When BlackBerry Ltd. divested about three million square feet of real estate in Waterloo, Ont., and area in 2014, some out-of-town naysayers warned of a calamitous office space glut in a region once dominated by the former tech titan.

“With 2.8 million square feet coming back on the market, there was a significant reluctance from the out-of-town investor to consider buying real estate in the Region of Waterloo,” says John Whitney, owner and chief executive officer of Whitney Commercial Real Estate Services. A fourth-generation Waterloo real estate broker, he helped BlackBerry decades earlier to acquire some of the same buildings that went on the chopping block. He says the skeptics told him, “You are crazy; you will never deal with all that space.”

MONTREAL, May 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - SPORTLOGiQ, the AI-powered sports analytics company comprised of the world's leading researchers, has officially opened the doors to its Kitchener-Waterloo AI Lab. The company is headquartered in Montreal and has added an office in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, which was named as Canada's fastest-growing tech sector in 2017.

SPORTLOGiQ will have access to top universities, such as the University of Waterloo, where the company already has research collaborations with David Clausi of VIP lab. As well as planning a collaborative research project with Pascal Poupart on theoretical and practical aspects of Reinforcement Learning.

The number of businesses operating in Waterloo Region grew in the second half of 2018, while the number in the Guelph area saw a significant decline.

The Workforce Planning Board of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin has prepared a report looking at the local business landscape based on Statistics Canada data.

According to the report, there were 52,664 businesses operating in Waterloo Region as of December 2017 – an increase of 874 from six months earlier.

Waterloo - The University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has opened its Artificial Intelligence Institute. The institute will concentrate on foundational artificial intelligence (AI) and operational AI.

Foundational AI includes research on statistical learning, deep learning, game theory and data science. This is research that advances the whole technology industry. Operational AI research develops scalable, secure and transparent solutions for a wide range of applications.

WATERLOO — Elisa Knight can explain the mechanics behind her team's robot, and the strategy involved in the tasks it faces, with the precision of an engineer.

There's mention of the challenges posed by a faulty gear box, and of the strategic advantage inherent in being able to lift and carry another robot. There's also talk of the three "power ups" available to be played — levitate, force and boost.

A new advanced manufacturing "supercluster" of area research and industry players announced by the federal government Thursday will pay enormous economic benefits for Hamilton, local business leaders say.

The move — part of a $950-million series of initiatives across Canada — is being described as a major shot-in-the-arm to a burgeoning network powerhouse developing between Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton.

"We are evolving into a more regional economy and we have to be able to evolve it further to remain globally competitive," says Keanin Loomis, president of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.

The Ontario government has inked a deal to use Shopify Inc.'s e-commerce platform for cannabis sales online and in stores as part of its plan to be the province's sole distributor of legal recreational marijuana.

The Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation (OCRC), a subsidiary of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, will use the Ottawa-based company's online store software for its online and mobile sales portal.

"Our top priority is fulfilling the province's framework for the safe and sensible retailing of recreational cannabis for when it is legalized by the federal government," said George Soleas, president and CEO of the LCBO.

Kitchener-based tech company Miovision Technologies is expanding to create 275 new jobs in Waterloo region, Kitchener-Centre MPP Daiene Vernile and Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic announced on Monday.

The expansion comes with the provincial government investment of $1.5 million into the traffic data company through the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund, which in turn allowed Miovision to obtain $13.5 million in private investments.

A new form of artificial intelligence (AI) that doesn’t need internet access could become a powerful healthcare tool, according to one of its creators.

Researchers and technicians from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada recently presented the potentially groundbreaking new deep learning AI technology at the International Conference for Computer Vision in Venice, Italy. The team made the AI less reliant on iCloud and Wi-Fi systems, using deep intelligence that mimics nature by incorporating “sexual evolutionary synthesis” to improve deep neural networks, according to the study.

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Since 2014, Shopify Inc. (NYSE:SHOP) (TSX: SHOP), the leading multi-channel commerce platform, has been steadily building its presence in Waterloo, the cornerstone of Canada’s technology Corridor. Today, the company announced that it plans to grow its full-time, Waterloo-based workforce by 300-500 new jobs over the next couple of years.

“We initially chose to build Shopify’s presence in Waterloo because we knew we would be supported by the tech community in the region,” said Loren Padelford, General Manager and Vice President of Shopify Plus. “With that support, along with world-class local talent, our growth has outpaced our expectations and projections. By continuing to invest in the region, we are helping build a stronger ecosystem, one that employs great local people, and also brings new talent to the region.”