RPT-COLUMN-Populist crowd fails to breach the silver fortress for now: Andy Home – Reuters

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(Repeats without change. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)

* Fund positioning on CME silver contract: tmsnrt.rs/2LiXUNw

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Robinhoods army of small retail investors may have failed to storm the silver market, but the online brokers devotees certainly gave it an almighty shake.

The spot silver price surged by 20% between last Thursday and Monday this week, briefly hitting an eight-year high of $30.03 an ounce.

An increase in the margin required to trade silver on the CME exchange has curbed animal spirits and the metal has fallen back to $27.12, though a collective stampede for physical metal continues to deplete retail supplies of bars and coins.

The crowd has found that squeezing a commodity market such as silver is a very different proposition from cornering a short-seller in an individual stock such as GameStop. Particularly when the targeted big short doesnt exist.

Theyll probably be back again, though, in silver or the next big thing.

Crowd surges organised through social media regularly rock Chinese commodity markets and the strategy is starting to catch on in the West, even if this particular silver squeeze seems to be fizzling out.

The rallying call for an attack on the silver market came on Thursday in the form of a post on the r/wallstreetbets Reddit message board, the same one used to spark frenzied buying of GameStop and other shares shorted by hedge funds.

The post urged investors to buy physical silver via exchange-traded fund (ETF) iShares Silver Trust SLV, the shares of which represent ounces of silver sitting in vaults.

Retail investors heeded the call and snapped up 37 million ounces worth of shares in the next 24 hours, with others rushing to their local bullion dealers.

But who is the biggest short?

Not the hedge funds that were targeted by Reddit traders in the stock market. The fund community has been net long of the CME silver contract since the middle of 2019.

Ironically, the silver squeeze may have benefited the very funds that have come in for vilification for shorting stocks.

That counterintuitive outcome seems to have sapped morale among the core Reddit crowd, with many questioning whom they are supposed to be squeezing.

Chasing the big silver short has sucked the Robinhood stocks army into a whole different world of precious metals conspiracy theory and radical populism.

This is a world populated by those who believe that Wall Street is in cahoots with the U.S. government to keep the price of gold and silver artificially suppressed to protect the existing economic order.

Big banks have made big fortunes by manipulating the silver market for decades, said the #SilverSqueeze Manifesto.

This is a movement to help level the playing field between everyday people and the billionaires who control the big financial institutions that control the money, and thus control us, it said, adding that the silver market is the Achilles heel of the old system, and its time has come.

This belief that the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are using futures short positions to suppress the price of physical metal has been around a long time.

It is based on a binary world view that paper transactions contradict physical reality.

Commodity markets operate more holistically than that, however, with transactions in the futures market often deriving from the need to hedge holdings of the physical commodity.

The Reddit crowd may have bought up 37 million ounces of silver in one day last week, but at the end of December there were another 33,608 tonnes of the stuff sitting in London vaults, according to the London Bullion Market Association.

Thats more than a billion ounces valued at $28.6 billion. That stockpile is continuously being borrowed, lent, bought and sold as banks interact with the industrial supply chain and the investment sector. Given its value, all of it will be hedged.

The biggest short on the CME silver contract is not the hedge fund community but the 52,750 contracts held in the producer/merchant/processor/user category.

The big paper short, in other words, is a big physical long. Squeeze it too hard and industrial quantities of silver may be coming your way.

While the Robinhood armys energies seem spent for now, the ability of the crowd to move prices, even in markets as globally deep as silver, has been amply demonstrated. And some early movers on the silver squeeze will have made large profits.

Chinese retail investors have been using the same mass effect for many years, coordinating surges in WeChat rooms.

The crowd moves from one hot market to the next, using its strength in numbers to generate a giant momentum machine. The target is often less important than the potential to catch a moving trend.

The Zhengzhou ferro-silicon contract was squeezed in 2019 simply because retail traders had been pushed out of the bigger steel market by exchange margin increases.

Shanghai copper has been crowd-shorted a couple of times in the past few years, in one instance in a collective battle of strength against a major fund long position.

Social media facilitates the same bewildering mix of mutual exhortation, snippets of genuine information and lots of wild rumour-mongering, as is evident in the #SilverSqueeze meme.

The phenomenon is spreading. In South Korea theyre called ants. In Thailand theyre called moths. Theres a lot of people in this world of low interest rates looking to make a fast buck in the markets.

Chinese regulators have been battling the problem for years. The first line of defence is to increase trading fees, the second is to issue increasingly strident government warnings and the third is to intervene directly, either by suspending some types of trade or mobilising a team of state-owned banks to crush the crowd.

CMEs margin hike and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellens pending meeting with regulators to discuss recent market volatility conform to the standard Chinese operating procedure of how to deal with speculative excess.

Western regulators will need to catch up fast with their Chinese counterparts because the retail army is likely to resurface with new tactics.

Reddits Wall Street Bets community (...) has set a shining example that other movements can follow, according to #SqueezeSilver Manifestos anonymous author.

