Thought Leadership

Last week, after a few weeks of markets being extended, Dow Jones rose 0.7%, S&P 500 fell 2% after hitting a record Tuesday, and Nasdaq lost 3.65%. CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, jumped nearly 33% to 16.53, logging its largest weekly gain since March 2023. However, the VIX is still well below recent peaks of ~21. OneStream Software, backed by KKR is targeting a valuation of about US$4.38 billion in its U.S. IPO. CrowdStrike stock fell 9% on Friday morning, after a flawed software update triggered a major global tech outage that affected banks, airlines, broadcasters and other businesses. Google recently has been in talks to acquire Wiz, a four-year-old cybersecurity startup, for around US$23 billion. GitLab is reportedly exploring a sale to Datadog, sending its shares up 7%. Meta is considering buying a small stake in EssilorLuxottica. Shares of Serve Robotics soared as much as 241% on Friday after Nvidia disclosed a stake in the company. The price of bitcoin and Coinbase jumped on Monday, as investors boosted bets that pro-crypto candidate Donald Trump will win the November presidential election. Broadcom shares rose 3% after a report that the chip designer was talking to OpenAI about developing a new server chip for AI. Shares of major chip design and hardware providers fell Wednesday after reports that the Biden administration is considering tougher trade restrictions. In Canada, Sophic Client, Intermap closed the first tranche of its LIFE offering for aggregate gross proceeds of ~$1.2 million. Sophic Client, ADM Endeavors, continues to add new government clients. The Company is working on a new facility to increase capacity 5x, by the end of the year. The market value of the property value and new facility has increased significantly, representing a hidden asset on the balance sheet. Sophic Client Plurilock Security, added significant heft to its Industry Advisory Council.

Last week, markets had a big shake-up on Thursday, but major indices closed up for the week — Dow Jones rose 1.6%, S&P 500 gained 0.9%, and Nasdaq composite was up 25 bps. That said, with the NASDAQ still stretched, upcoming tech earnings could cause volatility. U.S. venture capital funding surged to US$55.6 billion in Q2, marking the highest quarterly total in two years, largely driven by a few large AI driven rounds. Ticketing app, StubHub has decided to delay its planned summer IPO until after Labor Day. Microsoft and Apple gave up on obtaining OpenAI Board seats amid Antitrust probes. Google ended acquisition discussions with marketing software firm Hubspot. MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, announced a 10-for-1 stock split on Thursday. Electric-vehicle stocks Tesla, Rivian and Lucid showed major signs of life after Q2 deliveries proved to be better than Wall Street estimates. Apple is preparing over 90 million iPhone 16 units for 2024 alone, counting on AI services to fuel demand for its new lineup after a rocky 2023. Hackers broke into AT&T’s systems and stole call and text logs of “nearly all” of its cellular customers, the company said on Friday, blaming a breach of Snowflake’s cloud service for the hack. In Canada, Héroux-Devtek, entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Platinum Equity for $32.50/sh in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $1.35 billion — a 28% premium to the closing share price on July 10, 2024. After reaching US$100 million in revenue, Vena became Canada’s latest “centaur” company. Sophic Client, Xcyte Digital announced the closing of the Webinar asset purchase. During 2023, the assets being acquired generated ~US$2.8 million in revenue and US$615K EBITDA. In our recent report, we look at the market size for cybersecurity and the trends that we believe make this a top investment theme in 2024 and beyond, which bodes well for Sophic Client, Plurilock.

Last week, Dow Jones rose 0.7%, S&P 500 1.95% and Nasdaq composite 3.5%. Alameda-Backed miner, Genesis Digital Assets is weighing a US IPO — GDA traces its roots to one of the earliest crypto mining companies and received over US$1 billion worth of investment from the venture arm of Alameda Research. Northern Data is weighing its AI unit’s IPO at up to a US$16 billion value amidst some valuation controversy. Britain’s Revolut surged to a record profit as it seeks a US$40 billion valuation. SoftBank is discussing with banks how to fund investments of up to US$10 billion in energy-related projects, as artificial intelligence drives an enormous increase in demand for power. Tesla’s vehicle deliveries fell for the second quarter in a row but beat Wall Street’s estimates, sending the electric car maker’s stock up more than 8% to its highest price since January. Apple said on Friday it has approved Epic Games’ games marketplace app on iPhones and iPads in Europe. Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos plans to sell about US$5 billion worth of his stake in the company, his second major round of share sales this year. A U.S. stock rally supercharged by excitement over artificial intelligence is drawing comparisons with the dotcom bubble two decades ago, raising the question of whether prices have again been inflated by optimism over a revolutionary technology. However, tech stocks are more modestly valued now than at the peak of the dot-com bubble, trading at 31 times forward earnings, compared to as high as 48 times in 2000, according to Datastream. OMERS entered into an agreement to sell medical testing company LifeLabs to Quest Diagnostics for $1.35 billion. Canada enacted a Digital-Services Tax amid risks of a U.S. trade retaliation.

Last week, Dow Jones was down 0.1%, S&P 500 lost 0.1%, and Nasdaq composite was up 0.2%. Nasdaq and S&P 500 both reversed after hitting record highs Friday morning. Webtoon, which operates a smartphone app for authors and readers of comics jumped 9% following its IPO. Clario, a provider of software to help drugmakers advance treatments through clinical trials, has filed confidentially for an IPO and is targeting a valuation of US$10 billion+. SpaceX will value insider shares at US$112 each for a total valuation for the rocket company of almost US$210 billion. Anduril has lined up backers for one of the biggest venture deals this year as it is close to finalizing a US$1.5 billion investment, which will value the 7-year-old company at around US$12.5 billion, pre-money. Volkswagen Group plans to invest up to US$5 billion into electric vehicle maker Rivian, giving the startup a cash infusion to help it fund its heavy losses. Amazon hit a market capitalization of US$2 trillion for the first time in trading on Wednesday. OpenAI sales of conversational AI models passed a US$1 billion annual rate. Apple and Meta discussed integrating Meta’s AI assistant on Apple products. Amazon is planning to launch a ChatGPT-like consumer chatbot. In Canada, Sophic Client Legend Power reported its first orders for the city of New York. Sophic Client, Plurilock won Ua 814K three year contract with an existing customer to deliver cloud security to a major laboratory data and advisory firm. Sophic Client, Xcyte Digital announced the closing of the MCON transaction. Hut 8 will receive US$150 million from Coatue to provide AI computing power. Thoma Bravo is exploring the sale of Trader, a Canadian automotive marketplace and software provider. State Street, and Galaxy will jointly develop new digital assets ETFs. Target and Shopify teamed up to expand Target’s third-party marketplace.