Edmonton-based company selected by NASA to help reduce waste on space missions
A local waste management company has developed some out of this world recycling technology. Waste Parrot, founded by Junaid Tahir, was one of several global winners in a lunar recycling challenge conducted by NASA.
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Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
The Smartest Way to Play Quantum Computing May Already Be in Your Portfolio
While investors chase quantum moonshots like Rigetti Computing -- up over 1,100% over the prior 12 months -- and IonQ -- up nearly 500% over the same period -- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is quietly building the infrastructure to profit no matter who wins the quantum computing race. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » RGTI Total Return Level data by YCharts. The e-commerce giant's Amazon Web Services (AWS) Braket platform already hosts quantum computing services from multiple providers, making it the Switzerland of the quantum wars. But Amazon isn't just playing host; it's also developing its quantum hardware, creating two distinct paths to profit from what could become a trillion-dollar market. This dual approach makes Amazon the most overlooked opportunity in the market for quantum computing. AI is accelerating quantum timelines Conventional wisdom says practical quantum computing remains decades away. Most experts point to persistent challenges with error rates, qubit stability, and the need for near-absolute-zero operating temperatures. They're probably wrong. What skeptics often overlook is the recursive learning potential of artificial intelligence (AI). When AI systems can design better AI systems, progress compounds exponentially. DeepMind's AlphaFold solved protein folding -- a 50-year challenge -- in months. The same recursive improvement cycle is about to hit quantum computing. IBM plans to deliver its fault-tolerant quantum computer, Starling, by 2029 -- years ahead of previous predictions. The company says its breakthrough error-correction techniques will enable a system 20,000 times more powerful than today's quantum computers. This accelerated timeline reflects how AI is helping solve quantum's biggest challenges faster than expected. AWS Braket: The quantum cloud marketplace While pure-play quantum companies race to build better hardware, Amazon has taken a different approach. AWS Braket, launched in 2019, enables developers to access quantum computers from D-Wave, IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and others through the cloud. Think of it as the App Store for quantum computing -- Amazon profits regardless of which hardware ultimately wins. This isn't Amazon's first platform rodeo. AWS generated $107.6 billion in revenue in 2024, crossing the $100 billion mark for the first time. Braket follows the same playbook, charging for access time while avoiding the massive research and development (R&D) costs of developing quantum hardware alone. Amazon's in-house hardware gives it a dual advantage Amazon isn't content to be just a middleman. The company's Center for Quantum Computing at Caltech is developing its own quantum processors, giving it a hedge in case proprietary hardware becomes the key differentiator. It's the best of both worlds: platform fees today, breakthrough potential tomorrow. Yes, quantum stocks have exploded. Companies like Rigetti Computing and IonQ sport billion-dollar valuations despite minimal revenue. Quantum Computing has surged by over 3,000% in the past year. But Amazon offers something these pure plays can't: a profitable business generating nearly $700 billion in annual revenue. The numbers tell the story. Over $1.25 billion poured into quantum start-ups in Q1 2025 alone -- double the amount from the previous year. Moreover, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reversed course, calling quantum computing "imminent" rather than decades away. This admission added significant fuel to the quantum rally earlier this year. Real customers, real revenue, no hype required Unlike pure-play quantum companies burning cash on R&D, Amazon's Braket already serves paying customers. Volkswagen uses it for traffic optimization research. Goldman Sachs explores quantum Monte Carlo simulations for derivatives pricing. Roche investigates drug discovery applications. These aren't science projects. Fortune 500 companies are spending real money to explore quantum's potential. As algorithms improve and hardware matures, experimental budgets will transform into production workloads -- all running on AWS. The beauty of Amazon's model is its optionality. If quantum computing takes another decade to mature, AWS will keep printing money from traditional cloud services. If breakthroughs accelerate, Amazon will capture the infrastructure spending boom. Heads you win, tails you don't lose. The valuation case At just 24 times 2027 projected earnings, the market isn't pricing in quantum's massive potential upside for this tech stock. If quantum becomes a $100 billion market by 2035 and AWS captures even 30%, that's $30 billion in high-margin revenue -- comparable to AWS's entire business five years ago. 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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to172%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. George Budwell has positions in D-Wave Quantum, IonQ, Nvidia, and Rigetti Computing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Goldman Sachs Group, International Business Machines, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Roche Holding AG and Volkswagen Ag. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
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Does Meta Platforms' Massive $14.3 Billion Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bet Make the Stock a Buy Now?
