NVIDIA has partnered with GE HealthCare to drive innovation in autonomous imaging, with a focus on advancing AI-powered X-ray technologies and ultrasound applications.

Building autonomy into systems like X-ray and ultrasound requires medical imaging systems to understand and operate in the physical world. This enables the automation of complex workflows such as patient placement, image scanning and quality checking.

To accomplish this, GE HealthCare, a pioneering partner, is using the new NVIDIA Isaac™ for Healthcare medical device simulation platform, which includes pretrained models and physics-based simulations of sensors, anatomy and environments. The platform accelerates research and development workflows, enabling GE HealthCare to train, test and validate autonomous imaging system capabilities in a virtual environment before deployment in the physical world.

“The healthcare industry is one of the most important applications of AI, as the demand for healthcare services far exceeds the supply,”

said Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at NVIDIA.

“We are working with an industry leader, GE HealthCare, to deliver Isaac for Healthcare, three computers to give lifesaving medical devices the ability to act autonomously and extend access to healthcare globally.”

Expanding Access to Imaging With Physical AI

Ultrasounds and X-ray are the most common and widely used diagnostic imaging systems, yet nearly two-thirds of the global population lack access. Enhancing imaging systems with robotic capabilities will help expand access to care.

NVIDIA and GE HealthCare have been working together for nearly two decades, building innovative image-reconstruction techniques across CT and MRI, image-guided therapy and mammography.

“GE HealthCare is committed to developing innovative technologies that redefine and enhance patient care,”

said Roland Rott, president and CEO of Imaging at GE HealthCare.

“We look forward to taking advantage of physical AI for autonomous imaging systems with NVIDIA technology to improve patient access and address the challenges of growing workloads and staffing shortages in healthcare.”

Isaac for Healthcare Closes Gap Between Simulation and Reality

NVIDIA will also support other customers with Isaac for Healthcare for use cases including simulation environments. Simulation environments enable robotic systems to safely learn skills in a physically accurate virtual environment for real-world situations, such as surgery, that would otherwise be impossible to replicate.

Isaac for Healthcare is a physical AI platform built on NVIDIA’s three computers for robotics: NVIDIA DGX™, NVIDIA Omniverse™ and NVIDIA Holoscan. It includes AI models fine-tuned for healthcare robotics that can understand, act and see using enhanced vision and language processing. It also has a simulation framework for developers to accurately simulate medical environments and provides seamless deployment on NVIDIA Holoscan, an edge AI computing platform, to power robotic decision-making in the real world, in real time.

Simulation options for medical sensors are often limited. With Isaac for Healthcare, developers can now access physics-based digital twins of medical environments, allowing them to import custom sensors, instruments and even anatomies to teach robots how to respond to various scenarios. These virtual environments help close the gap between simulation and real-world implementation, and enable rapid digital prototyping.

Isaac for Healthcare allows for multi-scale simulation ranging from microscopic structures and surgery suites to full hospital facilities. Easy policy training in simulation allows robotic systems to learn how to respond in various medical scenarios in the operating room, and how to best support physician decision-making and patient care.

Healthcare Robotics Ecosystem Rapidly Expands

Isaac for Healthcare can help speed the development of robotic healthcare solutions by simulating complex medical scenarios, training AI models and optimizing robotic applications like surgery, endoscopy and cardiovascular interventions. Early adopters include Moon Surgical, Neptune Medical and Xcath.

Isaac for Healthcare is enabling ecosystem partners to seamlessly integrate their simulation tools, sensors, robot systems and medical probes into a domain-specific simulation environment. Among early ecosystem partners are Ansys, Franka, ImFusion, Kinova and Kuka.

Issac for Healthcare is now available in early access.

NVIDIA today announced it is building a Boston-based research center to provide cutting-edge technologies to advance quantum computing.

The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, will integrate leading quantum hardware with AI supercomputers, enabling what is known as accelerated quantum supercomputing. The NVAQC will help solve quantum computing’s most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices.

Leading quantum computing innovators, including Quantinuum, Quantum Machines and QuEra Computing, will tap into the NVAQC to drive advancements through collaborations with researchers from leading universities, such as the Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering (HQI) and the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development,”

said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.

“Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers.”

Propelling Quantum Innovation

Through the NVAQC, commercial and academic partners will work with NVIDIA to use state-of-the-art NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems, the most powerful hardware ever deployed for quantum computing applications. This enables complex simulations of quantum systems and the deployment of the low-latency quantum hardware control algorithms essential for quantum error correction. NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems will also accelerate the adoption of AI algorithms in quantum computing research.

To address the challenges of integrating GPU and QPU hardware, the NVAQC will employ the NVIDIA CUDA-Q™quantum development platform, enabling researchers to develop new hybrid quantum algorithms and applications.

