Latest news with #federalcontracts
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Space stocks soar as Elon Musk and Donald Trump argue
Space stocks soar as Elon Musk and Donald Trump argue originally appeared on TheStreet. Last week, a social media post from Elon Musk caused many people to stop in their tracks. The Tesla () CEO had taken his conflict with President Donald Trump in a direction that seemed shocking, even for him. In the now-deleted post, Musk accused Trump of having ties to Jeffrey Epstein. He went on to argue that without him, the President would not have won the 2024 election, and posted a poll to X about the idea of starting a third party to challenge both Democrats and Republicans. 💵💰💰💵 Trump responded by threatening Musk with consequences, such as the termination of millions of dollars worth of federal contracts awarded to SpaceX. This stands to severely compromise the future of Musk's space exploration company at a highly pivotal time. While the future of SpaceX hangs in the balance, though, most space stocks are benefiting from the tensions between Trump and Musk. Prior to Musk and Trump's public fallout, experts speculated that their close relationship would be highly beneficial to SpaceX. Musk's close proximity to Trump stood to help the company secure the federal funding it needed to establish itself as the market's space exploration Musk's company is caught in the crossfire of a vicious battle between two powerful men who aren't known for backing down. Trump has made it clear he is willing to attack Musk, regardless of the consequences it may pose for the U.S.'s space program, stating in a recent Truth Social post that 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' While the battle between the two drags on, though, many space stocks are rising steadily, enjoying the momentum from the uncertainty surrounding SpaceX. Fellow space exploration company Virgin Galactic Holdings () , typically seen as a close rival to SpaceX, is up more than 16% for the past week, even after some volatility. Space tech startup Rocket Lab USA () has caught the attention of many investors over the past year, with gains of almost 600% since January 2024. It has recently picked up even more momentum, though, rising 15% on negative SpaceX speculation. Satellite designer AST SpaceMobile () , once dismissed as a meme stock, has surged almost 50% over the past five days, although reports indicate that this could be due to speculation that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has taken a position in the company. The list of space stocks that have risen recently also includes Intuitive Machines () , a company that has benefited significantly from procuring larger space contracts over the past few months. More SpaceX News: Elon Musk's SpaceX plans raise major red flags for regulators Elon Musk gets more bad news from a new rival Elon Musk makes unexpected promise after major tech meltdown While these space stocks have risen recently, a prominent tech company with strong ties to Musk moved in the other direction. Palantir Technologies () , a multi-facted defense contractor, has surged throughout 2025, benefiting from chairman Peter Thiel's close ties to Musk. Last week, it saw shares dip as the CEO's relationship with President Trump took a sharp turn. The fact that many space stocks are rising on negative SpaceX speculation serves as a reminder of the zero-sum nature of financial markets. When bad news that is highly specific to one company breaks, it often serves to elevate its rivals, as investors see an opportunity for others to gain.'The very idea of seeing SpaceX do less federal business is why Rocket Lab USA is up more than 4% overnight,' states Wall Street veteran Stephen Guilfoyle, an experienced trader who has long been bullish on the company, though he recently took some profits. Guilfoyle recently highlighted that Rocket Lab is acquiring space payload solutions company Geost for $275 million, saying, 'The deal is expected to close later this year and likely cements Rocket Lab's place as a new player in the end-to-end national security space solutions provider." A fast-growing company, Rocket Lab might have risen even without the SpaceX catalyst. But now that the privately held space venture is facing a highly uncertain future, RKLB and its fellow space stocks could be in an excellent position to keep rising, at least while Wall Street waits for Musk and Trump to reach a stocks soar as Elon Musk and Donald Trump argue first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 9, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CTV News
11-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
CTV National News: How Ottawa bungles the awarding of federal contracts
Watch The auditor general found that federal workers ignored rules for nearly a decade when awarding contracts the company behind ArriveCan. Judy Trinh reports.
