PsiQuantum Inc. today said that it has nabbed a $450 million late-stage funding round led by investment firm BlackRock Inc. to finance its efforts to build a reliable quantum computer with more than a million qubits. Qubits are the quantum equivalent of the bits in regular computers. What sets a qubit apart is that it…
Category: Alternate Investments
Avi Loeb’s Galileo Project Will Search for Evidence of Alien Visitation
What exactly is Harvard theoretical astrophysicist Avi Loeb doing co-founding a $1.755 million academic effort to look for UFOs? Yesterday, Loeb revealed the Galileo Project, which aims to develop an artificial-intelligence-powered network of telescopes that can search for evidence of technological alien civilizations on or near Earth. The project has received mixed criticism from outside…
Alphabet’s DeepMind Puts The Entire Human Proteome Online, As Folded By AlphaFold
DeepMind and several research partners have released a database containing the 3D structures of nearly every protein in the human body, as computationally determined by the breakthrough protein folding system demonstrated last year, AlphaFold. The freely available database represents an enormous advance and convenience for scientists across hundreds of disciplines and domains, and may very…
Deep Genomics Scores $180M To Deliver AI Programmed RNA Therapies
With COVID-19 vaccines making RNA-based medicines a household name, Deep Genomics is reaping some of the buzz—as well as $180 million in new funding for its efforts to develop “programmable” therapies. The artificial intelligence firm’s series C round more than quadruples its previous $40 million fundraising from early January 2020, and will help advance at…
Intel’s Mobileye Takes Its Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program To New York City
Mobileye, a subsidiary of Intel, has expanded its autonomous vehicle testing program to New York City as part of its strategy to develop and deploy the technology. New York City joins a number of other cities, including Detroit, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo, where Mobileye has either launched testing or plans to this year. Mobileye launched…
General Fusion To Build Nuclear Fusion Demonstration Plant in United Kingdom
General Fusion will enter into a long-term lease with UKAEA following the construction of a new facility to host the FDP under an agreement announced today by UK Science Minister Amanda Solloway. “This new plant by General Fusion is a huge boost for our plans to develop a fusion industry in the UK, and I’m…
South Korea Unveils $450 Billion Push For Global Chipmaking Crown
South Korea unveiled ambitious plans to spend roughly $450 billion to build the world’s biggest chipmaking base over the next decade, joining China and the US in a global race to dominate the key technology. Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. will lead more than 510 trillion won of investment in semiconductor research and…
SoftBank Invests $2.8 billion In Norwegian Robotics Firm AutoStore
Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank has acquired 40% of Norwegian warehouse automation firm AutoStore for $2.8 billion. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday and later confirmed by AutoStore in an update on its website. The deal values AutoStore at $7.7 billion. SoftBank, which has made a string of investments into…
Iron Ore Giant Fortescue Bets On Green Hydrogen In Zero Carbon Push
Fortescue Metals Group, an iron ore heavyweight supporting carbon-intensive steelmaking, has dived into the green hydrogen business in a mad dash to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. The world’s No. 4 iron ore producer plans to start making “zero-emission” hydrogen using renewable energy as early as 2023 for export to Japan and other energy-hungry economies….
Nvidia, Harvard Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence To Find Active Areas In Cell DNA
Researchers from Nvidia and Harvard are publishing research this week on a new way they’ve applied deep learning to epigenomics — the study of modifications on the genetic material of a cell. Using a neural network originally developed for computer vision, the researchers have developed a deep learning toolkit that can help scientists study rare…
SpaceX Rockets Another 60 Satellites Into Orbit
On Sunday morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully took to the skies from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying with it another 60 Starlink satellites. The two-stage rocket described by SpaceX as “the first orbital-class rocket capable of reflight’ has been making frequent trips shuttling Starlink satellites into low orbit as SpaceX founder…
Drone Startup Skydio Hits $1 Billion Valuation
Skydio, a drone startup cofounded by former MIT and Google unmanned aircraft scientists, has become the latest member of the unicorn club of $1 billion-valued businesses. It comes after a $170 million Series D round led by Andreessen Horowitz, taking the company’s total funding to $340 million. Based in Redwood City, California, Skydio has built…
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