【TIMELINE】2023/05#1
◉Financing in the Metaverse sector
Recently, with a valuation ranging from $27 billion to $29 billion, OpenAI successfully raised over $300 million in funding. Currently, investors have signed investment term sheets, and the funds have been transferred. Venture capital firms such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive, and K2 Global have increased their holdings of new shares. Additionally, it is reported that Peter Thiel has also entered the scene, which appears to be the first investment by Founders Fund.
Renowned VR market analyst Chennavasin, in the latest edition of the Lowpass newsletter, shared some estimations regarding the latest sales figures in the VR industry. According to him, consumers have spent $3 billion on VR applications so far. This conclusion was reached based on the number of reviews for games listed by major companies, publicly available statistics, and internal performance data shared with VR studios.
On May 4th, it was announced that NFT marketplace AlienSwap has completed a $12 million funding round. The round was led by NEXT Leader Capital and C² Ventures, with additional investment from OKX Ventures, Araceae Capital, BIP32 Venture, Hyper 10n Capital, Eureka Trading, Mission Street Ventures, Phyrex, and others. The raised funds will be used to expand the AlienSwap engineering team, develop new NFT liquidity tools and trading products, and increase investment in NFT infrastructure to enhance the trading experience for the NFT community.
Next-generation lens technology developer Imagia recently announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round. The round was led by Gates Frontier, with participation from MetaVC Partners and other strategic investors. This funding will be used to help Imagia accelerate the development and initial commercial deployment of its first-generation flat silicon-based optical lenses.
Vibe, a platform that provides solutions from NFTs to products, has completed a $4 million funding round. Investors include Aglaé Ventures, the venture capital division of Alchemy, and P Nation, the music brand of K-Pop artist Psy.
Web3 UGC game platform Anome recently announced a successful strategic investment of $1.5 million from renowned venture capital firms Mangrove Capital Crypto, CSDN Hong Kong (the largest Chinese developer community globally), and AC Market Asia (a mobile game application store with over 100 million users worldwide). This funding round will accelerate Anome's expansion plans in the global market. The $1.5 million strategic investment will primarily be used for Anome game engine and editor development, Anome Marketplace development, and game user and developer community growth and operations.
◉NFT & Blockchain
To commemorate Star Wars Day on May 4th, digital toy platform Cryptoys announced a partnership with Disney to sell NFT digital toys featuring three iconic characters from the Star Wars film series. With support from Andreessen Horowitz, Mattel, and Dapper Labs, Cryptoys will release 15 limited-edition Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader digital collectible toy NFTs. Supported by Dapper Labs' Flow blockchain, consumers can purchase Cryptoys Star Wars NFTs for $39.99. The company stated that consumers can make purchases worldwide using Apple Pay and Google Pay.
On April 21st, Marvel Studios' founder announced the launch of a new digital art collectible called "ekos," featuring original works by renowned comic book artist Michael Turner. The Twitter announcement specifically mentioned April 24th as a potential release date for the collection.
- Trump's personal NFTs from the second series experience over 20% price drop.
- The Sandbox launches Mega City 3 land sales.
◉VR & XR
Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall recently announced that its compact VR headset, MeganeX, will be released in July, with the commercial version also scheduled for release in the same month. It is reported that the MeganeX VR headset supports HDR and utilizes a Micro OLED+Pancake optical solution, weighing only 320 grams (excluding cables). The earmuffs are foldable, making transportation more convenient. The speakers are built-in, and it features a 3.5mm headphone jack.
On April 20th, the United States Patent and Trademark Office unveiled an Apple patent application involving streaming immersive video content to users wearing upcoming XR headsets. In their patent, Apple highlights that conventional immersive video content cannot adjust to the user's body position, thus limiting the possibility of a 360° visual experience. Developers and engineers can delve into the details of this invention by referring to Apple's patent application US 20230117742.
◉Top
Practitioners involved in virtual human live streaming and digital human short videos have seen the potential regulations in the platform guidelines and industry initiatives announced by TikTok on May 9th. They believe that this initiative, which issues the first permit on the platform, could lead to an upcoming boom in the field. It is the platform's first public stance on this matter. It is expected that more platforms will follow suit and express their positions. Currently, several countries/regions have already issued various regulatory measures, and it is anticipated that there will be more regulations to constrain artificial intelligence from policy-making at the governmental level to specific implementation on various platforms.
OpenAI CEO emphasizes the need for government action to regulate the artificial intelligence industry. The relationship with Elon Musk remains positive.
On May 4th, the White House announced its first measure to mitigate risks associated with artificial intelligence. White House officials stated that the National Science Foundation plans to allocate $140 million for new artificial intelligence research centers. The government also commits to issuing draft guidelines for government agencies to ensure the rights and safety of the American people in using artificial intelligence.
On April 20th, the Shenzhen Major Trading Platform Promotion Conference was held in Hangzhou. On that day, the Shenzhen Data Exchange signed a strategic contract with Ant Group, East China Big Data Trading Center, Alibaba Group, Zhejiang Provincial Big Data United Computing Center Limited Company, and Zhengzhou Data Trading Center. Among them, the Shenzhen Data Exchange signed a cooperation framework agreement with Ant Group, aiming to collaborate on building and sharing high-value data, conducting specialized research on data compliance, and advancing technology research and interconnectivity in blockchain, privacy computing, AI, and other areas.