Boardy’s blunder, Xanadu’s quantum breakthrough, and Paper turns the page

Tam brings experience from San Francisco tech companies, including roles as vice president of marketing at Masterclass and leadership roles at early education platform Brightwheel. Her appointment follows a turbulent period at Paper marked by the departure of its two co-founders and layoffs that included its entire Canadian tutor workforce.

On this week’s podcast, Mac said she is concerned about the two tech billionaires’ apparent end-of-world plans.  “It does make me increasingly nervous that one of them really wants to move to Mars and the other one has a legit bunker,” she said. “Like, what are they preparing for?”

According to Moment, once fully operational the factory will have an annual production capacity of one gigawatt hour, roughly enough electricity to supply 750,000 homes for one year. Its $21.5-million CAD Series A round will be used to support the gigafactory development and double the size of its Vancouver headquarters.

Xanadu claims that it has figured out how to network quantum computers together, one of the key challenges facing the industry. Xanadu’s recently unveiled Aurora computer, consists of four modular and independent server racks that are photonically interconnected and networked together.

DMZ received $3.5 million from the federal government to establish a hub to drive innovation in housing. The Centre for Housing Innovation will provide a housing-focused accelerator and a training program focused on sustainable design, regulatory compliance, and advanced manufacturing.

Boardy’s D’Souza issued an apology after the new AI networking tool commented on the appearances of its users in the style of US President Donald Trump. Many emails shared by women tech leaders on LinkedIn include critiques of the recipients’ appearances based on their LinkedIn photos. In his own LinkedIn post, D’Souza said the campaign was 100 percent his call, and “totally missed the mark.”

BetaKit learned that Shopify’s Build Native pages are no longer live, coinciding with the departure of co-founder and program lead Kyle Brennan Shàwinipines. Launched in June 2020, Build Native aimed to support Indigenous entrepreneurs with e-commerce resources. Build Native is one of several websites associated with Shopify’s Equitable Commerce programs that are no longer active.

TikTok resumed service in the US after a voluntary shutdown lasting less than a day. The company announced Sunday that it was restoring access following then-President-Elect Donald Trump’s pledge to delay the ban with an executive order. It comes weeks after TikTok filed a challenge to the Canadian government’s order to wind up its operations in Canada.

At the inauguration, Musk placed his right hand over his heart before thrusting it forward. Some online compared the gesture to a Nazi salute, though others disagreed. Musk responded on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”