Globe and Mail
10-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Public servants paid ArriveCan's main contractor GCStrategies without ensuring work was done, Auditor-General finds
Auditor-General Karen Hogan has found wide-ranging concerns about federal contracts awarded to GCStrategies, an IT staffing agency, including that public servants regularly paid the company without evidence that work was done, failed to request or review time sheets, allowed contractors to work on federal files without security clearances and did not ensure the company was charging fair market rates. GCStrategies is a two-person company founded in 2015 in the Ottawa-area by Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony, two men who had previously worked in IT sales for other companies in the national capital. The largely unknown duo jumped into the Canadian political spotlight nearly three years ago in connection to their role as the main private contractors on the Canada Border Service Agency's ArriveCan app for cross-border travellers, which was launched during the pandemic. Revelations that the cost of the app grew from an initial $80,000 to nearly $60-million led to a wave of independent investigations and years of House of Commons committee hearings into the project and the broader issue of how much Ottawa is paying for private-sector IT consultants. This is Ms. Hogan's second audit report involving GCStrategies. Her 2024 audit report into federal spending on ArriveCan found a 'glaring disregard' for basic management practices and concluded that GCStrategies was directly involved in setting narrow terms for a $25-million contract involving some ArriveCan work that it ultimately won. Auditor-General's ArriveCan report finds 'glaring disregard' for basic management practices The House of Commons later approved a motion calling on Ms. Hogan to review all of GCStrategies' federal contracts, which she agreed to in October of last year, leading to Tuesday's report. Mr. Firth, the company's managing partner, has told MPs that neither he nor his partner perform any IT work. Rather they secure federal contracts and then subcontract the work to other IT consultants. He said they retain a fee worth between 15 and 30 per cent of the contract value for their services. Tuesday's report said GCStrategies was awarded 106 contracts by 31 federal organizations between April, 2015 and March, 2024, worth an estimated combined value of $92.7-million. Of those contracts, 41 were awarded without competition. The total amount spent by the government for the contracts is estimated at $64.5-million. The report said that nearly half of the spending with the company was by the Canada Border Services Agency, which led the ArriveCan project. The CBSA has launched an internal investigation that includes a review of the agency's relationship with GCStrategies and the RCMP has also said it is conducting an investigation. The RCMP searched Mr. Firth's home in April, 2024. Neither the CBSA nor the RCMP have released any conclusions related to the investigations. Tuesday's audit report is based on a review of a sample of the federal contracts awarded to GCStrategies. The report said that in 46 per cent of the reviewed contracts, the federal organizations had little to no evidence to support that the requested work was actually performed. 'Despite this, federal government officials consistently authorized payments. As a result, we were unable to conclude whether these certifications by government officials were appropriate or amounted to a contravention of the Financial Administration Act,' the report states. That act is what guides public servants who have authority to approve federal spending. The report also found that in half of the reviewed contracts, federal organizations were not able to show that all subcontractors had the appropriate security clearance prior to the contract being awarded. It also found that in 21 per cent of the contracts with security requirements, subcontractors were working throughout the contract period without the required clearance on file, including one contract at National Defence and one contract at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. 'Having contract resources working without the required security clearances weakens the government's ability to protect sensitive information, assets, and work sites,' the report states. Another failing identified in the report relates to poor oversight of the fees charged by GCStrategies and its subcontractors. The report found that in 58 per cent of the reviewed contracts, public servants either accepted time sheets with poorly documented descriptions of work performed or failed to collect time sheets at all. In one contract involving the federal innovation department, officials could only provide auditors with time sheets for one of the 25 subcontractors hired to work for them through GCStrategies. The report also found that in about a third of the reviewed contracts, officials could not show that the subcontractors had the experience and qualifications to do the work. 'Without this information, federal organizations did not know whether contract resources provided by GCStrategies could perform the work in the contract or whether the rates paid were appropriate,' the report said. The report states that while this audit focused on contracts awarded to one company, the findings highlight gaps in basic requirements that all federal organizations should follow when procuring services. It also says the report confirms weaknesses raised in previous audits. For instance, the report found that no federal department currently collects government-wide information on rates paid and supplier performance related to contracting. Public Services and Procurement Canada announced on Friday, just days before the release of the Auditor-General's scheduled report, that it was suspending GCStrategies from all federal contracting for seven years. The announcement extended an earlier suspension announced in March, 2024. The department did not provide details on its decision, other than to say it was deemed ineligible following 'a thorough assessment of the supplier's conduct by the Office of Supplier Integrity and Compliance.' Joël Lightbound, the federal minister for Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Auditor General's findings. He said the government is in the process of modernizing the contracting process to address issues found in previous audits and reviews. 'We also expect public servants and departments to operate with the highest standards of integrity when procuring professional services to support their program delivery,' he said. The statement did not indicate whether any public servants have faced consequences for the oversight shortfalls identified in the report.
