Epic Games said today it has raised $1 billion in a new round of funding in its bid to build the metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.The company said the money will enable it to support future growth opportunities, and it places Epic’s equity valuation at $28.7 billion.This round includes an additional $2...

The latest data from Canalys shows continued strength in the worldwide PC market in the first quarter of 2021, with shipments of desktops and notebooks, including workstations, up 55% year on year. Though this growth rate was buoyed by a weak Q1 2020, total shipments of 82.7 million units is still impressive, and the highest Q1 shipment number since 2012. Backlogs on orders from 2020, particula...

Standard Energy, a vanadium ion battery developer, announced today it has raised a $8.9 million Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia. The South Korea-based company says its batteries’ advantages over lithium ion include less risk of ignition and the ease of sourcing vanadium. The latter is an important selling point, as electric vehicle makers face a potential shortage of lithium ion batteries...

After a historic antitrust crackdown on China’s biggest tech companies last week, investors are betting there is more pain ahead.- Regulation may ‘act as a cap’ for big internet firms: JPMorgan- Quick regulatory clarity is a positive, says Robeco’s CrabbGAM Investments, BNP Paribas Asset Management and JP Morgan Asset Management Inc. see more regulatory tightening in China’s clampdown on m...

A sound addition to your bookshelves. If you want a wireless speaker that will tuck neatly away in your bookcase, the latest model from Bang & Olufsen should do the trick. The Beosound Emerge has been designed with a slim silhouette, "taking inspiration from the compact form factor of a book", which the company says allows it to "integrate alongside books and other domestic objects". Like t...

The travel and entertainment industries have had a volatile ride over the last year.During the initial stages of the pandemic, when panic and uncertainty ran rife, BEACH stocks–booking, entertainment, airlines, cruises, and hotels—were left scrambling. Collectively, $332 billion in market cap washed away.Now, it appears the tide might be turning for these companies, buoyed by vaccine breakthr...

The concept of wellness has been around for a long time. Remember Jane Fonda workout tapes, neon legwarmers, and the “cookie diet”? These days, consumers view wellness through a much broader and more sophisticated lens, encompassing not just fitness and nutrition but also overall physical and mental health and appearance. They also have more choice in the types of products and services they b...

It’s a common surgeon’s dream: What if you could shrink yourself down, place yourself inside the patient, and fix them from the inside? By combining virtual reality and miniaturized robotics, Vicarious Surgical, with its approach in its name, is looking to do just that.After largely developing its system under stealth since its 2014 founding, the company is now looking to take it public in a...

March retail receipts jump by 9.8%, most in 10 months. Initial jobless claims fell last week to fresh pandemic low.The U.S. economy’s comeback is firing on all cylinders with employment, retail spending and manufacturing exhibiting strong gains.Thursday’s barrage of economic data showed that some parts of the economy, like retail sales, have returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Applic...