Boo birds

Good morning. For the first time in the country’s history, the people of France are drinking more beer than wine. Even with a stockpile of world-famous Bordeaux and Burgundies, a new report found that locals drank 10 million litres more beer than wine last year. What’s possibly more alarming: bread consumption in France has fallen 86% in the past 80 years. 

It appears the French are dealing with a serious identity crisis. What will be the next national staple to fall by the wayside? Cheese? Cycling? The two-hour lunch break? 

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: All eyes will be on Nvidia this week as it reports earnings, a key test for the AI-driven equities rally that’s pushed key indexes to record highs. Meanwhile, as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, investors are becoming increasingly concerned by rising bond yields that suggest inflation is becoming a bigger problem.

If you’re scheduled to deliver remarks to a group of young people any time soon, maybe avoid mentioning artificial intelligence.

Driving the news: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was loudly and repeatedly booed during a commencement address in which he talked up the potential of AI. “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” Schmidt responded.

Why it matters: As AI tools become more capable, people appear to be growing more hostile to the technology. Young people have been relatively positive about its potential, but that may also be changing.

Why it’s happening: Recent grads are concerned that AI is hurting their career prospects — 47% say AI is already impacting hiring in their fields, according to a ZipRecruiter survey. Whether that’s true is still a matter of debate, but a wave of tech layoffs that executives have attributed to AI does not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings among workers.

Our take: The job market for young people is already terrible. It shouldn’t be surprising in the least that there is a swell of anger directed toward a technology that threatens to make the situation even worse without much discernible upside.—TS

NextEra strikes the fourth-largest deal of all time to create a utility giant. The U.S. energy company is acquiring its rival Dominion Energy in a blockbuster deal that will create a US$420 billion energy utility. The deal appears to be an AI data centre play — Dominion is the main power supplier for “data centre alley” in northern Virginia, which handles about two-thirds of global internet traffic. Utility companies are scrambling to build out their infrastructure to meet the sudden surge in energy demand from data centres, nearly doubling electricity prices in parts of the U.S. (Axios)

Elon Musk lost his court case against Sam Altman. A California jury voted to throw out the case on the basis that Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and that the statute of limitations had expired. Musk was seeking an overhaul of OpenAI’s leadership, a US$134 billion penalty, and a forced return to its non-profit structure. For a Silicon Valley legal fight that had all the makings of an Aaron Sorkin script, it's a bit of an anticlimactic ending. (Bloomberg News)

The first Canadian case of hantavirus was confirmed in B.C. A Yukon resident, one of four Canadians isolating after exposure to hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, tested positive for the virus and developed mild symptoms. Unlike other types of hantavirus, the Andes strain can be transmitted from person to person. Nine Canadians who had “high-risk exposure” to the virus are currently in isolation. (Global News)

📡 What else is on our radar:

Shopify just released data that reframes what it means to build a business in 2025, and if you've ever talked yourself out of an idea for being "too specific," this is worth reading.

Nearly 55% of all Shopify sales come from niche product categories, outside of the 100 most popular. Entrepreneurs are continually expanding the landscape of commerce, and finding success as they do it.

The numbers tell the story:

For founders building hyper-specific products, that shift is a game-changer.

Read the research.

What they’re saying: “A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all. Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments…We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality,” wrote U.S. Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby, yesterday. 

Why it matters: Colby’s comments were part of an announcement that the Pentagon was quitting a Canada-U.S. defence advisory board, which has been in place since 1940. The withdrawal is largely symbolic, but it underscores a growing rift between the two countries on defence, despite Ottawa recently hitting NATO’s defence spending target for the first time.

A boardroom battle is brewing for control of Canada’s biggest apparel brand.

Driving the news: Lululemon Athletica wrote a letter to investors yesterday urging them to vote against the board nominees of its founder, Chip Wilson. The company criticized Wilson, saying he had an “outdated perspective” and that his board nominations were merely an attempt to regain control of the retailer.

Catch-up: Wilson stepped down as chairman of Lululemon in 2013, shortly after he made offensive comments about how some women's bodies aren't made for Lulu products. While he hasn’t been on the board in over a decade, he remains the company’s largest individual shareholder and has been a vocal critic of its leadership in recent years. 

Why it matters: Proxy fights like these only happen when a company is in trouble, and whoever comes out on top of this boardroom battle will have their hands full. Lulu’s stock is down over 43% this year, fashion trends are shifting away from its core products, and upstarts like Vuori and Alo Yoga (not to mention cheap private-label dupes) are poaching customers quickly.

Zoom out: Historically, when a company’s stock price and sales are plummeting, investors can be persuaded to return the reins to its founders. A few notable examples include Michael Dell’s return to Dell in 2007, Under Armour’s Kevin Plank just two years ago, and of course, Steve Jobs (that one turned out okay).—LA

With corporate concentration and a lack of competition driving prices up in groceries, banking, telecom and more, Do Not Pass Go is your survival guide to our monopolized times.

Featuring independent investigative journalism through free weekly newsletters and podcasts, Do Not Pass Go helps you understand the competitive issues shaping our economy.

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🇨🇦 14,000. Americans who applied for Canadian citizenship in the first three months of the year, a surge that has created a one-year wait time to process applicants. The sudden spike in applications stems from a recent change that made millions of U.S. citizens with Canadian ancestry eligible for citizenship.

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