A dedicated army of everyday people can leverage their collective skills and resources (...) to alter deeply entrenched power dynamics and level the playing field.

Small investors from Shanghai to Seattle may well agree.

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RPT-COLUMN-Populist crowd fails to breach the silver fortress for now: Andy Home - Reuters

Bidens Policies Are Popular. What Does That Mean for Republicans? – The New York Times

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The American public has given President Biden favorable reviews since he took office last month, and the policies that he is hurrying to put in place appear broadly popular, according to polls.

And notably, as he signs a wave of executive actions and pushes a major $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Mr. Biden is facing muted opposition from Republicans so far a reflection of the partys weakened position as it juggles two increasingly divided factions.

I think that Republicans have found Biden to be much more progressive than they thought he was going to be, but I think were too busy trying to kill each other to really focus on it, said Sarah Chamberlain, the president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of centrist Republicans that includes more than 60 members of the House and Senate.

This week, the Houses G.O.P. caucus met to discuss the fate of two lawmakers representing opposite ends of the partys identity: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the chambers No. 3 Republican. Ms. Greene is one of the chambers most fervent loyalists to former President Donald J. Trump, while Ms. Cheney is pushing to unlink the party from his brand of populism.

The result of the meeting on Wednesday was a kind of stalemate, with the Republican leadership allowing Ms. Greene to keep her committee assignments despite a history of offensive and conspiracy-minded statements, and Ms. Cheney comfortably retaining her top position against a mutiny from Trump allies. On Thursday, the entire House voted to strip Ms. Greene of her committee positions over widespread G.O.P. opposition.

This intraparty division gives Mr. Biden the upper hand as he pushes his legislative agenda forward, said Doug Schwartz, the director of polling at Quinnipiac University, which released a nationwide poll on Wednesday. Hes advocating policies that have solid support in the public, so Republicans are in more of a defensive posture, as theyre opposing popular policies, Mr. Schwartz said.

The publics dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the United States remains high: Roughly seven in 10 said they were unhappy with the way things were going, according to the Quinnipiac poll. But optimism is on the rise, and many are attaching their hopes to the new president. When asked about the coming four years under Mr. Biden, 61 percent of Americans described themselves as optimistic.

In a Monmouth University poll released last week, 42 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the right direction considerably less than half, but still more than in any Monmouth poll going back to 2013.

The Quinnipiac survey found that more than two-thirds of Americans supported Mr. Bidens coronavirus relief package, with wide majorities also backing certain key elements including a permanent increase to a $15 minimum wage and a round of $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals. On the question of the stimulus payments, even 64 percent of Republicans supported them.

On a range of other Biden policies, the poll found widespread support: rejoining the Paris climate accord, opening a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and ending Mr. Trumps ban on travel from some predominantly Muslim countries.

The New Washington

Feb. 5, 2021, 9:20 p.m. ET

It bears mentioning that pollsters across the country undercounted support for Mr. Trump in November for the second straight time; until survey researchers complete a full post-mortem analysis of 2020 polling, it will be impossible to rule out the possibility that some polls may still be missing a share of his supporters.

Still, in general, the smart Republicans are trying to pick their battles, said Robert Cahaly, a Republican pollster in Georgia who has worked with candidates in both the partys populist wing and its establishment.

Mr. Biden, for his part, will be looking to capitalize on Republicans compromised position. In the end, America wanted a president that was more empathetic, but people do not want a president that looks weak, Mr. Cahaly said.

But he and other Republican strategists cautioned that if Mr. Biden moved too hastily on legislation that was seen as left-leaning, he could face a backlash from some of the disaffected Republicans who supported him in November. Ms. Chamberlain said that if Mr. Bidens environmental policies were perceived as harming the economy, he could find himself in a hole. I think you let them pass laws left and right, and then you expose them for what they are, Ms. Chamberlain said of her suggested strategy for Republicans.

Americans are not holding their breath for a new dawn of bipartisanship. Just 21 percent of respondents in the Monmouth poll said they were highly confident that Mr. Biden would be able to persuade lawmakers in Washington to work together more. Another 39 percent were somewhat confident.

While Mr. Biden receives favorable job reviews over all, 16 percent of Americans in both the Monmouth and Quinnipiac polls said they hadnt made up their minds. Many of these people are onetime G.O.P. voters who lost faith in the party under Mr. Trump and are waiting to see how Mr. Biden governs, said the longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres.

Basically, the approval numbers on Biden are the disapproval on Trump, Mr. Ayres said. But the disapproval numbers on Biden are lower than the approval number on Trump which suggests there are some people who are hanging back to see what he does.

And there is evidence that those who are hanging back are giving him the benefit of the doubt. In an Associated Press/NORC poll released on Thursday, in which respondents were pushed to give an answer, his approval rose to 61 percent. Thirty-eight percent disapproved.

Opinions of the Republican Party, meanwhile, are much darker.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of Americans said the G.O.P. was moving in the wrong direction, including an overwhelming 70 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republican partisans, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

The partys rank and file is now heavily tilted toward the Trump faithful. The Trump base is so big as a share of the party because so many of my type of Republicans have left the party, said Ms. Chamberlain, the head of the centrist group. But they want to come back to the party.