The HQI — a community of researchers dedicated to advancing the science and engineering of quantum systems and their applications — will collaborate with the NVAQC to advance their research on next-generation quantum computing technologies.

“The NVAQC is a very special addition to the unique Boston area quantum ecosystem, including world-leading university groups and startup companies,”

said Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard and a co-director of HQI.

“The accelerated quantum and classical computing technologies NVIDIA is bringing together has the potential to advance the research in areas ranging from quantum error correction to applications of quantum computing systems, accelerating quantum computing research and pulling useful quantum computing closer to reality.”

Researchers from the EQuS group, a member of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering — which serves as a hub for research, education and engagement in support of quantum engineering — will use NVAQC to develop techniques like quantum error correction

“The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center will provide EQuS group researchers with unprecedented access to the technologies and expertise needed to solve the challenges of useful quantum computing,”

said William Oliver, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and of physics, leader of the EQuS group and director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering.

“We anticipate the future will also include other members of the Center for Quantum Engineering at MIT. Integrating the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform with qubits will help tackle core challenges like quantum error correction, hybrid application development and quantum device characterization.”

The NVAQC is expected to begin operations later this year.

In a defining moment for the cybersecurity landscape, Wiz has announced its agreement to be acquired by Google, marking a significant milestone in its five-year journey to revolutionize cloud security. While the deal remains subject to regulatory review, the acquisition will see Wiz become part of Google Cloud upon completion, ushering in a new chapter in its mission to redefine how organizations secure the cloud.

A Vision Born in the Cloud

Founded just five years ago, Wiz was born out of a simple yet powerful ambition: to build a platform that security and development teams truly love. From the outset, the company focused on listening to its customers, learning from their pain points, and innovating to solve real-world challenges in cloud security. This customer-first approach has propelled Wiz to become a leading player in modern cloud security—supporting organizations from startups to large enterprises and public sector entities.

A Platform for the Modern Cloud Security Operating Model

Wiz’s growth has been fueled by a relentless drive to change the way security is done. Its comprehensive platform spans the full spectrum of cloud risk management—from prevention and detection to response—covering everything from public clouds to data, AI, and the entire development lifecycle. This full-stack approach makes Wiz a unified platform for modern cloud security, bridging the gap between security and development teams.

Shared Vision with Google Cloud

At the heart of this acquisition is a shared philosophy between Wiz and Google Cloud: cloud security must be simpler, smarter, and more accessible. Together, they aim to democratize security—making it available and scalable for every organization, across any cloud environment.

Crucially, Wiz will remain a multicloud platform, continuing its strong collaborations with AWS, Azure, Oracle, and the broader cloud ecosystem. The company’s open approach will be preserved and strengthened, ensuring that organizations can benefit from best-in-class security tools, no matter where they build and run their systems.

Strapping a Rocket to Innovation

Joining Google Cloud isn’t just a strategic move—it’s an acceleration of Wiz’s mission. Google Cloud brings a legacy of engineering innovation in security, cloud-native technologies, and AI. From pioneering Kubernetes to setting new standards in Zero Trust and software supply chain security (SLSA), Google Cloud’s contributions have shaped the way organizations build and secure in the cloud. By aligning with this powerhouse, Wiz is poised to scale its innovations faster than ever before.

Wiz’s CEO likened the move to “strapping a rocket to our backs,” emphasizing how Google Cloud’s vast resources and AI expertise will turbocharge their development and reach.

Empowering Customers, Partners, and Employees

The benefits of this acquisition ripple outward:

• Customers will gain access to a richer, more integrated suite of cloud security, AI, and data solutions across all major cloud providers and hybrid environments.
• Partners will find renewed opportunity to collaborate with Wiz as it becomes an even more compelling choice for organizations of all sizes and sectors.
• Employees—the “Wizards”—celebrate a landmark achievement, ready to take their expertise to the next level by working alongside some of the brightest minds in cloud and AI.

A Future-Proof Security Mission

As cloud adoption and digital transformation accelerate, so too do the threats. Attackers are moving faster, powered by AI and advanced tools. Wiz and Google Cloud recognize the urgency of the moment—and the need to move even faster in response. This acquisition is not just about business synergy; it’s a bold move to future-proof cloud security and deliver the most advanced protection to organizations worldwide.

The message from Wiz is clear: the mission continues—stronger, faster, and more impactful than ever. With Google Cloud, Wiz is poised to build the most powerful security platform the world has ever seen.

From 2019 to 2024, the combined annual revenue of the world’s ten largest companies was approximately $4.6 trillion, a figure surpassing the GDP of economic powerhouses like Japan and Germany. Notably, companies like Walmart and Amazon, with substantial tech-driven operations, dominate this list.

