America loves Canadian chips

AMD has acquired Toronto-based chipmaker Taalas, the latest in a series of Canadian semiconductor startups snapped up by U.S. firms, prompting calls for a national strategy to retain homegrown talent. Paul Slaby, managing director of Canada's Semiconductor Council, called the deal 'a real vote of confidence' but warned that without more late-stage capital and incentives, Canada will keep 'handing our best work to someone else.'

Exactly 20 years ago, Canadian chipmaker ATI was snapped up by American giant AMD. ATI was, at the time, a dominant player alongside Nvidia—the kind of company that could have anchored a Canadian AI hardware industry. Now, AMD has acquired https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 2 Toronto-based Taalas—yet another hot, high-potential chipmaker. And Taalas is just the latest in a growing list https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 3 of promising early-stage Canadian semiconductor startups snapped up by larger US players, alongside Hyperlume, Untether AI, and chip-adjacent CentML. Later-stage peers Alphawave Semi, GaN Systems, and Tenstorrent have also redomiciled, sold to foreign firms, or both. Paul Slaby, managing director of Canada’s Semiconductor Council, called the Taalas acquisition “a real vote of confidence” in domestic talent. “AMD does not buy a team like Taalas unless the people here are world-class,” Slaby told me. But, stacked with these other deals, he said, a pattern emerges. The CSC, which has called for chips https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 4 to be included as a pillar in Canada’s AI strategy, would rather see Canada grow more of its best semiconductor companies into anchor firms and create its own AMDs than witness “a steady stream of early exits,” Slaby said. For Taalas’ team, who previously worked at AMD Canada and launched Tenstorrent, this acquisition is a homecoming that provides the reach and resources to scale. But ensuring that continuing to build independently is a viable path forward for a startup like Taalas requires more Canadian late-stage capital, marquee customers, and tax incentives, Slaby and Blumind co-founder and CEO Niraj Mathur told me. If you ask Ranovus co-founder and CEO Hamid Arabzadeh, the answer might be even bolder: “affirmative action” for Canada’s semiconductor scale-ups, “like China did to create Huawei.” While industry leaders I spoke with congratulated Taalas on the outcome, they also agreed Canada needs a targeted strategy to break this cycle. “If we keep producing world-class talent and IP without a plan to scale the companies that own them, we will keep handing our best work to someone else,” Slaby said. Josh Scott, Reporter Your finance team has better things to do than chase receipts. Time is money. Ramp is a finance automation platform built to save you both. One platform for corporate cards, employee expenses, reimbursements, and bill payments. See every swipe as it happens. Automatically block out-of-policy spend. When a receipt comes in, Ramp extracts the details and matches them to the related card transaction, which can then be auto-coded with GST/HST details and sent straight to your accounting system.1 The average customer saves 5%2 in their first year. Top stories from BetaKit Ready for sovereign launch? Most of the world relies on Elon Musk’s SpaceX to send satellites into space, but it’s getting much harder to hitch a ride. For Canadian space startups https://betakit.com/canada-could-soon-lose-reliable-rides-to-space-what-will-that-mean-for-its-burgeoning-space-industry/ , this could spell trouble, or present an opportunity to build rockets here. Bright spot for VC Amid a tough fundraising market for VCs, White Star Capital, a global firm with Canadian roots, closed its fourth core fund https://betakit.com/white-star-capital-closes-350-million-cad-global-fund/ at $350 million CAD. BetaKit talked to the partners about how they pulled it off. What’s next after Nvidia? After eight years heading up Nvidia’s Spatial Intelligence Lab, University of Toronto associate professor Sanja Fidler is leaving her role https://betakit.com/u-of-t-prof-sanja-fidler-leaves-as-nvidias-vp-of-ai-research/ at the world’s most valuable company. Shopify stock surges Shopify’s stock is up more than 20 percent this week after the company topped 30-percent growth https://betakit.com/shopify-tops-revenue-estimates-in-big-quarter-for-merchants/ in revenue, gross profit, and merchant