These staunch pro-Trump Republicans express deep frustration with their representation in Washington. Most G.O.P. voters continue to think the vote in November was rigged, echoing Mr. Trumps false claims, and many are irritated that legislators in Washington were not able to keep him in power.

Partly as a result, only 50 percent of Republicans said they were satisfied with G.O.P. lawmakers in Washington, according to the Quinnipiac poll. Thats down from 83 percent among Republican voters nationwide in a Quinnipiac survey a year ago.

Two people can both look at the same house and dislike it, but for different reasons, Mr. Cahaly said. Theres just an element of Republicans that want their old party back and hate the new populism. Then there are Republicans who like the idea of this being a working persons party and wish the old Republicans would just go be Democrats. This fight is going to take place in primaries, in town halls. This party is in a little bit of a civil war.

See original here:

Bidens Policies Are Popular. What Does That Mean for Republicans? - The New York Times

Column: Populist crowd fails to breach the silver fortress for now – Reuters

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LONDON (Reuters) - Robinhoods army of small retail investors may have failed to storm the silver market, but the online brokers devotees certainly gave it an almighty shake.

Freshly smelted silver bars at the KGHM Copper and Precious Metals smelter and processing plant in Glogow, Poland, May 10, 2013. REUTERS/Peter Andrews/File Photo

The spot silver price surged by 20% between last Thursday and Monday this week, briefly hitting an eight-year high of $30.03 an ounce.

An increase in the margin required to trade silver on the CME exchange has curbed animal spirits and the metal has fallen back to $27.12, though a collective stampede for physical metal continues to deplete retail supplies of bars and coins.

The crowd has found that squeezing a commodity market such as silver is a very different proposition from cornering a short-seller in an individual stock such as GameStop. Particularly when the targeted big short doesnt exist.

Theyll probably be back again, though, in silver or the next big thing.

Crowd surges organised through social media regularly rock Chinese commodity markets and the strategy is starting to catch on in the West, even if this particular silver squeeze seems to be fizzling out.

The rallying call for an attack on the silver market came on Thursday in the form of a post on the r/wallstreetbets Reddit message board, the same one used to spark frenzied buying of GameStop and other shares shorted by hedge funds.

The post urged investors to buy physical silver via exchange-traded fund (ETF) iShares Silver Trust SLV, the shares of which represent ounces of silver sitting in vaults.

Retail investors heeded the call and snapped up 37 million ounces worth of shares in the next 24 hours, with others rushing to their local bullion dealers.

But who is the biggest short?

Not the hedge funds that were targeted by Reddit traders in the stock market. The fund community has been net long of the CME silver contract since the middle of 2019.

Ironically, the silver squeeze may have benefited the very funds that have come in for vilification for shorting stocks.

That counterintuitive outcome seems to have sapped morale among the core Reddit crowd, with many questioning whom they are supposed to be squeezing.

Chasing the big silver short has sucked the Robinhood stocks army into a whole different world of precious metals conspiracy theory and radical populism.

This is a world populated by those who believe that Wall Street is in cahoots with the U.S. government to keep the price of gold and silver artificially suppressed to protect the existing economic order.

Big banks have made big fortunes by manipulating the silver market for decades, said the #SilverSqueeze Manifesto.

This is a movement to help level the playing field between everyday people and the billionaires who control the big financial institutions that control the money, and thus control us, it said, adding that the silver market is the Achilles heel of the old system, and its time has come.

This belief that the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are using futures short positions to suppress the price of physical metal has been around a long time.

It is based on a binary world view that paper transactions contradict physical reality.

Commodity markets operate more holistically than that, however, with transactions in the futures market often deriving from the need to hedge holdings of the physical commodity.

The Reddit crowd may have bought up 37 million ounces of silver in one day last week, but at the end of December there were another 33,608 tonnes of the stuff sitting in London vaults, according to the London Bullion Market Association.

Thats more than a billion ounces valued at $28.6 billion. That stockpile is continuously being borrowed, lent, bought and sold as banks interact with the industrial supply chain and the investment sector. Given its value, all of it will be hedged.

The biggest short on the CME silver contract is not the hedge fund community but the 52,750 contracts held in the producer/merchant/processor/user category.

The big paper short, in other words, is a big physical long. Squeeze it too hard and industrial quantities of silver may be coming your way.

While the Robinhood armys energies seem spent for now, the ability of the crowd to move prices, even in markets as globally deep as silver, has been amply demonstrated. And some early movers on the silver squeeze will have made large profits.

Chinese retail investors have been using the same mass effect for many years, coordinating surges in WeChat rooms.

The crowd moves from one hot market to the next, using its strength in numbers to generate a giant momentum machine. The target is often less important than the potential to catch a moving trend.

The Zhengzhou ferro-silicon contract was squeezed in 2019 simply because retail traders had been pushed out of the bigger steel market by exchange margin increases.