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is shaking up its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts and the industry as a whole. Earlier this month, it invested a total of $14.3 billion in Scale AI to take a 49% non-voting stake in the company and bring key personnel into Meta's laboratories. Despite the significant changes this brings to Meta and the industry, it's not what makes the stock a buy today. Artificial intelligence is extremely important to the future of Meta Platforms, and the potential impact of the technology still seems to be underappreciated by the market. Meta's stock price is attractive, and it would be a buy whether it made the move to invest in Scale AI or not. What does Scale AI bring to the table for Meta? Scale AI provides curated and labeled data sets to frontier model developers for AI training. It can also provide evaluation and help improve reasoning models with the help of human experts. It works with many of the biggest names in artificial intelligence, providing key services to ensure they can put out the best products. Meta's investment includes a commercial agreement to spend $450 million per year on Scale's platform. Meta will likely gain access to proprietary data sets in an industry where good data has become incredibly important. More importantly, though, it brings Scale's founder and CEO Alexandr Wang onto Meta's payroll, where he'll head up a new AI "superintelligence" lab. Meta has struggled to attract top talent to its AI labs, and the disappointing results of its latest Llama AI model release have made the talent gap more clear. It reportedly offered huge incentive packages to poach OpenAI employees in an effort to win over talent to catch back up with the competition, but most rejected it. With its investment in Scale, Meta is hoping it can correct that issue. Building a leading-edge model is important for Meta, even though it provides its Llama models to the open-source community, albeit with restrictions for commercial use. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is more interested in the potential the most advanced AI systems could bring to Meta's existing products instead of making a product out of the AI model itself. But to build the best model with the most capabilities, it needs wide adoption from the developer community, and that won't happen if its performance is subpar. So, adding Wang to the AI team is a great start, but Meta would've likely found a way to attract talent one way or another. The potential value of AI to the company is just too high for it to remain a barrier forever. Is Meta stock a buy now? Meta is already working on a service that could be the start of a long runway of AI growth. On Meta's most recent earnings call, Zuckerberg described an AI agent that could take a marketing objective and a budget and take care of creating and running an entire ad campaign by itself. It would design the creative, figure out who to target, and optimize images, videos, copy, and targeting to meet those objectives. It could potentially create individualized ads for Facebook and Instagram users to help marketers meet their objectives with minimal costs. That's not some far-off dream, either. The company aims to offer the service by the end of next year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Such a service would not only lead to marketers' willingness to pay for ads increasing (since they won't have to spend time or money on developing ad creatives), but it would expand the number of advertisers. Lowering the barrier to entry should lead more businesses to advertise on Meta's platform, which should support higher pricing for its ads due to higher demand. On top of that, Meta's ability to generate paid content for its users with artificial intelligence would also mean it can generate highly personalized and engaging entertainment content as well. That could lead to higher engagement rates and more time spent on the platform, increasing the number of ads shown and their value. Few companies are in as good of a position to capitalize on the potential of AI compared to Meta. Not only does it have a massive platform to deploy its AI capabilities, but it has the capital to invest in the future of AI. Its investment in Scale and move to bring Wang and other personnel in-house is the company using its competitive advantage to its benefit, which is what makes it a great investment. And with the stock trading for roughly 27 times forward earnings, it could prove a bargain at the current price. Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now? Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to172%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
Edmonton-based company selected by NASA to help reduce waste on space missions
A local waste management company has developed some out of this world recycling technology. Waste Parrot, founded by Junaid Tahir, was one of several global winners in a lunar recycling challenge conducted by NASA.