The world’s largest IT companies by revenue

Walmart and Digital Expansion

Walmart, known primarily for its vast retail operations with over 10,600 stores worldwide, has been the world’s largest company by revenue for 12 consecutive years. However, a significant part of its recent success can be attributed to its digital ventures. Despite a slim profit margin of just 2.4%, Walmart has increasingly focused on digital advertising revenues, which are projected to hit $3.7 billion in 2024. Remarkably, Walmart’s ad revenue growth has outpaced even Amazon, fueled by a growing number of marketplace sellers and commanding 6.8% of U.S. retail ad spend.

Amazon and the Cloud Services Surge

Following Walmart, Amazon stands as America’s second-largest retailer with $574.8 billion in revenues. Since 2019, Amazon’s revenue has more than doubled, supported by 310 million global customers using its online marketplace. More crucially, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become the backbone of the company’s profitability. AWS, which controls 31% of the global cloud services market, contributes the majority of Amazon’s earnings, thanks to its high profit margins and significant growth.

Other Tech Giants and Economic Impact

While traditional utility and oil companies like State Grid and Saudi Aramco continue to post large revenues, IT companies are increasingly prominent on the list. Apple, another tech giant, stands out with the healthiest profit margins among the top ten, at 25%. Its technology products and services have set benchmarks for profitability and market dominance.

Market Dynamics and Future Outlook

The increased concentration in stock markets and swelling corporate balance sheets over the past five years highlight a trend towards market consolidation. This trend benefits large companies capable of leveraging pricing power and economies of scale, attributes that tech companies like Amazon and Apple possess in abundance.

Furthermore, as digital transformation accelerates, the position of IT companies in the top revenue-generating echelons is expected to strengthen. This transition points not only to robust consumer demand and recovering economies but also to the integral role technology and digital services play in modern economic ecosystems.

Credit: Visual Capitalist

The image was originally posted on Voronoi app.

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$6 billion in a single venture round is an enormous sum. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been discussing efforts to raise trillions to build the chip-making infrastructure needed for advanced AI.

The official announcement said that the company has made significant progress since its launch in July 2023. In November, xAI released its Grok-1 model on X, followed by the recent introduction of the improved Grok-1.5 model, which features long context capabilities. Additionally, the Grok-1.5V model now includes image understanding, marking a significant enhancement in the company’s AI capabilities. The open-source release of Grok-1 has paved the way for various advancements, optimizations, and extensions in AI applications.

Looking ahead, xAI plans to maintain its rapid pace of development, with several exciting technology updates and product launches expected in the coming months. The newly raised funds will be utilized to bring xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies.

This substantial investment will support xAI’s mission to develop advanced AI systems that are truthful, competent, and beneficial for all of humanity, while also striving to understand the true nature of the universe.

Musk parted ways with the other co-founders of OpenAI long ago, but his AI startup, xAI, is borrowing OpenAI’s strategy of building larger models to achieve greater intelligence. This approach has proven successful so far, with OpenAI delivering impressive demos and anticipating further advances with its next big model, GPT-5, by year’s end.

There’s no guarantee that this progress will continue. Musk is known for tackling giant missions and delivering results, as seen with Tesla and SpaceX. However, his history is also marked by failures, particularly with software projects like Tesla’s autonomous-driving features and his efforts to revitalize Twitter under its new name, X.

Only a few existing companies – possibly Google, Meta, and Anthropic – are seriously competing with OpenAI in developing the largest language models, known as frontier models. These competitors have been in the game for years, while xAI is less than a year old. Hiring AI talent is currently very expensive, and the advanced AI chips needed are costly and scarce.

Rumors around the deal:

According to The Information, cited by Axios,  xAI plans to build a massive new supercomputer, dubbed the “Gigafactory of compute,” potentially in partnership with Oracle. Such a project could deplete this investment round before it even goes online.

Musk intends to use the real-time access to X’s data to help xAI create a more news-savvy chatbot, but there’s also a risk of recycling extremist misinformation. This is supported by the fact that he often blurs the lines between the companies he owns.

Some observers, including OpenAI in its defense against a lawsuit from Musk, suggest that Musk envies OpenAI’s success with ChatGPT and is building xAI to reclaim the spotlight. Musk and his supporters argue that OpenAI and Google are endangering AI’s future by implementing guardrails against hate speech. Pro-guardrail advocates believe these measures prevent chatbots from making horrifying statements, but Musk criticizes them as “woke” and “deadly” forms of lying.

These brain functions include memory and decision-making.⁠

Rodrigo Araiza Bravo, Physics PhD candidate at Harvard University and his colleagues used computer simulations to show that a new type of quantum computer could be built out of rubidium Rydberg atoms.

Why are Rydberg atoms?

The Rydberg atom is an excited atom with one or more electrons that have a very high principal quantum number, n. The higher the value of n, the farther the electron is from the nucleus, on average.

