Toronto-based FinTech firm Koho Financial is close to taking the next step in its journey to become Canada’s “next great bank,” and a whole lot more, according to CEO Daniel Eberhard. Koho first revealed its plans to become a bank in 2024, later securing $190 million CAD in equity and debt to bolster its efforts…
Canadian rocket builders want Canada to stop hitching rides to space at the discretion of foreign providers, and the federal government has put a significant sum towards changing that. At the Canadian Space Launch Conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, the founders of three startups—event organizer NordSpace, Canada Rocket Company, and Reaction Dynamics—unpacked what sovereign space…
Commissioners from four of Canada’s privacy watchdogs have found that OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws while developing and training early models of its large language model, ChatGPT. In a news conference on Wednesday morning, Philippe Dufresne, the privacy commissioner of Canada, was joined by his provincial counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec to deliver…
Top tech firms once cultivated cachet with in-house chefs or office amenities like tennis courts and on-tap craft beer. These days, the mark of success for some appears to be bragging about outsized AI spending—and BetaKit wants to know whether your workplace is on board. TechCrunch’s Tim Fernholz wrote earlier this month that big token…
Amazon, Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, and Microsoft — the so-called “Silicon Six” — avoided nearly $278 billion in US corporate taxes over the past decade, according to new analysis from the Fair Tax Foundation. That number deserves a moment of stillness. It is larger than the GDP of Finland. It is enough to fund NASA…
Five major publishing houses and bestselling author Scott Turow filed suit against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, alleging the company illegally used millions of copyrighted books and articles to train its Llama AI system — and that Zuckerberg himself signed off on the decision to pirate rather than pay. What the Lawsuit Actually…
The AI infrastructure crisis has a new, unconventional answer: float it in the ocean and let the waves handle the power bill. Oregon-based startup Panthalassa just closed a $140 million Series B led by Peter Thiel, valuing the company at close to $1 billion. The round also drew in John Doerr, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures,…
Canada is becoming a deliberate next stop for European startups looking to expand to North America, and the Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) is helping them quickly establish a foothold here. Through its Horizon program, the non-profit organization works closely with European founders to navigate market entry and build traction quickly, compressing a process that…
Moment Energy announced today that the Vancouver-based company has successfully raised a more than $40 million USD Series B round led by fellow Vancouverites Evok Innovations. Founded in 2020, Moment Energy is a cleantech company that repurposes electric vehicle (EV) batteries into commercial-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS). Its proprietary technology claims to have extended…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The numbers from China’s National Energy Administration tell a story that is clearest in two parts. First: over 250,000 metric tonnes per year (approximately 275,000 US short tons) of green hydrogen capacity is now operational in China, more than double what existed at the end of 2024. Second: a…
