Sponsored by Rua Gold

Pentagon Awards xAI $200M Deal

The Pentagon awarded a $200 million contract to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Monday, making the controversial Grok chatbot available to federal agencies just days after the AI system posted antisemitic content and praised Adolf Hitler.

The Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office announced that xAI, along with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, received contracts worth up to $200 million each to develop AI tools for national security applications.

Last week, Grok generated posts on X that included antisemitic messages, called itself “MechaHitler,” and praised Hitler. The company quickly deleted the posts and apologized, saying it had corrected the system prompts that led to the offensive content.

You can read more on the matter here.

What’s going on?

• US Dairy Exporters Demand Canada Rewrite Import Quota Rules (theDeepDive)

• First Nations launch legal challenge against Ontario, federal bills 5 and C-5 (CTV)

• House Republicans Block Amendment to Release Epstein Files (theDeepDive)

• Carney says a U.S. trade deal without some tariffs is unlikely (CBC)

• Why $50 Silver, $4000 Gold Might Be Closer Than Anyone Thinks | Bradley Langille – GoGold Resources (theDeepDive)

• Canadian inflation ticks up to 1.9% in June, boosting expectations of no BoC rate cut in July (Globe)

• Why Silver’s True Price Could Be Much Higher | Joaquín Marias – Argenta Silver (theDeepDive)

• US Home Prices Are Losing Steam With Most Big Markets Below Peak (Bloomberg)

• Gold Enters A ‘Stronger For Longer’ Phase | Richard Young – i-80 Gold (theDeepDive)

• Trump says U.S. has ‘deal’ with Indonesia, but shares no details (CNBC)

What’s the latest?

• Real Estate: The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has downgraded its 2025 home sales forecast for the second time this year, now projecting a 3% decline to 469,503 properties sold. The national average home price is also expected to drop 1.7% to $677,368. While June home sales rose 3.5% year-over-year and 2.8% from May, CREA cites ongoing uncertainty from U.S. trade tensions as a key reason for delayed market recovery. However, sales are expected to rebound by 6.3% in 2026. June’s recovery was led by the Greater Toronto Area.

• Economy: Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 1.9% in June, up from 1.7% in May, driven by higher car prices and steady gasoline costs. Excluding energy, inflation was 2.7%, while food inflation eased to 2.9% due to cheaper vegetables. Shelter inflation also dipped slightly to 2.9%, but passenger vehicle prices surged 4.1% amid tighter inventories. Core inflation measures stayed near 3%, keeping pressure on the Bank of Canada ahead of its July 30 rate decision.

• AI: Oracle will invest US$3 billion in Germany and the Netherlands over five years to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure in Europe—US$2B in Germany and US$1B in the Netherlands. This move aligns with a broader US$320B AI spending wave by Big Tech in 2025. Oracle expects capital expenditures to exceed US$25B in fiscal 2026, mostly for AI data centers. Shares are up 38% year-to-date, and a major client deal could bring in US$30B annually starting fiscal 2028.

• Stocks: U.S. stocks are mixed Tuesday as investors weigh inflation data and big bank earnings. The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, near its all-time high, while the Dow dipped 0.2%. Nvidia jumped 3.2% after winning U.S. approval to sell AI chips to China. Inflation rose to 2.7% in June, pushed by Trump’s tariffs on goods like furniture and clothing. Bank earnings were mixed: Citigroup beat expectations (+1.4%) while JPMorgan slipped (-0.5%). China’s Q2 growth slowed slightly to 5.2%, amid escalating trade tensions.

• Google: Google has signed a landmark $3 billion deal with Brookfield to secure up to 3 gigawatts of U.S. hydropower over 20 years—the largest corporate hydroelectricity pact ever. The agreement covers two upgraded hydropower plants in Pennsylvania and supports Google's $25 billion data center expansion across the region. The deal addresses rising power needs from AI and cloud computing. Google aims to scale the clean energy effort beyond Pennsylvania and is also collaborating with PJM Interconnection to improve grid access using AI.

Uranium Supply Crisis with Dev Randhawa

The stock market and stuff

• Investors pile into US tech stocks at fastest pace in 16 years (FT)

• Riot Platforms Continues To Unload Bitfarms Position, Ownership Falls To 10.29% (theDeepDive)

• Citi Shares Climb to Highest Since 2008 on Stock Buyback Plan (Bloomberg)

In the juniors

• Giant Mining Hits 0.21% Copper Over 152.4 Metres At Majuba Hill (theDeepDive)

• Canada Nickel Publishes Initial Resource Estimates For Both Mann Central, Texmont (theDeepDive)

• G2 Goldfields Intercepts 5.9 g/t Gold Over 60 Metres At New OKO Surface Discovery (theDeepDive)

FULL DISCLOSURE: Rua Gold is a client of Canacom Group, the parent company of The Deep Dive. The author has been compensated to cover Rua Gold on The Deep Dive, with The Deep Dive having full editorial control. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security.