transactions. The earnings beat comes shortly after online statements from some Shopify board members have invited public scrutiny. A hospital’s “immune system” Two brothers began building Claryx after their grandmother nearly died from an infection contracted during a routine hospital visit. Now, the Canadian-founded, New York-based company has raised $3.5 million USD https://betakit.com/claryx-raises-3-5-million-usd-to-detect-hospital-outbreaks-before-they-start/ for technology that aims to detect hospital outbreaks before they start. Sponsored stories “Intimate, safe, and enduring”: How a founder’s personal loss led to a new kind of business Cremation Tattoos, led by Kerri Parnell and backed by North Forge, is using its patent-pending procedure https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 12 to safely blend cremated remains into memorial tattoo ink. Data point Deals, dollars, drops Who cashed in, or out, this week: - It’s earnings week for Canadian tech. OpenText raised quarterly dividends and increased revenue, Xanadu doubled its loss but raised cash for R&D, MDA Space ‘s revenue jumped by 34 percent. Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Brampton, Ont. Cross Border Impact Ventures secured https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 14 $58 million USD for its second fund, which backs women and children’s healthtech companies. Toronto Walaw closed https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 15 $1.5 million CAD to bring its AI receptionist to more health clinics. Montréal Chexy launched https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 16 a mortgage rewards program through an Aeroplan partnership. Toronto Intellistake plans to acquire https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 17 Dallas-based air screening device company NanoAi Technologies. Vancouver - The feds tapped https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 18 Telesat and MDA Space for a $2.3-billion CAD contract to build out Arctic surveillance. Calogy landed https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 19 a $1.2-million CAD contract to power autonomous drones for Jaunt Air Mobility Canada. Sherbrooke, Que. - Insurtech Apollo was acquired https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 20 by global insurance broker Gallagher. Vancouver, Toronto LoopX raised https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 21 a $4-million CAD seed round for physical AI in mining environments. Toronto, Sudbury, Ont. The refresh A Day in the Life Without American Tech You wake up with a chill. Your Google smart thermostat’s disconnected. Your Chrome browser is down, and WhatsApp and Messenger aren’t working either. The Canadian Shield Institute https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 22 writes about the obvious, and not-so-obvious, ways that losing access to US technology would change our lives. AI is changing finance fast. Is your team keeping up? Join BetaKit and Sage next Tuesday, August 11 at 12 PM ET for tactical advice and practical strategies on how leading finance teams are using AI, automation, and real-time data to make faster decisions, reduce manual work, and build more agile operations.We’ll cover: - Where AI and automation deliver the biggest impact - How real-time data improves decision-making - Practical strategies for scaling finance operations - Lessons from teams already putting AI to work BetaKit Podcast · Aug. 4 “There has never been a more exciting time to found and build a company in Canada.” Melissa Nightingale of Raw Signal Group joined a special Startupfest edition of the podcast, along with co-founder Jonathan Nightingale, the Vector Institute’s Fatima Khamitova, and Toothpod’s Vishar Yaghoubian to discuss why most startups fail. Listen now › https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KZMC5YBRYP3V6WPWTKDJZJX2 25 1 Direct sync available for supported accounting systems: QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Microsoft Business Central, and Sage Intacct.2 This percentage is an estimate, not a guarantee. More details at ramp.com/canada https://ramp.com/canada?utm source=B%7CK%3A%20The%20BetaKit%20Newsletter&utm medium=email&utm campaign=B%7CK%3A%20The%20BetaKit%20Newsletter%2007.19.26%20%2801ManualRampWeek%29 . Contributors: Josh Scott Toronto reporter , Madison McLauchlan Montréal reporter , Douglas Soltys editor in chief , Sarah Rieger managing editor , Trevor Nichols web editor . Feature image courtesy AMD.