Gimme your recs

Good morning. Mathematician and University of Toronto professor Jacob Tsimerman has become just the second Canadian to win the Fields Medal, often referred to as the Nobel Prize for math. Tsimerman won the prestigious award for proving something called the André-Oort conjecture — a math problem that we’re not even going to try to explain. 

The prize is actually named after John Charles Fields, who was a Canadian U of T professor himself. We suppose you could say that it’s coming home. 

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index fell yesterday as fears about AI overspending hit the tech sector (thanks, Google). Elsewhere, the real estate sector fell across the board after property management company FirstService missed its quarterly revenue estimates.

Our unhinged restaurant reviews have become a hot commodity for AI companies. 

Driving the news: Yelp has struck a licensing deal with OpenAI to have its reviews, photos, and recommendations embedded in ChatGPT, per Axios. The agreement allows Yelp to pursue similar deals with other AI companies. 

Why it matters: Over half of new articles on the internet are now AI-generated. That’s made high-quality data from platforms like Yelp and Reddit — where real people make recommendations — increasingly scarce and valuable to AI companies. 

Yes, but: The licensing deal is a risk for Yelp. With unfettered access to its content, ChatGPT could end up poaching a lot of the traffic and engagement that makes Yelp’s data valuable in the first place. Even though it's making millions to license its content, Reddit has been hurt by this exact dynamic.

Zoom out: The more we talk to chatbots instead of each other, the less high-quality data we generate to train them. A Stanford report found that human-generated data for AI training could be depleted within the next six years, with AI researchers publicly claiming the pool of high-quality human text and web data has already been exhausted.—LA

Trump introduced more tariffs. Donald Trump announced new tariffs on 59 nations and the EU, including Canada, citing forced labour violations — they will replace tariffs that expired today. These follow new 50% tariffs on certain Canadian products earlier this week. Before this announcement, Carney spoke at the premiers’ meeting in Charlottetown, saying “everything is on the table” in response to the new 50% tariffs. This could even mean retaliatory tariffs of our own if no new comprehensive trade deal emerges. (CBC News)

Mag 7 erased almost US$800 billion in value after a tech stock selloff. The world’s biggest technology companies had a tough day. Led by Tesla and Alphabet losses, the Magnificent 7 stock index was down ~4.8% on the day, erasing $797 billion in market value. Investors have become increasingly spooked by runaway AI spending, and the Mag 7 is now collectively down 11% since late May, erasing $2 trillion in market value. (Bloomberg News)

Ottawa is forming a federal wildfire response group. With nearly 900 active wildfires across the country, the feds have convened a team of cabinet ministers and senior officials to help with “urgent assistance.” Wildfires have picked up in B.C. and northern Ontario, with approximately 3,000 people forced to evacuate their homes so far. (Globe and Mail)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

Sleep Country Canada is buying U.S.-based rival Sleep Number for US$700 million. The master of the Canadian mattress retail market is plotting a southern expansion. By adding Sleep Number’s more than 570 U.S. stores to its portfolio, Sleep Country will gain an immediate foothold in the American market. 

Why it matters: Since going private in 2024 under the ownership of Fairfax Financial, Sleep Country has been pursuing global snoozing domination. The company already has as much as a 40% market share of Canada’s mattress sector and claims it will become the world’s second-largest sleep retailer after this deal goes through.

Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ incubator and PS43 Foundation — a non-profit founded by NBA All-Star and Toronto Raptors legend Pascal Siakam — awarded $50,000 to three Canadian edtech startups as part of the second annual Siakam EdTech Engine cohort.

Driving the news: The startups that received funding are Classwise, which uses AI to speed up grading; Training Ground.ai, an AI-powered learning platform; and CoLab Education, a platform that connects educators and schools for collaboration and resource sharing. 

What they’re saying: When asked about his focus on education and edtech, Siakam told The Peak, “My dad was really big on it — I think growing up, he instilled that in us… So once I got to a level where I felt like I could help, education was a no-brainer.”

Why it matters: Pro athletes make up a growing number of startup backers as many no longer feel satisfied with parking money in hands-off investments; they are also increasingly looking beyond sports-related startups. This arguably gives sports teams a new economic dimension: if they treat a player poorly, their cities could miss out on future VC dollars.

Zoom out: Athletes in Canada who want to invest in startups here have a lot of options. Per a new report from non-profit Futurpreneur, there’s a rise in startup interest, especially among younger folks, as it saw applications for its incubator program surge 50% last quarter.—QH

🌎 Hint: This coastal town is often considered the birthplace of this country’s French presence after Jacques Cartier claimed the territory here in 1534. It's known for fresh snow crab, lobster, and whale watching, while nearby Percé Rock — one of the world's largest natural arches and one of Canada's most iconic natural landmarks — draws visitors from around the globe.

Have an idea where this might be? Lock in your guess here.

😀 $169,951. Annual income for someone living in Victoria where happiness levels off, according to Purdue University research analyzed by Remitly, making it the priciest city to achieve happiness in Canada — Vancouver and Toronto are tied for second place. Sorry to whoever said money can’t buy happiness: you are empirically incorrect it would seem.

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