📈 It’s all coming back to me now

Good morning. Ontario man John Meissner launched a petition to the House of Commons to establish a day celebrating that beloved Canadian dessert, the butter tart. He’s doing so to help preserve the legacy of the original recipe and that of its author, Mary MacLeod. 

Meissner said he was motivated to start his confectionery crusade after judging a butter tart contest and having one so putrid that he had to spit it out. Wow, imagine being the chef who made a dessert so bad that it leads to the creation of a national day of recognition.

Anyway, you can sign the petition if you feel the butter tart deserves this prestigious honour.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes. 

Markets: Canada’s main stock index fell yesterday, with the tech sector particularly hard-hit, falling 4.5%. Shares in Shopify and Constellation Software were both down ~5.7% as investors had renewed concerns about software-reliant businesses.

After a historic dry spell, Canada is back on the radar of global investors.  

Driving the news: Prominent Dutch investment group Reggeborgh is planning to invest $1 billion in Canada, per The Logic. The deals, which are focused on backing infrastructure and energy projects, are being spearheaded by Maurits van Oranje, a member of the Netherlands’ royal family. 

Why it matters: The Carney government has made attracting foreign investment a pillar of its economic plan. After a decade that saw the largest exodus of foreign capital in Canadian history, investors from overseas are finally starting to return with their wallets open. 

What’s next: Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has been globetrotting like Taylor Swift over the past year pitching private investors, is hosting a summit in Toronto this fall with 100 of the world’s biggest investors. The goal of the conference is to attract $1 trillion in capital. 

Bottom line: Aside from the U.S. and China, no country in the world has exported more direct investment than Canada over the past decade. With so much domestic capital being sent abroad, Canada needs help from foreign investors to fuel growth at home.—LA

U.S. reclassifies marijuana in landmark shift. In one of the biggest changes in U.S. drug policy in decades, the Trump administration is reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, following years of it being treated the same as heroin and LSD. The administration says it has begun the process of reclassifying the drug more broadly (beyond medical weed) and will hold a hearing in June to discuss it. Despite the reclassification, shares in Canadian cannabis companies tumbled on the day. (Associated Press) 

Investors aren’t happy about Lululemon's new CEO. The Canadian athleisure brand appointed former Nike exec Heidi O’Neill as their new CEO, a move that sent Lulu’s shares plunging ~12% yesterday to their lowest level since early 2020. Activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which holds a more than US$1 billion stake in Lululemon, had been campaigning for its own CEO candidate, former Ralph Lauren exec Jane Nielsen. (Bloomberg News)

Meta is laying off ~8,000 workers to fund its AI projects. The company announced it will lay off 10% of its workforce next month, in addition to cancelling its plan to hire 6,000 new roles. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff that the cuts will make Meta more efficient and offset the cost of its AI investments. The company said in January that its capital expenditures could nearly double this year to US$135 billion. We guess all those US$100 million salaries for AI engineers add up. (Financial Times)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

SpaceX secures the right to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for US$60 billion. If the Elon Musk-owned company decides not to go through with the acquisition, it will have to pay Cursor a $10 billion de facto break fee, which would be among the largest in history. 

Why it matters: SpaceX, which merged with xAI earlier this year, is reshaping itself as an AI company ahead of what’s expected to be a record-breaking IPO, where it’s looking to fetch a US$1.75 trillion valuation. With xAI bleeding money, bringing in Cursor’s coding tools and customer base of software engineers could help turn things around and have it compete with OpenAI and Anthropic (at least that’s the idea).

Turns out the Chinese company that made the first robot to run a half-marathon faster than a human is mainly known for making phones. And it wants to sell these phones in Canada.

Driving the news: Chinese electronics firm Honor is eying an entrance into Canada’s smartphone and tablet market, per The Logic. While it's still in the very early stages, Honor could look to sell its phones through telecoms companies, and even sell industrial products.  

Catch-up: Honor used to be a subsidiary of Huawei but spun off from the company in 2020 to avoid U.S. security-related sanctions. Similar sanctions would later come here — in 2022, Ottawa banned Huawei from using Canada’s 5G network.

Zoom out: As for the actual phones, they’re apparently pretty good. Its latest midrange models, the 600 and 600 Pro, have received generally glowing reviews from tech outlets. Meanwhile, the brand became the fourth-highest-selling phone in Europe last year. 

Why it matters: This is the latest sign that China views Canada as an important consumer market following the new strategic partnership and slashing EV import tariffs. That said, security issues will persist about a deluge of new Chinese tech products.—QH

🌎 Hint: This historic city is known for its incredibly well-preserved architecture, wine vineyards, and ancient amphitheatre. A local rice variety serves as the base for the city’s go-to delicacy: a hearty red-wine risotto. You might recognize it as the setting of arguably the most famous love story in history. 

Any guesses where we brought you this week? Lock in your answer here.

🏢 $1.3 billion. Funding that High Art Capital — a new fund dedicated to buying up distressed Toronto condos — is on track to raise. The Ontario government has backed the fund with a $300 million loan. The strategy is to buy unsold condos in bulk at discounted prices and convert them into rentals. 

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