Shanghai copper has been crowd-shorted a couple of times in the past few years, in one instance in a collective battle of strength against a major fund long position.

Social media facilitates the same bewildering mix of mutual exhortation, snippets of genuine information and lots of wild rumour-mongering, as is evident in the #SilverSqueeze meme.

The phenomenon is spreading. In South Korea theyre called ants. In Thailand theyre called moths. Theres a lot of people in this world of low interest rates looking to make a fast buck in the markets.

Chinese regulators have been battling the problem for years. The first line of defence is to increase trading fees, the second is to issue increasingly strident government warnings and the third is to intervene directly, either by suspending some types of trade or mobilising a team of state-owned banks to crush the crowd.

CMEs margin hike and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellens pending meeting with regulators to discuss recent market volatility conform to the standard Chinese operating procedure of how to deal with speculative excess.

Western regulators will need to catch up fast with their Chinese counterparts because the retail army is likely to resurface with new tactics.

Reddits Wall Street Bets community (...) has set a shining example that other movements can follow, according to #SqueezeSilver Manifestos anonymous author.

A dedicated army of everyday people can leverage their collective skills and resources (...) to alter deeply entrenched power dynamics and level the playing field.

Small investors from Shanghai to Seattle may well agree.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

Here is the original post:

Column: Populist crowd fails to breach the silver fortress for now - Reuters

No, conservatives shouldn’t quit the Republican Party – New York Post

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After losing a national election, its natural that a political party goes through a period of soul-searching and internal turmoil.

The Republican Party, though, has taken it to another level.

President Donald Trump brought most of the GOP along for the ride during his outlandish, conspiracy-fueled attempt to overturn the election, ending in the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.

His loyalists have since been scouring the landscape searching for Republicans to censure or primary for insufficient loyalty to Trump during this interlude or his resulting second impeachment.

The most famous Republican House freshman mused not too long ago about a space laser associated with the Rothschilds starting the 2018 California wildfires, forcing an embarrassing debate about whether to sanction her.

And Trump has maintained his hold on the party seemingly effortlessly. Hes been deplatformed by social-media companies and hasnt done TV interviews, and still, youd think he were running a highly polished 24/7 political operation, rather than relaxing at Mar-a-Lago.

This dismaying chapter has predictably led to declarations that the party is doomed and calls to split it up.

A former chair of the Washington state GOP wrote in an op-ed in TheSeattle Timesurging, as the headline put it,Lets form a new Republican Party.He argued that dissident Republicans could and should band together and partner with the substantial Never Trump community of Republicans who have already left to form a new political enterprise.

This prompted a Chris Cillizza item at CNN headlined Should Republicans disband the GOP?

Theres been a spate of articles by erstwhile Republicans announcing they are done. The former Republican Rep. Mickey Edwards wrote one after Jan. 6 saying he was quitting the party because it has become the opposite of what it was.

Jonathan Last wrote a piece in TheNew RepublictitledThe Republican Party is dead. Its the Trump cult now.Washington Postcolumnist Kathleen Parker declared, The party isnt doomed; its dead.

This seems a mite premature about a party that represents roughly half the country and is on the cusp of a majority in the House, tied 50-50 in the Senate and in control of the governorships in 27 states and both the governorship and state legislature in 22 of those.

If we are going to consider this geographically diverse collection of officeholders whose careers in many instances predate Trump and will outlast him a mere personality cult, the word cult has lost its meaning.

The fortunes of our political parties ebb and flow and their iterations change over time, but they are robust, deeply embedded institutions of our public life that endure even after electoral disasters and self-sabotaging wrong turns.

As Dan McLaughlin, my colleague at National Review, points out, the Republican Party has since its inception been a fusion of a classical liberal wing with a more populist, elemental conservatism.

As McLaughlin writes, The partys ideals were universal, but its culture was Midwestern and Protestant. Early Republicans wanted an even-handed government, but one that reflected their values. Those values American nationalism, Christian moralism, economic self-reliance, law and order run throughout the partys history.

Whats different about Trump is that he represents the ascendance of the populist wing after it had long been in a subordinate position in the party.

Populism was part of the appeal of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, John McCain and even the patrician George H.W. Bush in his winning 1988 campaign, but it was easy to miss. Trumps populism was unmistakable, even as he retained key policy priorities of the traditional GOP, from tax cuts and judges, to religious liberty and abortion.

That said, the party does need to get beyond Trump, who has remained potent despite being a three-time loser now in the 2018 midterms, in his 2020 reelection campaign, and in the Georgia runoff elections. In electoral terms, all the winning stopped circa November 2016.

At this juncture, though, it does feel as though the advent of the post-Trump GOP is coming approximately never.

But American politics moves quickly. Richard Nixon won a landslide in 1972 and resigned in 1974, leaving the GOP in utter disarray and yet Reagan won a landslide in 1980. The Tea Party didnt exist when Barack Obama won an overwhelming victory in 2008, sprang to life almost immediately in 2009, and by 2016 had disappeared, subsumed into the Trump phenomenon.