Globe and Mail
08-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Prediction: 2 AI Stocks That Will Be Worth More Than C3.ai 2 Years From Now
(NYSE: AI) went public four and a half years ago to some enthusiasm, but it now trades nearly 40% below its IPO price. The enterprise AI software maker initially impressed investors with its catchy ticker symbol, the flexibility of its modules (which can be integrated into an organization's existing software), and its rapid growth rates. Unfortunately, its growth cooled off, its losses racked up, and its customer concentration issues became more apparent. On the bright side, top-line growth accelerated again in its fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 (which ended in April), and it extended its crucial deal with its largest client, Baker Hughes -- which accounts for more than 30% of its revenue -- for another three years. It also won more federal contracts, secured new cloud partnerships, rolled out fresh generative AI tools, and expanded beyond its core subscription model by introducing consumption-based pricing options. From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2027, analysts' consensus expectation is for revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of 19%. But trading at 7.5 times this year's sales, doesn't look cheap. It also doesn't expect to turn profitable anytime soon as it ramps up its spending on new AI services. Assuming matches analysts' estimates, and then grows its revenue by another 19% in fiscal 2028, but trades at a more modest 5 times forward sales, its market cap would actually decline by about 6% from $3.5 billion now to $3.3 billion over the next two years. So instead of wondering if will ever revisit its IPO price, it might be smarter to invest in two less valuable AI-driven stocks that could surpass market cap by 2027: Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) and DigitalOcean (NYSE: DOCN). Applied Digital Applied Digital builds big data centers and rents them out to cloud and AI companies like Microsoft and Amazon. It has been a major beneficiary of the AI boom and has been transitioning into a real estate investment trust (REIT) -- a type of business that has particularly favorable tax advantages, but must pay out at least 90% of its taxable income each year as dividends. Applied Digital currently operates five data centers, all of which are located in North Dakota, and it plans to open additional centers in South Dakota and Iowa in the near future. In 2023, it launched a first-party cloud infrastructure platform powered by its own servers in its own data centers. That business grew rapidly, but it was a capital-intensive strategy that awkwardly put it in competition with some of its biggest clients. That's why it recently announced that it was going to sell that business and streamline its operations amid its ongoing transition into a REIT. From its fiscal 2024 to its fiscal 2027 (which will end in May 2027), analysts expect its revenue to grow at a compound annual rate of 48% and see it narrowing its net losses. However, those estimates don't account for the planned sale of its cloud computing segment -- which grew rapidly and accounted for about a third of its revenue in its latest quarter. The market's views will need to be revised if it completes that divestment. Applied Digital currently trades at 13.5 times its projected sales for fiscal 2025 -- pricier than -- and has a market cap of $3 billion. But if it divests its cloud business and plows that cash into quickly opening more data centers to serve the booming AI market, it could justify that higher valuation. If that happens, Applied Digital might just grow to eclipse valuation over the next two years. DigitalOcean DigitalOcean operates a cloud infrastructure platform that carves out tiny "droplets" of servers for smaller customers that don't need much computing power. That differentiates it from enterprise-oriented public cloud giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. The company scaled up its business by acquiring the cloud hosting and management software provider Cloudways in 2022, and it bought computing start-up Paperspace in 2023 to integrate GPU-powered servers capable of handling more complex AI workloads into its data centers. It serves more than 600,000 customers worldwide, and more than 500 of them generate more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue -- so it's locking in larger customers as well. Like DigitalOcean now trades about 40% below its IPO price. However, it's firmly profitable and its growth trajectory looks more predictable than From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and EPS to grow at compound annual rates of 14% and 12%, respectively, as the cloud and AI markets continue to expand. With a market cap of $2.7 billion, it trades at just 3.1 times this year's sales. But if it matches analysts' estimates, then grows its revenue by another 14% in 2028, and trades at a more generous 5 times its forward sales, its market cap could more than double to $6.6 billion by the final year. It could also be a tempting takeover target for a bigger cloud infrastructure company. Should you invest $1,000 in right now? Before you buy stock in 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 wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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News.com.au
07-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
What the Trump-Musk Feud Means for SpaceX and NASA
The U.S. government relies on SpaceX to support NASA and other agencies, and the company has received more $20 billion in federal contracts for it. As Musk and Trump threaten to cut ties, here's what that would mean for the U.S.'s space ambitions.
