Calling all brainiacs

Good morning. Looking for a real conversation piece for your next formal event? If you’re willing to break the bank, bespoke Toronto menswear store King & Bay has you covered.

For one day only, the brand will be offering suits made out of extremely rare and expensive fabric made from the wool of vicuñas — a cute alpaca-like animal that lives in the Andes. A full suit will cost upwards of $80,000, but just the jacket is a much more reasonable $35,000.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

MARKETS

▲	TSX	36,834.25	+0.06%
▲	S&P 500	7,730.99	+0.72%
▲	DOW JONES	53,569.44	+0.20%
▲	NASDAQ	26,541.35	+1.57%
▲	GOLD	4,654.7	+0.03%
▲	OIL	83.5	+1.54%
▲	CAD/USD	0.722	+0.16%
▲	BTC/USD	80,086.01	+1.74%

Markets: RBC, TD, and CIBC all reported quarterly earnings beats yesterday, benefiting from strong performance in their capital markets segments. However, TD was the only one of them to see shares rise. Meanwhile, Nvidia shares were up 8.7% after investors digested just how good its Wednesday earnings call was.

EDUCATION

Canada Poaches Academic A-Listers From the U.S.

Source: Vitaly Gariev / Pexels.

Like a team owner at a free agent press conference, Ottawa was puffing its chest yesterday after stealing some of the U.S.’s top brainiacs.

What happened: The federal government has awarded more than $500 million in funding to 64 world-leading scholars who will relocate to work in Canada, primarily from prestigious U.S. schools like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. The professors will tap into a $1.7 billion funding pool that the feds rolled out last year to lure top academics from the States.

Among the academic A-listers coming to Canada are Harvard chemist Peter Caravan (a pioneer of radiology research), University of North Carolina’s Brian Kuhlman (whose work was connected to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), and digital media scholar Ethan Zuckerman, who invented the pop-up ad (and deeply regrets it).

Why it’s happening: The Trump administration has made major funding cuts to universities, gutted federal research institutes, and tightened its immigration policies. That’s led many top scholars to look elsewhere for more funding and security to conduct their research.

Prominent nutritionist Kevin Hall, who worked at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, left the role after claiming federal officials censored his work on ultraprocessed foods. He’s now heading to the University of Ottawa.

Why it matters: Canadian universities have been slipping down global rankings and have had a difficult time turning academic research into commercial success stories. Tapping into the talent pool at some of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions could help reverse those trends.—LA

BIG PICTURE

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The U.S. president signed the order yesterday afternoon, calling Canada "entitled" for being difficult to deal with and reiterating his claims that the country has been taking advantage of the U.S. The move poured cold water on hopes of the two sides returning to the negotiating table, despite top U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer saying Wednesday that French language and culture rules were not a red line for Washington in trade talks. (CBC News)

Quebec is heading to the polls. Premier Christine Fréchette dissolved parliament, triggering an October 5 election, which the Parti Québécois (PQ) is projected to win. The PQ has promised to hold a separation referendum, but leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said it would not do so until Trump's term is over. The latest polls have the PQ with a seven-point lead over both the Liberal Party of Quebec and the governing Coalition Avenir Québec. (CBC News)

Air traffic controllers left early on night of deadly Air Canada LaGuardia crash. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is moving to fire two air traffic controllers found to have left about an hour before their shift ended on the night that an Air Canada flight crashed on the runway, killing two pilots. The New York airport was dealing with double its usual level of traffic the night of the crash. According to the FAA, the two remaining air traffic controllers in the LaGuardia tower didn’t have enough backup to help with the heavy workload. (CNN)

📡 What else is on our radar:

There are now at least 30 Canadians missing in Nepal and Tibet following deadly flash floods in the region.
UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, is preparing a criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino over his plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors.
Ottawa is taking U.S. seafood off of its list of retaliatory tariffs, while adding copper wire, and wood charcoal.

DEAL OF THE WEEK

Source: Gatik.

Autonomous trucking company Gatik raised US$200 million in its Series D funding round. Gatik will use the cash to expand its fleet of autonomous freight trucks, which includes vehicles in Ontario that make deliveries for Loblaws.

Why it matters: Trucking is a vital part of supply chains, but the isolated, unhealthy lifestyle associated with trucking means younger folks aren’t lining up to replace the aging workforce — a third of which was over 55 years old in 2022. Self-driving trucks like Gatik’s could alleviate some of this pressure, though there are also concerns about job displacement.

TECH

Nvidia Plots Its Next Moves

Source: Mariia Berezovsky / Unsplash.

The world’s most valuable company is making money moves to ensure it stays on top.

What happened: Nvidia has reportedly agreed to buy Hugging Face — a popular hub for sharing and downloading open-source AI models — for US$12.9 billion, sources told The Information. The two have not yet confirmed the deal, though they also haven’t denied it.

Hugging Face has steadily grown in popularity over the past year — it hosts over 3 million models and has some 13 million users — and suddenly became a household name last month after being the target of a rogue cyberattack by an OpenAI model.

Zoom in: News of the sale broke not long after Nvidia posted another mind-bogglingly successful earnings report. Last quarter, the chip giant more than doubled its revenue compared to the same time last year, raking in $96.2 billion and besting analyst estimates. As if that weren’t enough, it also forecast a 70% jump in revenue growth next fiscal year.

Why it’s happening: Nvidia got to the top by supplying chips to the leaders of closed-source AI models. But as focus shifts to expanding open-source options amid competition from China — and those same closed-source leaders start to develop their own chips in-house — it needs to establish a beachhead in that field. Acquiring Hugging Face helps it do just that.

Why it matters: Nvidia proved its stock still has room to run, but to continue the massive earnings beats investors have come to expect (and that help keep the markets afloat), it will need to help proliferate open-source alternatives that, in turn, keep buying its chips.—QH

DROP THE PIN

🌍 Hint: More than 1,000 years of Chinese rule and nearly a century of French colonial influence shaped the culture and aesthetic of this Asian city, from the architecture to the street food. Anthony Bourdain famously dined in this city with President Barack Obama at a small, family-run noodle shop.

Think you know where this is? Lock in your guess here.

ONE BIG NUMBER

🇨🇦 $8.84 billion. The size of Canada’s current account surplus in the second quarter, the largest it's been since 2005. The current account surplus — which means that a country earned more money from global trade, investments, and transfers than it spent — came after Canada posted an $8.31 billion deficit in the first quarter.