Weekly Cache

Weekly Investment News and Analysis

Please see what we’ve been reading in technology and ESG related investing this week. Please feel free to send us what you’ve found interesting.

Latest Investment News

January 17, 2026: Lots Of Action Despite Sideways Index Moves

Last week, Dow Jones fell 0.3%, S&P 500 lost 0.4%, and Nasdaq composite declined 0.7%. Chips and small cap stocks did well, while software seems to be out of favor. Risk-on narratives continue to cluster around defence and sovereign capability buildouts, AI infrastructure and specialized compute, and policy-backed industrial capacity in critical materials and semiconductors. Crypto custodian BitGo is eyeing up to US$1.96 billion valuation in its IPO. Chipmaker Cerebras is in talks to raise US$1 billion at a US$22 billion valuation, while also signing a large multi-year compute supply arrangement with OpenAI. OpenAI will acquire healthcare app, Torch in a US$100 million deal. TSMC guided to record 2026 capex as demand outstrips advanced-node capacity, which was positive for the AI Semi trade. AWS has secured a copper supply arrangement with Rio Tinto. Meta said the company has created a new “top-level” effort called Meta Compute to oversee the construction and long term planning for the company’s data center needs. The Pentagon outlined a US$1 billion investment structure to expand rocket motor capacity at L3Harris. Apple will reportedly partner with Google to overhaul Siri. Google will provide “personalized” Gemini integrations. Anthropic unveiled new healthcare features for Claude. OpenAI will start testing ads, and intro a US$8 per month ChatGPT subscription. In Canada, Sophic client Kraken Robotics reported $35 million of SeaPower™ battery sales to three customers, highlighting rising momentum in unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) power systems and Kraken’s ability to scale production. Boardwalktech expanded and extended a joint engagement (with a global IT services partner) supporting a top-five U.S. bank, adding over US$250k of 2026 value. Juno Industries launched with former defence minister Harjit Sajjan as executive chairman and disclosed a $3 million seed round aimed at dual-use autonomous systems. Canada Rocket Company emerged from stealth with a $6.2 million seed round to pursue sovereign launch capability.

Invesment News in the Past Weeks

September 20, 2020

It’s great to see Nuvei have a successful IPO on the TSX last week — we believe robust IPOs are a very important part of the Canadian public markets ecosystem, even as US capital markets rediscover SPACs. Canadian VC also reported strong activity.

September 13, 2020

Lots of activity in the Canadian VC space this past week, as well as Lightspeed’s NYSE debut. Sophic client, Kontrol (KNR-CSE) had positive news of another successful test of its Covid detection product, BioCloud.

September 6, 2020

We hope you’re enjoying the long weekend with your loved ones. Many high growth stocks pulled back on Thursday, and Friday to some extent – however, valuations still remain elevated. Interestingly a Financial Times piece on Friday suggested Softbank’s option trading could have been tech stocks higher over the summer.

August 30, 2020

Monday saw the one the highest number of SEC S-1 filings for high profile companies going public as we have seen in nearly fifteen years in capital markets. September, should be a very interesting month!

August 23, 2020

While the Tik-Tok drama continues to unfold, high profile companies including SpaceX, Robinhood, Airbnb, Ant Financial, Palantir move ahead to either raise capital or go public. Palantir also plans to move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Denver, which could aid the trend of tech companies being more widely located, which we believe is a tailwind for the Canadian tech ecosystem. For example, Odyssey Interactive’s founders previously worked in the United States but opted to establish the company in Canada, because of the strong startup ecosystem in Canada.

August 16, 2020

Epic Games and Facebook appear to be pushing back against app store policies, which could have far reaching implications. Several high profile companies are expected to go public this fall & Robinhood is garnering lots of attention (including, gracing the cover of this week’s Barrons).