One of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies appears to have amassed a cult following among Silicon Valley’s AI builders.
The news: Toronto-based Tailscale, which offers a secure connectivity platform for teams with AI workloads, was the source of chatter on X this weekend when computer programmer Steve Yegge pointed out how little attention the company has received relative to how important its products are.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more useful service with a more invisible corporate footprint,” Yegge wrote. Y Combinator president and CEO Garry Tan wrote in a repost that “every AI harness needs to support Tailscale.” Hundreds of replies agreed with Yegge’s sentiment, with some users noting how often they used Tailscale’s products, and another claiming their “whole business would fall apart” without it.
The context: Tailscale’s bet on secure networking infrastructure seems to have coincided perfectly with widespread AI adoption. While the online hype may be new, BetaKit has been tracking their work for some time, including in our 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Since November of 2025, Tailscale has doubled its business customers to 40,000—including Cohere, Duolingo, Instacart, and Microsoft—as well as its monthly active users, which now sit at 2.5 million.
From the source: In response to a post calling Tailscale an “underrated startup,” Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun posted on LinkedIn a few weeks ago: “We may have overdone the Canadian modesty.”
Madison McLauchlan
Montréal reporter
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Latest news across tech
A flood of quantum shares
Toronto quantum company Xanadu saw its first share lockup lift for a majority of investors yesterday, six months after it went public via a SPAC deal. The stock closed the day down by more than 20 percent, at around $8 CAD, which was a far cry from its peak of nearly $50 CAD in May. CEO Christian Weedbrook told The Globe and Mail that making more shares available will help attract investment in the long term.
Call my agent
The hottest new agentic AI assistants on the block are Instinct (still in private beta) and Meta’s Muse (now available in Canada). These agents can book reservations, send texts on your behalf, and even make online purchases. Shopify is getting in on the action through a partnership that allows Muse to buy from Shopify-powered stores.
A new frontier model
Meanwhile, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT has released Jev, a “new type of foundation model” that he claims is up to hundreds of times faster and cheaper than existing models. Unlike other LLMs, Jev doesn’t generate text; instead, it generates decisions for software (like probabilities and classifications).
Tech giants agree with (non-binding) data centre rules
Canada’s voluntary federal responsible data centre development framework has new additions, including chipmakers Nvidia and AMD, along with US tech giants Intel, IBM, and Lenovo. The framework’s suggestions, which companies aren’t required to follow, include ensuring low environmental impact and water use.
BlackBerry is so back
Canadian tech smartphone-darling-turned-vehicle-software-player is continuing its comeback journey. On Tuesday, BlackBerry announced a contract worth more than $100 million USD to provide its Alloy Kore software platform to Coretura, a joint venture between Volvo Group and Daimler Truck.
BC v. OpenAI
The province of BC has sued OpenAI in California, arguing that the AI company could have averted the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, BC, had it notified Canadian authorities of the alleged shooter’s ChatGPT logs.
OpenAI is already facing dozens of lawsuits from victims and families of the tragedy. The tech company has asked for many of them to be dismissed, and to be tried in BC.
“Astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions”
OpenAI is also fighting copyright infringement suits in court, and public court documents have surfaced some unfiltered internal commentary. The US politics magazine Mother Jones’ lawsuit against the AI giant revealed internal discussions about model training, where one Microsoft document warned that many people will consider LLM training to be “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.”
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On the move
This week’s hires, fires, and exec shakeups:
- Legaltech startup Spellbook found its first CMO in Meltem Kuran-Berkowitz, Deel’s former head of growth.
- Canadian film giant Cineplex named Bill Walker as its new CEO as it embarks on a strategic review and potential sale.
- As the tech giant faces labour disputes, Amazon raised hourly warehouse wages for Canadian workers from $25.27 CAD to $26.27 CAD.
- Toronto AWS software partner OpsGuru named Tim Currie as president.
- Vancouver-based Nano One, which makes lithium-ion battery cathodes, appointed Anthony Tse as interim CEO as Alex Holmes takes temporary medical leave.
- White-collar roles primarily held by women are more vulnerable to AI job disruption, according to a joint report from the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn.
Want to feature a hiring announcement in our list? Email partnerships@betakit.com with the subject line JOBS.
Nrth Festival is on now until September 24!
The events programming is full of speakers you won’t want to miss, including Eva Wong (Borrowell), Ashley Neville (Carta), Theo Richardson (Figma), Eric Richmond (Coinbase), and Caitlin O’Hanlon (Wattpad) to drive the conversations on trends and breakthroughs defining the future of tech and innovation.
Don’t miss Built to Last: Canada’s Sovereign Tech Future at Nrth Festival tomorrow at 1:40 PM. This conversation brings together leaders from defence technology, advanced R&D, and enterprise AI to explore how Canadian companies can turn homegrown innovation into globally competitive capabilities.
Your score:
Quiz answer: b) American Intelligence. While the US president did claim that AI needs a rebrand, he didn’t go so far as to put the ‘American’ stamp on it. That would probably require US companies to forgo Chinese models, which won’t happen anytime soon.
Quiz answer: b) American Intelligence. While the US president did claim that AI needs a rebrand, he didn’t go so far as to put the ‘American’ stamp on it. That would probably require US companies to forgo Chinese models, which won’t happen anytime soon.
#1. Which of the following is NOT a new name for AI recently proposed by US President Donald Trump?
Contributors: Madison McLauchlan (Montréal reporter), Douglas Soltys (editor in chief), Trevor Nichols (web editor).