The Peak Weekly

SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO is losing altitude as shares fall below their listing price, short sellers pile in, and investors question whether its AI ambitions can justify the company’s sky-high valuation. Plus, a potentially record-setting El Niño could disrupt global food supplies and drive up grocery prices for years, with exposed crops like rice, sugar, and coffee facing the biggest risks. And in The Big Picture: Wildfires continue to burn across Canada, the Crown narrows its case against Toronto police officers accused in Project South, and the U.S. and Iran trade strikes after a ceasefire falls apart. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Chinese AI startup Moonshot is about to release what could be the biggest open-weight model ever built in China, tightening the enterprise AI race as companies realize they don’t always need (or want to pay for) the most expensive frontier models. Plus, Lululemon is backing a nylon-recycling startup in a bid to turn hard-to-reuse fabric waste into fresh inventory — and rebuild some sustainability cred along the way. And in The Big Picture: Citigroup expands its Canadian footprint, Ottawa fast-tracks a major Vancouver Port upgrade, and wildfires continue to blanket parts of Ontario (and the GTA) in smoke. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

OpenAI’s first hardware device is reportedly a screen-free AI speaker designed to learn users’ routines and become a more useful personal assistant over time — if it can avoid creeping people out and survive Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit. Plus, Hyundai workers in South Korea are staging an auto industry first by striking over planned humanoid robots, a fight that could preview labour battles coming to factories around the world. In The Big Picture: Northern Ontario wildfires force evacuations and send smoke into Toronto, the Bank of Canada holds its key rate steady, and Stripe makes a US$53 billion bid for PayPal. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Ottawa’s “Buy Canadian” procurement policy is sending the bulk of its contracts to foreign-owned firms — a loophole driven by how loosely “Canadian” is defined and by trade rules that limit how much the federal government can play favourites. Plus, the defence world is in full drone mode as Ottawa sets up a new testing hub in Quebec to accelerate homegrown drone and counter-drone tech. In the big picture: IBM’s brutal earnings day wipes out tens of billions in market value, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis calls for a frontier AI regulator, and five First Nations groups move to take a majority stake in major LNG export infrastructure. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Canada’s General Fusion is now the first publicly traded nuclear fusion company, as its Nasdaq debut gives it more cash to chase a breakthrough that could one day help meet soaring demand for clean power — if the still-unproven tech can finally produce more energy than it uses. Plus, doctors are warning about a tick-borne illness that was barely on their radar five years ago, as warming temperatures help ticks spread farther north and bring more diseases with them. And in The Big Picture: Ottawa and Alberta strike a deal with oil sands producers on a major carbon capture project, an Innu First Nation rejects Quebec’s proposed hydro deal, and Chinese automaker Dongfeng gets ready to sell EVs in Canada. After today's interview we host an exclusive interview with Sumee Seetharaman, VP of AI/ML Practice in the Center of Excellence at TD: Brett: Hey, Peak Pals. Thanks so much for joining us today. We've got a great guest for you, Sumee Seetharaman, who is the VP of AI/ML Practice in the Center of Excellence at TD.  This is gonna be a great conversation about AI at work, something I think we're all experiencing, so we're really excited to have you. To kick it off, the use of AI in Canadian workspaces is surging. According to KPMG, about 51% of Canadian adults are now using generative AI at work. Has the technology become just so commonplace in the workplace that Canadians need to have AI skills before they enter the workforce? And if so, which skills do they need?  Sumee: Yeah, it's a great question. Interestingly, we're at a point where the personal use of AI is far exceeding use at work, a March 2026 Angus Reid survey found that over 70% of Canadians surveyed had used AI in the previous three months for personal use. So odds are that most folks are actively using AI for their day-to-day already and have some of the basic AI skills required at work. Skills like knowing how to use and prompt a chatbot effectively, and I'm not talking about just a single Q&A, but really knowing how to converse with the model. Treating, the response to your initial question as just the starting point. Knowing how to ask follow-up questions and providing clear instructions to refine the response. So the fluency is in really knowing how to iterate and refine, building out the parts that are missing, and pruning out the parts that don't feel right? Most people are learning to do this instinctively as they're using ChatGPT and Gemini apps.  