Musk eyes OpenAI, Shopify’s Kanye problem, and a Canadian startup at the Super Bowl

PixMob provided LED bracelets to Super Bowl attendees last weekend. These bracelets were used to create synchronized light displays during the pre-game ceremony and throughout the event. When Kendrick Lamar wrapped up his halftime show performance, which included Grammy-winning Drake diss track Not Like Us, the stands spelled out “GAME OVER” using PixMob’s tech.

Canadian tech ecosystem players have spearheaded a crop of tariff-response initiatives, including the Buy Beaver app, which encourages Canadians to shop locally; a tariff tracker to help Canadian businesses calculate the impact of tariffs on their supply chains; and a coast-to-coast #CDNtech startup directory called ByCanada.Tech.

Barker told BetaKit he believes AI has eroded technical moats, which refers to the level of complexity required to develop a product. He believes this has left go-to-market “as one of the last true moats.” GTMfund, which closed $54 million USD for its second fund this week, aims to help its portfolio startups navigate go-to-market challenges and source potential deals.

In an open letter, a number of Canadian tech CEOs and investors are calling for the “immediate recall” of Parliament to face the recent economic threats from the US. Signatories include Fred Lalonde of Hopper, Joanna Griffiths of Knix, Max Lytvyn of Grammarly, Andrew Graham of Borrowell, and Liran Belenzon of BenchSci, as well as investors like Brightspark’s Sophie Forest.

Coral is looking to fill a major gap in women’s health care through its menopause virtual care platform. The software is built for patients experiencing hormonal changes leading up to perimenopause all the way to post-menopause. Coral will use its new funding for platform development, marketing, brand awareness, and expanding its team of eight.

Trudeau called for AI regulation to prevent it from solely benefiting wealthy oligarchs focused on their stock portfolios. In his remarks, he said the goal isn’t to halt progress but to ensure guardrails, transparency, and accountability. His remarks come as the Trump administration resists international AI regulation efforts.

All three companies have faced or are facing copyright infringement lawsuits from publishers. OpenAI defeated a copyright lawsuit from publishers in November; Meta is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly training its LLaMA AI model on a piracy database; and Anthropic recently reached an agreement with music publishers to keep its Claude chatbot from using copyrighted song lyrics.

The consortium of publishers suing Cohere allege the Toronto-based startup of unfairly using their content to train its AI models and displaying full or partial copies of articles.

In 2022, Clutch’s valuation dropped by 97 percent, falling from its peak of $575 million to just $15 million. The decline followed layoffs and a failed attempt to close a $95-million Series C round, which was derailed by tough market conditions. Instead, Clutch settled for a $20-million round at a drastically reduced valuation. With its recent $50-million Series D round, Clutch says it has now regained its former valuation.

In a post on X, Altman declined the offer with a simple “no thank you,” but offered to buy X (formerly known as Twitter) for $9.74 billion. A group of investors led by Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman before a public falling out, offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit controlling OpenAI. Musk later said he would withdraw the bid if Altman agreed to keep the ChatGPT maker a non-profit.

According to reporting from The Logic, Shopify removed Kanye West’s online store for selling a Nazi T-shirt, citing fraud risk rather than the offensive nature of the design. General counsel Jess Hertz called the T-shirt a “stunt” and “not a good faith attempt to make money,” which posed a fraud risk. While acknowledging the design was vile and inexcusable, Hertz clarified that Shopify’s decision was based on policy violations, not moral grounds.