Thought Leadership

Last week, Dow Jones rose 1.4%, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 1.1% — Dow Jones and S&P 500 hit record highs. In November, Dow Jones gained 7.5%, S&P 500 5.7% (for their best monthly gains in a year), and Nasdaq rose 6.2%. OpenAI is conducting a share sale for employees to sell about US$1.5 billion worth of shares to SoftBank. CrowdStrike stock fell after issuing a disappointing earnings outlook. Shares of Zoom dropped more than 4% after reporting Q3 results. China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled its latest flagship smartphone featuring a homegrown operating system designed to compete with Google’s Android and Apple. Meta plans to build a US$10 billion subsea cable spanning the world. Meta’s text app, Threads, gained 35 million new signups since Nov. 1, Meta provided the update amid a flurry of news reports about the growth of rival text app Bluesky. Australia passed a law banning social media for under 16s. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into whether Microsoft has violated antitrust law in multiple segments of its wide-ranging business. In Canada, Sophic Client Ionik reported Q3 results and provided a corporate update. Revenue of US$44.0 million, grew 29% y/y, Adjusted EBITDA of US$5.6 million grew 49% y/y. Sophic Client Plurilock, reported Q3 results — 2024 revenue is on track to exceed 2023 revenue. As of October, year-to-date revenue and Gross Margin already exceeds 2023. The company also announced a US$1.2 million critical services contract with a NASDAQ listed semiconductor manufacturer. Sophic Client, Boardwalktech, reported Q2 Fiscal 2025 results. Annual recurring revenue (“ARR”), at September 30, 2024 was US$4.6 million. The company continues to see growth and expansion from existing customers and expects to see both new direct sales and channel sales contracts. Sophic Client, NowVertical announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft and the launch of a global center of excellence.

Last week, Dow Jones gained almost 2%, and set a record close Friday, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite were up around 1.7%.ServiceTitan, which sells software to help tradespeople such as plumbers, electricians and landscapers run their businesses, filed paperwork for its IPO. Klarna’s planned IPO is fueling hopes that a long drought of fintech listings may be coming to an end. AI cloud platform CoreWeave, is aiming for a valuation of over US$35 billion in its expected 2025 IPO. Anthropic raises another US$4 billion from Amazon, and makes AWS its ‘primary’ training partner. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he doesn’t expect the rate of improvement of large language models to slow down, despite recent reports that upcoming LLMs from his company as well as from Google and OpenAI didn’t show as many performance gains compared to earlier models. OpenAI has discussed powering AI in Samsung devices, similar to Apple. Elon Musk’s xAI startup was valued at US$50 billion in a new funding round. Nvidia forecasts 70% quarterly growth as the AI boom continues. Shares of database provider Snowflake jumped more than 19% after it reported that sales grew 28%. Trump’s social media group is reportedly in talks to buy crypto platform Bakkt. Nasdaq poised to list spot-Bitcoin ETF options as crypto assets rally. In Canada, Sophic Client Ionik acquired Rise4 for a total aggregate purchase price of almost US$20 million, in cash, debt and stock, and an earn-out consideration. Sophic Client Kraken Robotics reported Q3 2024 results. Revenue declined 4% y/y to $19.5 million, owing to lower KATFISH and Remote Mine Disposal System (RMDS) revenue. The Companyh’s 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance remains unchanged (revenue of $90.0 million to $100.0 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $18.0 million to $24.0 million), implying strong q/q growth in Q4. Sophic Client Intermap was awarded an initial U.S. Department of Defense subcontract. Sophic Client American Aires showcased its technology at the UFC Performance Institute. The first Neuralink clinical trials outside the US will take place in Canada.

Last week, Dow Jones lost 1.2%, S&P 500 was down 2.1%, Nasdaq composite lost 3.15%, and fell below the lows of the post election gap up. The 10-year jumped 12 basis points to 4.43%. Fed chief Jerome Powell on Thursday signaled that the Fed is in “no hurry,”. CoreWeave closed a US$650 million secondary share sale at US$23 billion valuation, a 3x increase in valuation over the past year. Trump’s win has stoked defense tech bulls, despite talk of a bubble — at US$14 billion, investors have valued Anduril between 18 and 19x this year’s expected sales, traditional defense contractors, which are profitable but grow much more slowly, are valued at ~1-2x sales. Shares of electric vehicle companies including Tesla fell Thursday after a report that the incoming Trump administration hopes to end US$7,500 consumer tax credits on the purchase of EVs. Tesla shares fell almost 6% after the Reuters report. Amazon is developing smart glasses for delivery workers, Reuters reported Monday. Apple is developing surveillance camera amid smart home push. OpenAI discussed plans for an AI data center that could cost US$100 billion. OpenAI is preparing to launch a new AI agent that can use a computer to take actions on a person’s behalf, such as writing code or booking travel, according to two people familiar with the matter. In Canada, Shopify stock was up more than 20% on revenue, margin growth. Sophic Client Intermap announced Q3 revenue grew 241% year-over-year, the stock closed the week up nearly 20%. Sophic Client, NowVertical Group reported Q3 results, which put the company on a path to achieving annual EBITDA of US$10 million, by achieving annual revenue of US$50 million and a best-in-class 20% EBITDA margin, the stock closed the week up around 150%. Sophic Client, ADM Endeavors reported Q3 results, revenue grew 12% y/y, the company is pursuing new school uniform opportunities and has hidden asset value in its new facility. Sophic Client, Plurilock announced a $5.4 million order with a law enforcement agency, and provided a corporate update.

Last week, Dow Jones rose 4.6%, S&P 500 gained 4.7%, and Nasdaq composite leaped 5.7% — all hitting record highs. Palantir climbed 13% on accelerating growth, and a higher revenue projection on Monday, as the company raised its full-year 2024 guidance for the third time this year. The retail favorite stock is now trading at ~35-40x sales. Palantir will also provide Anthropic’s Claude to the U.S. military. Amazon is discussing making another multi billion-dollar investment in Anthropic. VC’s are in talks about an investment in Perplexity, at a US$9 billion valuation, triple the valuation from a round earlier this year. Cryptocurrencies and related equities, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Microstrategy broadly rallied on Wednesday, after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election and Republicans took control of the Senate. Bitcoin hit an all time high, jumping more than 8% to US$75,450. Arm Holdings’ revenue growth slowed to just 5% in Q3, from 39% in Q2, the stock fell 4% in after-hours trading. SuperMicro showed disappointing earnings but “no evidence of fraud”, according to media reports. Airbnb’s growth slowed further in Q3, down eight points from Q1. Pinterest’s revenue growth slowed to 18% in Q3, the stock fell ~15% after the company projected even slower growth in Q4. Apple is reportedly exploring smart glasses in order to challenge Meta, and Snap. According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, Apple is ‘seriously considering’ developing a cheaper Apple Vision device that offloads all of the computing power to your iPhone, essentially developing a headset with primarily displays and a battery. Meta is opening a pop-up retail store for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Baidu will reportedly announce AI-powered smart glasses in China next week. Sophic Client, Kraken Robotics demonstrated a new KATFISH autonomous launch and recovery system to Navy customers. Sophic Client, Plurilock achieved CMMC Level 1 compliance for the United States Department of Defense.