There will inevitably be an overwhelming controversy in the Biden administration or a crisis that moves us beyond the politics of the Trump presidency and the immediate aftermath.

New issues will emerge, and so will new movements and players on the right. There are plenty of talented, ambitious Republican politicians who think they are better suited to win a presidential election in 2024 and to be president than Donald Trump 2.0. The incentives are for them to continue to keep their heads down and to slipstream behind Trump for now, but that wont always be true.

The temptation to splinter from the GOP might be alluring to elements of both the populists and the Republican traditionalists, but this a dead end. Its more realistic that the populists, with the passion and the numbers, could make a go of a new party, but theyd only be ensuring their own defeat and that of the GOP.

The Republican Party is the only plausible electoral vehicle for any sort of right-of-center politics in America. It is worth fighting over, and it will be. That struggle is sure to be toxic and unpredictable, except for the fact that at the end of the day the Grand Old Party will still be standing.

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No, conservatives shouldn't quit the Republican Party - New York Post

NASA chooses Elon Musk’s SpaceX for nearly $100M mission to map the beginning of our universe | TheHill – The Hill

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NASA is teaming up with Elon Musks SpaceX on a two-year astrophysics mission to help better understand the birth of the universe and the development of galaxies.

NASA on Thursday revealed it has awarded a contract to SpaceX for the launch of SPHEREx, which stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

The spacecraft is due to launch via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in June 2024 from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The total cost to launch SPHEREx is about $98.8 million.

NASA says the spacecraft will survey the sky in near-infrared light, which is not visible to the human eye, as a tool to help answer questions about the origins of the universe and how galaxies form.

It also will search for water and organic molecules essentials for life as we know it in regions where stars are born from gas and dust, known as stellar nurseries, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming, NASA said in a news release.

The mission will gather data from more than 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

The contract is the latest NASA has awarded SpaceX over the past several years. SpaceX last year launched astronauts to space for the first time. It was the first privately designed and built spacecraft to launch astronauts to space and the first time NASA had launched its own astronauts since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.

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NASA chooses Elon Musk's SpaceX for nearly $100M mission to map the beginning of our universe | TheHill - The Hill

Tesla, Elon Musk and beyond: The green companies making billionaires – CNBC

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Going green is increasingly becoming a way to make bank.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is the richest of the billionaires who owe their fortune to technologies that reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Green that was published Tuesday.

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A full $180.7 billion of Musk's $199.2 billion net worth was deemed "green net worth" by Bloomberg.

Though Musk's fortune is largely thanks to electric vehicle maker Tesla, some is from his holdings in SpaceX, and rockets emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they blast off. For this reason, Musk's wealth from SpaceX was not included in his "green" net worth.

Many of the rest of the so-called "green billionaires" are from China, according to Bloomberg Green, as China is a front-runner in the development and sale of technology to build clean energy economies.The list is also dominated by billionaires in the electric vehicle industry (and related component parts) and the solar energy industry.

For the ranking, Bloomberg Green used the net worth of each individual based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on Jan. 28, and also calculated the portion of their wealth driven by businesses that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (In some cases, those numbers are one in the same.)

Further, if several business leaders made their fortune from a particular company, the billionaires and their collective net worths are grouped together in one entry by Bloomberg Green. (For example, Zeng Yuqun, Huang Shilin, Pei Zhenhua and Li Ping owe their status as billionaires to CATL, the battery maker. Bloomberg Green did not delineate how much of the total $60.7 billion in wealth generated from CATL is owned by each stakeholder.)

Here are the top global green billionaires, according to Bloomberg Green. For the complete list, see Bloomberg Green's ranking.

Elon MuskNet worth: $199.2 billionGreen net worth: $180.7 billionCountry: U.S.Company: Tesla, makes electric vehicles

Zeng Yuqun, Huang Shilin, Pei Zhenhua, Li PingNet worth: $61.6 billionGreen net worth: $ 60.7 billionCountry: ChinaCompany: CATL, the world's largest maker of electric vehicle batteries, supplies carmakers including Tesla, Toyota, BMW, Volvo

Li Zhenguo, Li Chunan, Li Xiyan, Zhong BaoshenNet worth: $16.1 billionGreen net worth: $16.1 billionCountry: ChinaCompany: Longi, the world's largest manufacturer of "solar wafers," which is what is used to build solar panels

Wang Chuanfu, Lv Xiangyang, Xia ZuoquanNet worth: $ 33.5 billionGreen net worth: $13.4 billion Country: ChinaCompany: BYD, electric vehicle maker currently converting Shenzhen, China's fleet of buses, taxis, and trucks into electric vehicles. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company led by Warren Buffett, has owned a portion of BYD since 2008.

Liu JinchengNet worth: $10.9 billionGreen net worth: $10.9 billionCountry: ChinaCompany: Eve Energy, a supplier to electric vehicle manufacturers, including clients such as Daimler, BMW, and Xpeng

Other notable billionaires on the list include Anthony Pratt, the owner of Pratt Industries, and Aloys Wobben, the founder of Enercon. Pratt Industries is the largest privately held producer of 100% recycled paper and packages and is located in Georgia (though Pratt himself hails from Australia). Wobben built his first wind turbine in the 1970s and started the wind-turbine manufacturing company Enercon in 1984.

