Ubisoft Winnipeg expands hiring as company plans to invest more in the country

Source: Ubisoft

Ubisoft is focusing on expanding its operations in Canada with a recent announcement of creating 200 more jobs in Manitoba and expanding its Winnipeg studio to 300 employees by 2030. The company intends to invest an additional $139 million in the province of Manitoba, tripling its current studio size. This will bring the developer's total investment in the area to $264 million from 2018 to 2030.

The company also previously targeted to grow its Winnipeg studio to 100 within five years of its founding. And that will already be met this month, more than a year ahead of its commitment. Ubisoft plans to continue investing in local entrepreneurs and contribute $1 million to the ecosystem by 2030. Ubisoft Winnipeg intends to hire additional Programmers, including Engine Programmers, Tools Programmers, Online Programmers, and talent from other specialized areas of expertise to support its ambitious plans. You can check out the roles the company is hiring for over here.

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Microsoft to double size of Montreal research lab to bolster machine learning and deep learning tech

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussing Canadian expansion and AI at Davos

“Montreal is really one of the most exciting places in AI right now,” said Jennifer Chayes, a technical fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, New York City and Montreal.

Microsoft announced plans to significantly expand its Montreal research lab, starting with the hire of renowned artificial intelligence expert, Geoff Gordon as the lab’s Research Director.

The expansion comes as Montreal is becoming a worldwide hub for groundbreaking work in the fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are core to AI advances. Upcoming plans include doubling the size of Microsoft Research Montreal within the next two years, to as many as 75 technical experts. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today in Davos to discuss Microsoft’s plans for the Montreal Research lab and Montreal’s AI ecosystem.

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SoundCloud gets fresh round of funding to keep it going

Musicians and creators are going to be at the heart of SoundCloud moving forward, we'll probably see more improvements to features like this stats page

A new round of investment into SoundCloud is keeping the music streaming service going for the foreseeable future. As part of the deal, SoundCloud Chief Executive Officer and founder Alex Ljung will be stepping aside and former Vimeo head Kerry Trainor will be the new CEO. Another former exec from Vimeo, Mike Weissman, will be coming in to serve as SoundCloud's chief operating officer. Ljung will act as chairman and will stay on for the long term. His co-founder Eric Wahlforss will stay on with the company as chief product officer. The Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank, together with Singapore-based investment company Temasek, led the US$169.5 million investment to give SoundCloud the much-needed cash. 

Trainor wants to put greater emphasis on developing tools for musicians and other creators, including a "more robust creative toolkit" for them via the Pro Unlimited subscription. The service is used by a lot of artists to do things like public collaborations, promote new songs, or get private feedback before a track is released to the world. Trainor claims this is what gives SoundCloud a unique brand in the digital music arena. He tells Billboard, "SoundCloud is the largest open audio platform in the world. Millions of creators choose these tools to share their work with the world—that will remain at the focus and center of the company." 

Ford to invest US$1 billion into autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

Not wanting to be left behind in the self-driving car race, Ford is pouring a US$1 billion investment over five years at Argo AI. The previously unheard of startup is led by Uber and Google veterans. They will be working with Ford’s team to create a fully self-driving car by 2021. The cars will be used for commercial ride sharing fleets. Argo AI won’t be owned by Ford but the company is the largest shareholder. The startup will be focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics side of the system to help develop Ford’s “virtual driver system.”

Argo AI plans to hire 200 more employees to get the job done. A possible enticement when it comes to recruitment is that employees could have equity stake in the company. "They have the opportunity to run it pretty independently with a board, but because it is a separate company or subsidiary, it has the opportunity to go out and recruit with competitive compensation packages and equity,” Ford Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields says at a press conference.