Next, I want to say folks who are using AI regularly are also starting to develop a good sense of the strengths and the limitations of the technology, right? All of us have encountered that the model sometimes hallucinates, and so we know and we've learned that we cannot treat the output of the model as gospel. And so in a work setting, this is where domain expertise, not AI expertise, is actually more helpful because we need experts to validate and apply human judgment on the output of the model. And also if you're actively using AI and reading on AI, AI can be used in harmful ways, so most folks are starting to develop an appreciation for the guardrails that are needed and what does responsible use of AI look like. And are careful about what you put into public versions of these models. You're starting to build a good awareness of privacy safeguards and such. All that to say if you're familiar with using ChatGPT or Gemini for personal use- You should be able to fluently use most AI tools in the workplace. So at TD, over seventy percent of our colleagues our workforce has access to a GenAI capability, whether it's virtual assistants that we have developed in-house for our frontline colleagues in contact centers or wealth operations or branches, or Copilot capabilities we've enabled across the organization. GitHub Copilot for developers and Power BI Copilot and Office 365 Copilot. So chances are, if you're joining TD, you have access to these AI capabilities to, to really amplify your impact, and you probably are already quite fluent in how to use them.  Brett: TD is obviously ahead of the curve on AI, and I'd be interested from a practical standpoint, what are some examples of jobs at TD that AI is already transforming?  Sumee: Yeah. So we recently announced our first agentic AI use case to, to speed up the pre-adjudication process of mortgage and HELOC applications. So when an application is submitted, AI agents that we've deployed are actively scanning the documents, calculating client income, performing consent checks, looking for discrepancies, et cetera. After this sort of document review process is done, the agents then produce a memo with their findings and this goes off to the underwriters to review and make a decision on the application. And so if you look through that agentic AI activation, it's transformed the jobs of colleagues like our underwriters who are now working hand-in-hand with AI agents and making decisions on applications much faster. We've gotten the review process down to an average of three minutes from an average of fifteen hours. Effectively, the way they're operating has transformed day-to-day. If I look at the role of our back-office staff that has transformed as well. They're now providing valuable oversight on our AI agents and helping us ensure that it's performing within the necessary parameters and it's delivering the right outputs. It's just the first set of use cases supporting the first pre-adjudication leg, but there's a much broader end-to-end transformation roadmap for our real estate secure lending operations. So we're just getting started. And as we gradually scale AI use within RESL operations, we'll start to see more role transformation across the board. On a similar vein I find the roles of our frontline colleagues are gradually evolving, transforming too. So our colleagues in branches are now using gen AI virtual assistants to help prepare for client meetings, answer complex questions effectively. Our colleagues in TD Securities are now using these virtual assistants to speed up the research process and really amplify the sales cycle. So across our frontline, our new hires now have an expert AI support on their fingertips, which means they can now spend far more time focusing on sales advice, deepening relationships with our clients. So slowly but surely, we see these roles evolving, getting actually much, much more client-focused and less manual work and less operational focus, if you will.  Brett: What is TD doing to help train and upskill colleagues so that they can build the AI skills they need to thrive in these transformed roles? And I guess how do upskilling efforts differ for an individual who's a beginner with AI versus a new hire at Layer 6 who's looking to build their AI skills?  Sumee: Yeah, it's a great question. We're actually employing a multi-pronged training strategy for AI across the organization. Obviously it's customized to your function, your role within the organization, but it takes many formats. It could be trainings, recordings, live, virtual or in-person immersive hands-on sessions, hackathons, longer-term programs and pilots, et cetera. Across the gamut, depending on the role you're in, depending upon the function you're in. I'll maybe talk about a few initiatives, what we've rolled out across the organization. The first one I'll highlight is TD Thrive, which is our enterprise learning platform. It has dozens of AI courses that are available on demand to every TD colleague, and these cover a broad spectrum of topics from one-on-one sessions like getting started on LLMs to very advanced, architecture of agentic systems, as an examp...