Climate tech making new, green fortunes is not likely to slow. A report released in September from PricewaterhouseCoopers found investment into the space is accelerating. In 2013, early-stage venture capital funding for climate tech funding was $418 million and in 2019, venture funding in climate tech was $16.1 billion, according to the report.

"The bottom line is that demand for climate tech is only going to accelerate. With global corporations, investors, and governments pledging to transition to net zero value chains, portfolios and jurisdictions, they are all betting on climate technology breakthroughs to be found, scaled and to transform industries and society," co-authors Celine Herweijer and Azeem Azhar wrote in the PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Demand is not yet at a stampede but the market is heating up and it's time for all stakeholders to help back the innovations the world really needs."

See also:

Carbon capture technology has been around for decades here's why it hasn't taken off

The '1%' are driving climate change, but it hits the poor the hardest: Oxfam report

Executives from Jeff Bezos to Ford Motor Co.'s Bill Ford: Fighting climate change means job creation

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Tesla, Elon Musk and beyond: The green companies making billionaires - CNBC

Elon Musk Is $11.5 Billion Richer This Week As Tech Stocks Soar – Forbes

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THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF THE WORLDS RICHEST

F

ollowing strong earnings reports and bullish new takes from Wall Street analysts, tech stocks soared this week, padding the fortunes of worlds richest. The top ten gainers added a combined $74 billion to their net worths.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the weeks biggest gainer with $11.5 billion. Tesla shares climbed 7.4% this week after Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter gave it a $1,200 price target, anticipating strong growth. Tesla outperformed strong showings by the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rose 4.6% and 3.9%, respectively.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page gained $10.4 billion and $10 billion, respectively, after a strong week for Google parent company, Alphabet. Alphabets stock jumped more than 14% this week after falling 3.4% last week. The company reported strong earnings on Tuesday, bolstered by a comeback in its digital advertising business, which took a serious hit during the pandemic.

Amazon gained 4.6% this week after last weeks 2.7% loss, and Jeff Bezos added $7.7 billion to his net worth, even after announcing on Tuesday that he would step down as CEO of the company later this year, after 26 years at the helm. Bezos is leaving on a high. Amazons stock has risen by more than 63% in the past year, as ecommerce boomed during the pandemic. At the end of 2020, Amazon had its biggest quarter ever, bringing in more than $125 billion in revenue. Bezos, who will focus on side companies like Blue Origin and The Washington Post, will become executive chair of Amazons board. Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy will replace him as CEO.

SHANGHAI, CHINA - JULY 26: Colin Huang Zheng, founder and CEO of Pinduoduo, speaks during the company's listing ceremony at Shanghai Tower on July 26, 2018 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Bezos was not the only ecommerce billionaire to have a positive week. Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang got $10.7 billion richer this week after the stock gained more than 18%. The discount ecommerce platform, whose shares trade on Nasdaq, is becoming increasingly popular in China, challenging the dominance of established giants like Alibaba and JD.com. With a net worth of $69.1 billion, Huang has more than quadrupled his fortune in the past year. He now ranks as the 16th richest person in the world, and the third richest man in China.

There are now four Chinese billionaires who rank in the top 20 richest people in the world. A year ago, there were only two Tencent chair Ma Huateng and Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma. Huateng and Ma still rank in the top 20, at No. 15 and No. 20, respectively, and are now joined by Huang and No. 6 richest Zhong Shanshan, who had a stunning rise in 2020 thanks to the blockbuster IPO of his bottled water company, Nongfu Spring.

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Elon Musk Is $11.5 Billion Richer This Week As Tech Stocks Soar - Forbes

Analyst: How Chamath Palihapitiya, Elon Musk Mastered The ‘Narrative Of The Underdog’ – Yahoo Finance

