rate cut, risk appetite stayed firm across AI infrastructure and IPOs despite some mixed headlines pertaining to China’s scrutiny of Nvidia, and TikTok détente signals. Netskope priced at the top of its IPO range, and closed +18% (US$8.6B cap). StubHub finished below issue price (−6%). Crypto custodian BitGo filed for an IPO. Travel software company, Navan, showed 30% revenue growth but ongoing losses as it filed its IPO paperwork. Elon Musk’s xAI saw funding chatter. Microsoft announced a ~US$30B UK AI investment. UK Autonomous driving company, Wayve, neared a US$500M funding from Nvidia. Nvidia will also buy US$5 of Intel stock, alongside a CPU collaboration for AI systems. CoreWeave inked a US$6.3B capacity take-or-pay with Nvidia through 2032. Oracle is reportedly in multi-year talks with META after previously signing “significant” AI contracts with OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia. Huawei laid out a 2026–28 AI-chip roadmap to blunt Nvidia in China. Beijing is also probing Nvidia’s 2020 Mellanox acquisition, and advised against purchasing certain downgraded Nvidia chips. Google crossed US$3T market cap. Robinhood is preparing a retail venture capital fund. META launched new Ray-Ban/Oakley smart glasses (one model includes display + wristband), spotlighting growing AR form-factor momentum despite Reality Labs losses. In Canada, the RCMP shut exchange TradeOgre, seizing ~C$56M in digital assets in Canada’s largest crypto seizure to date. Sophic Client, Intermap, filed a $100M base shelf (25-month window), adding financing flexibility for growth contracts. Sophic Client Plurilock, announced three new Critical Services wins plus two expansions. Management cited over >$10M additions to its pipeline.