The Gordie Howe International Bridge finally has an opening date, but Canada had to accept less favourable terms to get it there — including giving up half of toll revenue for 15 years and getting U.S. approval for some future toll changes — raising bigger questions about how durable cross-border deals really are. Plus, more Canadians are turning to home exchange platforms to cut vacation costs, as memberships jump and travellers look for alternatives to pricier hotels and short-term rentals. And in The Big Picture: Alberta opens its online gambling market to private sportsbooks and casinos, Toronto reels from a deadly shooting at the Salsa on St. Clair festival, and the Seattle Seahawks sell for a record US$9.6 billion. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Canadian universities are getting into the VC game, with U of T and McMaster anchoring a new life-sciences fund aimed at turning more campus research into commercial breakthroughs in areas like cancer, heart disease, and brain disease. Plus, the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is reviving inflation fears, as renewed conflict threatens energy markets and raises the risk that price pressures could get worse again. And in The Big Picture: Meta plans a massive AI data centre in Alberta, Nvidia’s valuation falls back to pre-AI boom levels, and Knix founder Joanna Griffiths is selling her remaining stake and stepping down. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Ottawa is struggling to put tens of billions in foreign investment to work, as a lack of shovel-ready infrastructure projects leaves the UAE’s promised capital sitting on the sidelines and raises questions about whether Canada can actually deliver on its major-projects ambitions. Plus, Nestlé is rethinking snack flavours for the GLP-1 era, as weight-loss drugs reshape how millions of consumers experience taste and push food giants toward spicier, higher-protein, and more fibre-focused products. And in The Big Picture: B.C. prepares to sue OpenAI over the Tumbler Ridge shooting, a jailed Indian gang leader is charged in the Nijjar killing, and NATO eyes Canadian-made Bombardier jets for its next surveillance aircraft order. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Ottawa has selected Germany’s TKMS as its preferred bidder for Canada’s massive new submarine contract, a generational defence purchase that could be worth up to $120B and signals a deeper bet on European and NATO ties. Plus, Rogers is buying the remaining stake in MLSE, giving it control of nearly every major Toronto sports property and raising fresh questions about what consolidation — and possible private equity investment — could mean for fans. And in The Big Picture: Ontario and Alberta are pitching a new cross-country oil pipeline, Reddit is using AI to fight AI-generated marketing spam, and Alberta is issuing drilling permits at the fastest pace in more than a decade. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Canadians are reading again, with young people leading a surprising rebound in books as a screen-time antidote and helping drive growth in print sales, indie bookstores, and audiobook demand. Plus, new spending data suggests Toronto and Vancouver’s World Cup hosting duties may not have delivered the economic boost boosters promised, raising fresh questions about the real cost of mega-events. And in The Big Picture: The Gordie Howe bridge opening remains caught in political drama, Canadian ETFs are nearing $1 trillion in assets, and Air Canada is cutting back U.S. routes as cross-border travel keeps falling. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