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TipRanks

Weve got a full month of 2021 behind us now, and a few trends are coming clearer. The coronavirus crisis may still be with us, but as vaccination programs expand, the end is in sight. With President Trump out of the picture, and the Democrats holding both Houses of Congress and the White House, politics is looking more predictable. And both of those developments bode well for an economic recovery this year. Looking back, at the year that was, we can also see some trends that stayed firm despite the pandemic, the shutdowns, and the supercharged election season. One of the most important is the ongoing rollout of 5G networking technology. These new networks bring with them a fuller realization of the promises inherent in the digital world. Faster connections, lower latency, higher online capacity, clearer signals all will strongly enhance the capabilities of the networked world. And it wont just be mundane things like telecommuting or remote offices that will benefit 5G will allow Internet of Things and autonomous vehicles to further develop their potential. There is even talk of medical applications, of remotely located doctors performing surgery via digitally controlled microsurgical tools. And these are just the possibilities that we can see from now. Who know what the future will really bring? To this end, we pulled up TipRanks database to learn more about three exciting plays in the 5G space. According to the Street, we are likely to see further interesting developments in the next few years as this technology takes over. Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) The first 5G name were looking at, Skyworks, is a semiconductor chip manufacturer that brought in $3.4 billion in total revenues for FY2020. Skyworks, which is a prime supplier of chips for Apples iPhone series, saw a massive 68% year-over-year increase in 1QFY21 revenues the top line reached $1.51 billion, a company record, and also much higher than analysts had forecast. Much of Skyworks fiscal Q1 sales success came after Apple launched the 5G-capable iPhone 12 line. Strong sales in the popular handset device meant that profits trickled down the supply line and Skyworks channels a disproportionate share of its business to Apple. In fact, Apple orders accounted for 70% of Skyworks revenue in the recent quarter. iPhone wasnt the only 5G handset on the receiving end of Skyworks chips, however the company is also an important supplier to Koreas Samsung and Chinas Xiaomi, and has seen demand rise as these companies also launch 5G-capable smartphones. Finally, Skyworks supplies semiconductor chip components to the wireless infrastructure sector, specifically to the small cell transmission units which are important in the propagation network of wireless signals. As the wireless providers switch to 5G transmission, Skyworks has seen orders for its products increase. In his note on Skyworks for Benchmark, 5-star analyst Ruben Roy writes: SWKS significantly beat consensus estimates and provided March quarter guidance that is also well ahead of consensus estimates as 5G related mobile revenue and broad-based segment revenue continued to accelerate In addition to continued strength of design win momentum and customer activity, we are encouraged with SWKS confident tone relative to the overall demand environment and content increase opportunities. In line with his comments, Roy rates SWKS a Buy along with a $215 price target. At current levels, this implies an upside of 20% for the coming year. (To watch Roys track record, click here) Roy is broadly in line with the rest of Wall Street, which has assigned SWKS 13 Buy ratings and 7 Holds over the past three month -- and sees the stock growing about 15% over the next 12 months, to a target price of $205.69.(See SWKS stock analysis on TipRanks) Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) Qorvos chief products are chipsets used in the construction of radio frequency transmission systems that power wifi and broadband communication networks. The connection of this niche to 5G is clear as network providers upgrade their RF hardware to 5G, they also upgrade the semiconductor chips that control the systems. This chip maker has a solid niche, but it is not resting on its laurels. Qorvo is actively developing a range of new products specifically for 5G systems and deployment. This 5G radio frequency product portfolio includes phase shifters, switches, and integrated modules, and contains both infrastructure and mobile products. Qorvo posted $3.24 billion in total revenues for fiscal 2020. That revenue represents a 4.8% year-over-year increase and the companys sales have been accelerating in fiscal 2021. The most recent quarterly report, for the second fiscal quarter, showed $1.06 billion in revenues, a 31% yoy increase. Rajvindra Gill, 5-star analyst with Needham, is bullish on Qorvos prospects, noting: Qorvo reported strong sales and gross margins as 5G momentum rolls into CY21 on atypical seasonality... The company is planning for 500M 5G handsets to be manufactured in 2021, with an incremental $5-7 of content/unit from 4G to 5G. Management believes that ultra-wideband adoption will be a key growth driver in for smartphones going forward..." To this end, Gill puts a $220 price target on QRVO shares, suggesting room for 31% upside in 2021. Accordingly, he rates the stock a Buy. (To watch Gills track record, click here) What do other analysts have to say? 13 Buys and and 6 Holds add up to a Moderate Buy analyst consensus. Given the $192.28 average price target, shares could climb ~15% from current levels. (See QRVO stock analysis on TipRanks) Telefonakiebolaget LM Ericsson (ERIC) From chipsets, well move on to handsets. Ericsson, the Swedish telecom giant has long been a leader in mobile tech, and is well known for its infrastructure and software that make possible IP networking, broadband, cable TV, and other telecom services. Ericsson is the largest European telecom company, and the largest 2G/3G/4G infrastructure provider outside of China. But that is all in the background. Ericsson is also a leader in the rollout of Europes growing 5G networks. Ericsson is involved in 5G rollout in 17 countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and its product line includes infrastructure base units and handsets, giving the company an interest in all aspects of the new 5G networks. Ericssons revenue performance in 2020 was not notably distressed by the corona crisis. Yes, the top line dipped in Q1, but that was in line with the companys historical pattern of rising revenue from Q1 through Q4. While the companys 1H20 revenues showed small yoy declines, the 2H20 gains were higher. In Q3, the $6.48 billion top line was up 8.7% yoy, and Q4s $8.08 billion revenue was up 17% from the prior year. The companys shares have also performed well during the corona year, and show a 12 month gain of 64%. Raymond James 5-star analyst Simon Leopold bluntly assigns Ericssons recent gains to its participation in 5G rollouts. Japan's awaited 5G roll-out has started. Share gains continue as Ericsson benefits from challenges facing its biggest competitors and more operators embrace 5G it seems obvious that Ericsson should be gaining market share... Competitor Nokia shunned the Chinese 5G projects, citing profitability challenges, yet Ericsson appears to be profiting in the challenging region. Leopold rates this stock an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and his $15 price target implies an upside potential of ~14% for the year ahead. (To watch Leopolds track record, click here) The Raymond James analyst, while bullish on ERIC, is actually less so than the Wall Street consensus. The stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on a unanimous 5 reviews, and the $16.50 average price target indicates 25% growth potential from the share price of $13.19. (See ERIC stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for 5G stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Analyst: How Chamath Palihapitiya, Elon Musk Mastered The 'Narrative Of The Underdog' - Yahoo Finance

Clubhouse, the social network Elon Musk just joined, plans to make money through subscriptions – CNBC

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Clubhouse, the buzzy audio-only social app, is looking at ways to monetize the platform for its creators, CEO Paul Davison told CNBC on Monday.