In fact these atoms are super-sized in diameter because some of their electrons orbit the nuclei at a large distance, and they are extremely sensitive to light so can be very precisely controlled by lasers.

The researchers found in the simulations that lasers could make six Rydberg atoms act like a neural network – an artificially intelligent algorithm that imitates neurons and synapses in the brain. In the theoretical quantum computer, quantum states of the outermost electron in a Rydberg atom correspond to the states of a brain’s neuron, like whether the neuron is firing or inactive.

The team showed that the quantum computer would be able to exhibit basic decision-making and memory.

You can read the full story on New Scientist.

Roula Khalaf, who is the FT’s editor, called Musk a revolutionary in the ER industry and congratulated him for demonstrating how EVs could replace cars which are fueled by gasoline.

The newspaper quoted Musk as saying in an interview: 

“For a long time, the rest of the auto industry was basically calling Tesla and me fools and frauds. They were saying electric cars wouldn’t work, you can achieve the range and performance. And even if you did that, nobody would buy them.”

Musk has dominated the headlines and amassed over 66 million followers on Twitter. 

Roula Khalaf added: 

“For all the eccentric and provocative tweets that strike some as childish, he is one of the most transformational business figures of the era.” 

In her opinion, this is the reason the FT is making him its Person of the Year for 2021. 

MachineFi’s main objective is to transition traditional IoT and machine verticals into MachineFi decentralized applications (Dapps) that will enable millions of users to participate in the machine economy with billions of smart devices.

The world has witnessed the boom of smart devices and automated machines, including smart home devices and smart cars. However, few have noticed inter-machine communication is significantly increasing. IoTeX CEO and Founder Dr. Raullen Chai, explains:

“Today, numerous machines have already started collaborating, producing, and distributing, and they consume information and resources collectively, forming a heterogeneous network of machines.” 

According to a McKinsey report, the Internet of Things (IoT) could unlock a global economic value of up to $12.6 trillion by 2030. Techjury estimates that over 125 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by the start of the next decade, powering that machine economy.

Dr. Chai explains that the convergence of artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, edge computing, the Internet of things, 5G, computer vision, and augmented/virtual reality pushes human society through the next digital revolution wave.

MTAV will be Canada’s first index-based exchange traded fund (“ETF”) focused on the emerging metaverse opportunity. MTAV is an index ETF, which seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Solactive Global Metaverse Index (the “Index”). The Index is designed to provide exposure to global, publicly listed companies that potentially stand to benefit from the adoption and usage of technologies expected to grow and support the functioning of the metaverse. Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs, commented:

“The metaverse is the next frontier of the human experience and technological innovation. We believe that the metaverse will become an extremely important realm for social and economic interaction over the next decade. Even today, these technologies are already reframing the way that we engage with one another, from virtual reality to non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). MTAV is the first index-based ETF in Canada to offer direct exposure to the global companies that are investing heavily in building and expanding the digital worlds that encompass the metaverse.”

The metaverse companies in the Index will be made up of the following key segments:

Augmented / Virtual Reality: Companies engaged in the production of technologies, software, and hardware that allow consumers and businesses to interact in immersive extended realities. This includes the production of wearable devices, specialized optics and displays, as well as, audio and sensory equipment. These companies are expected to allow end-users to transcend physical spaces and fully immerse themselves into the metaverse.

Creator Economy: Companies that offer consumer software tools, social media, and other distribution platforms that make it possible for individual creators to create, share, and transact directly with their consumers. This includes the provision of programs and services used for editing and sharing user generated content. These companies are expected to unlock the value chain of the creator economy in the metaverse.

Digital Infrastructure: Companies engaged in the development, operation and distribution of technologies, services and hardware related to network infrastructure, big data, digital platforms and cloud computing.

Digital Marketplace: Companies engaged in the provision of a digital economy including platforms and services to facilitate virtual interactions and online commerce, as well as the integration of social network platforms. These companies are expected to play a key role in the digital economy of the metaverse.

Gaming: Companies involved in the provision, development, and distribution of technologies, infrastructure and hardware used for the creation, streaming, and consumption of online gaming and e-sports content. This includes the development of online games, the production of gaming equipment, as well as, the provision of services and platforms necessary for the functioning of the gaming ecosystem expected to be central to the metaverse.

Digital Payments: Companies engaged in the development, distribution and integration of infrastructure, software, and applications related to digital payment services and blockchain technologies. This includes digital payment processes, platforms, including fiat currency “on-ramps” to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. These companies are expected to provide the payment rails for the metaverse.

ATFX launched the high-end AT Premier market research portal in the Middle East, and an investor networking app ATFX TeamUp in Latin America, earlier this year, as part of their latest fintech offerings. The broker has concluded multiple strategic partnerships with a group of tech and banking institutions from around the world such as UK Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank, and. JPMorgan.

ATFX commits to keep providing their customers with world-leading tech services.