StubHub is facing a proposed class action lawsuit after thousands of FIFA World Cup ticket buyers allege the resale giant never delivered their tickets — a messy case that’s putting “speculative ticketing” and last-minute seller cancellations back under the spotlight. Plus, Pokémon cards are exploding into a $15B+ collectibles economy, as Millennials and Gen Z turn childhood nostalgia into a high-risk investment frenzy that’s driving six-figure sales (and even real-world thefts). And in The Big Picture: Ottawa and B.C. strike a “generational” deal to uphold the North Coast tanker ban, OpenAI reportedly floats the idea of giving the U.S. government a stake, and SpaceX previews an xAI-integrated device concept for investors. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Canadian carbon removal startup Deep Sky has delivered North America’s first direct air capture carbon credits, a small but important milestone for a technology that companies and governments are increasingly betting on to offset emissions from AI, energy, and industrial projects. Plus, the Magnificent Seven stocks are losing steam as investors start questioning whether Big Tech’s massive AI spending spree will actually translate into profits. And in The Big Picture: Ottawa is relaunching a home retrofit program, Comcast is spinning off NBCUniversal and Sky into a new public company, and TIDAL is cracking down on AI-generated music by cutting off monetization. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Chinese automakers are rapidly gaining ground in Europe, forcing German giants like Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes into cost-cutting mode — and offering a warning of what could happen if Chinese-made EVs break into North America through Canada. Plus, China’s new open-source AI model GLM 5.2 is climbing the rankings and impressing developers, raising the stakes for businesses weighing cheaper open-source tools against the top closed models from U.S. labs. And in The Lookout: Canada, the U.S., and Mexico head into the first tri-lateral CUSMA review, Alberta prepares to pitch a major new west coast oil pipeline, and fresh GDP numbers could help settle whether Canada’s economy is actually bouncing back. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Power trip ⚡ - Alberta mulls new rules to court data centres, Olympic athletes are getting paid.

South Korea’s new “dopamine sites” are letting people get the thrill of online shopping and food delivery without actually buying anything — a bizarre trend that highlights how much of the dopamine hit comes from anticipation, not consumption, especially when money is tight. Plus, Canada’s new pesticide legislation is raising alarms after giving Ottawa more power to authorize pesticide use even against Health Canada warnings, a shift that could widen the gap with stricter EU rules and create new trade headaches. And in The Big Picture: Ottawa and B.C. are buying up thousands of unsold Vancouver condos to convert into affordable housing, OpenAI is testing its first-ever in-house chip, and a minimalist US$25K electric pickup is racking up massive early reservations. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com 

Global markets are getting rattled by yet another AI-linked tech sell-off — with South Korea’s high-flying Kospi taking one of the biggest hits as chip stocks slide and overvaluation fears flare up. Plus, Meta is reportedly building a prediction markets app that could push “betting on everything” into the mainstream for billions of users. Plus, in Big Picture: Ontario First Nations secure a landmark equity stake in the Darlington nuclear expansion, Meta unveils a cheaper new pair of smart glasses, and police identify the alleged perpetrator in the Montreal shooting. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Ottawa’s high-speed rail project is exploring a route change that could add a Kingston stop — a move that might broaden support, but also complicate the line’s speed and politics. Plus, Google is reportedly investing $75M in indie studio A24 to build AI film tools, putting the “creative-first” brand in a tricky spot as Hollywood weighs cost savings against reputational risk and job losses. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

In today’s episode of The Peak Daily, we break down TD Bank’s new “productivity” software that tracks how employees spend their time at work — and what the rise of workplace surveillance means for anyone working remotely. Then we look at growing evidence that leaning too heavily on AI tools can erode key skills like critical thinking, debugging, and analysis. Plus, in The Big Picture: Canadian EV interest climbs as gas prices spike, Canada sends a record-sized trade mission to Japan, and Iran pauses nuclear talks with the U.S. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Canada is getting its first legal prediction markets app as Wealthsimple teams up with Kalshi, blurring the line between investing and gambling. Then, Apple warns iPhones could be headed toward the $2,000 mark as AI-fueled chip costs spike. Plus, in The Big Picture: the U.S. and Iran sign a deal to end the war, Empire doubles down on discount grocers, and Cohere locks in more Canadian compute from Bell. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com

Today on The Peak Daily, we dig into a push to partially legalize psychedelic drugs in Canada through doctor prescriptions, and what lessons the country could take from places like Oregon and Australia. Then, Lululemon faces backlash in China after a Great Wall yoga event sparked cultural and geopolitical controversy, highlighting how high the stakes are for Western brands relying on the Chinese market. Plus, one big number on Hollywood’s most expensive movie ever, and a fascinating new therapy that aims to “reprogram” cells to act young again. The Peak Daily is produced in partnership with reframevid.com