Hartmann Capital

What do top VR titles all have in common that make them so successful? Unique to VR controls. My thoughts:

With NVIDIA's GenAI demo at #SIGGRAPH2024 showcasing its real-time world-building capabilities -- the time between ideation and creation is accelerating to the benefit of artists and developers alike. Read Daniel Derzic's piece from May detailing how Generative AI is already being explored by developers --and expanding gaming's horizons: https://lnkd.in/eJY9GgFx

At the core of VR's appeal is its ability to create a sense of presence – the feeling of truly being inside a virtual world. When players use their bodies to interact with their virtual environment, the immersion delineation between reality and the virtual world is depreciated more than any other gaming experience. Read JP Minetos' latest piece on where the future lies for VR gaming and -- how what's best and only possible in VR -- is the key to its success.

🔥 This week in VR 🔥 - AI at Meta is coming to the Quest line, and can utilize Quest 3’s camera for vision - Meta Quest mobile app is rebranded to Meta Horizon, in line with Meta’s “Horizon” brand - HTC teases a new VIVE headset entry - Magic Leap laid off around 75 positions, as company pivots to optical displays

- Naklecha on X released factorio-automation-v1. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 🤖🕹 👇 - Restyle now on Scenario. - Text-to-3D in real-time now on Sloyd. FlokyDev is using it to publish a horror parkour game to Steam in 30 days. Check out his channel. - k-ID partners with Modulate. - Activision sold an AI generated MW3 Cosmetic. - Apple released DCLM 7B, trained on 2.5T tokens. - Salesforce released xLAM 1.35B & 7B Large Action Models. - Microsoft released AI-powered Designer app for iOS and Android. - Google adds AI-powered comparisons, and more data controls to Play Store. - Adobe rolls out more generative AI features to Illustrator and Photoshop. - The Hotels Network introduced the first AI voice guest service agent. - Qualcomm makes its AI models available to app developers. - Apple, Nvidia and Anthropic are accused of using Youtube videos to train. - OpenAI released GPT-4o mini, a cheaper version of their flagship. - Mark as a Gladiator and Meta releases Llama 3.1. - OpenAI is developing a secret project targeting the agents space. 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: - Harvey raised a $100M Series C led by GV that values it at $1.5B. - Cohere raised $500M at $5.5B valuation. - Artificial Agency raised $16 million to develop NPC behaviour in games. - Lakera raised $20M Series A to deliver real-time GenAI security. - Tesla looking to invest $5B into xAI.

Between raises, launches, and new product milestones -- our portfolio companies and founders had a momentous second quarter of 2024. Swipe through to see what they've been up to ➡ Cookie3, Sinn Studio Inc., LIV, Cathedral Studios - 🔜 Gamescom 2024, Sloyd, ShapesXR, Holograph, Neurable, DRESSX

We love this ShapesXR use case by by Simtryx to simulate healthcare for medical training 👏

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 🤖🕹 - Miro released Intelligent Canvas. - AWS launched a GenAI-powered service for creating applications. - OpenAI is 'going to build a search product' - Amazon rolls out ‘Rufus’ generative AI assistant to all U.S. customers. - Skyrocket is launching storyteller AI Bear 'Poe' for kids. - Google Vids is available to test out Gemini AI-created video presentations. - Microsoft’s new AI system ‘SpreadsheetLLM’ unlocks insights from spreadsheets. - Spotify’s AI DJ now speaks Spanish. - YouTube Music tests AI playlists tailored to what you want to hear. - Helm.ai launches VidGen-1 generative video model. - Anthropic releases Claude app for Android. - Andrej Karpathy, former head of AI at Tesla and researcher at OpenAI, is launching Eureka Labs. - Mistral AI launches two 7B LLMs. - NVIDIA plans new China-specific AI and gaming GPUs. - DeepL launches newest dedicated translation large language model. - Scenario shipped Style transfer. 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: - NVIDIA acquired AI development platform Brev.dev. - Menlo Ventures and Anthropic open $100M Fund. - Beeble raises $4.75M to launch a virtual production platform for indie filmmakers. - Fireworks AI raised $52M, led by Sequoia, at a $552M valuation. - Medal.tv raised $13M for building a contextual AI assistant for desktop. - AMD buys Silo AI for $665 Million. - Exa raised $17M to build a Google for AIs. - Echo Chunk AI raises $1.4M to make AI-based puzzle games. - Mira raised $9 million in seed funding. - Arcee.ai lands $24M Series A. - Lemonado raised $1.4M in Seed Funding. - Vectara raises $25M, debuts new RAG-optimized Mockingbird model - Shaped raised $8M Series A. - aiXplain raised $6.5M to simplify AI agent development.

Unlike traditional assets, where gains are often tethered to fundamental constraints, the momentum effect in the digital assets space presents a unique opportunity, providing a higher total return potential. In our newest piece from the vault 🔐, we explore the 'Momentum Effect' in crypto: https://lnkd.in/eueMviQi

🔥 This week in XR 🔥 Samsung Electronics soft confirms their headset is set to release later this year at Galaxy Unpacked Meta is shifting from Applab (beta apps) to being tagged early access on the main store on August 5th, increasing discoverability Meta is offering free multiplayer trials on weekends for top games New “VR games showcase” alludes to AAA titles dropping, next month.