After debuting last year, Clubhouse is now valued around $1 billion and hosts more than 2 million users. The premise is relatively simple, since there's no video, pictures or text-based chat rooms. Users will log into the app and be greeted with a few live, virtual rooms, where they can see a list of the people participating. If they click on the room, the audio switches on and they can hear the conversation. Think of Clubhouse as an app for live, unfiltered podcasts.

The app most recently saw a surge in users early Monday ET, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the platform to discuss a range of topics.

Clubhouse's revenue plan is similar to crowd-funding service Patreon's model, which allows independent creators to receive funds directly from their audience. Patreon takes a small fee from those transactions, though, and it's unclear how much or if Clubhouse would take a percentage of the subscriptions.

It also plays into a theme users of social networks have complained about. If a creator can't make money on a given platform, they're likely to move onto another when it gains traction. Clubhouse is making a bet early in its existence that it can attract more users by offering them a way to make money.

"There's so many incredible people who are smart, who are funny, who have domain expertise, who are really just great at bringing people together," Davison said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "And what we want to allow them to do is to make a living directly on Clubhouse through things like subscriptions and ticketed events and receiving tips from listeners who are happy to pay them directly for the experiences that they're creating for them."

Currently, there's no way for users to pay for content directly through the app. The platform itself is free, and there's no advertisements nor premium plan for users. Davison said Monday that Clubhouse plans on introducing some sort of model "sooner rather than later."

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Clubhouse, the social network Elon Musk just joined, plans to make money through subscriptions - CNBC

Robinhood CEO explains to Elon Musk why his platform restricted trading last week – CNBC

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Robinhood co-founder and co-CEO Vlad Tenev speaks onstage during the TechCrunch Disrupt New York event on May 10, 2016.

Noam Galai | Getty Images for TechCrunch

The co-founder of Robinhood took to invitation-only audio chat app Clubhouse to defend the investment platform's decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other volatile stocks.

GameStop shares have climbed more than 1,500% since the start of the year, fueled in no small part by a wave of retail investors inspired by the Reddit board WallStreetBets. Such investors piled into GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks, resulting in huge losses for some hedge funds.

Robinhood moved to restrict trading in several stocks, including GameStop and AMC Entertainment, on Thursday. Vlad Tenev, co-CEO at Robinhood, said at the time that the decision was aimed at protecting the firm and its customers.

In the session on Clubhouse late Sunday (Pacific time), Tesla CEO Elon Musk pressed Tenev on why the platform, a pioneer of commission-free trading, decided to restrict trading last week. The online brokerage firm limited trading in 13 equities, allowing clients to sell positions but not open new ones in certain securities, provoking fury from users.

"We had no choice in this case," Tenev said. "We had to conform to our regulatory capital requirements."

Tenev said Robinhood's operations team received a request at 3:30 a.m. PT on Thursday from the National Securities Clearing Corp. Robinhood and other brokers are required to meet certain deposit requirements from clearinghouses like NSCC each day. The amount required is based on factors such as volatility and concentration in certain securities, Tenev said.

Robinhood got a request for a security deposit of $3 billion from NSCC to back up trades, "an order of magnitude more than what it typically is," Tenev said. The company raised an additional $1 billion in emergency capital from existing investors in an effort to shore up its balance sheet and enable it to ease the trading curbs.

"Did something maybe shady go down here?" Musk asked Tenev. The Tesla chief has shown support for WallStreetBets on Twitter.

"I wouldn't impute shadiness to it or anything like that," Tenev responded. "The NSCC was reasonable subsequent to this."

Robinhood and the NSCC later agreed to reduce the $3 billion number down to around $1.4 billion, but Tenev said his firm was still forced to take action to limit trades.

Tenev's explanation of the situation echoed a blog post from Robinhood, in which the brokerage explained it put temporary buying restrictions on some securities due to a tenfold increase in clearinghouse deposit requirements.

Robinhood will continue to limit trading on Monday in short-squeeze names likeGameStop. Customers can only buy one share of GameStop's stock and five options contracts. However, the millennial-favored stock trading app did cut down its list of restricted stocks from as many as 50 to eight.

Asked by Musk whether there would be any further limits on trading in future, Tenev said: "I think there's always going to be some theoretical limit. We don't have infinite capital."

Musk also quizzed Tenev on whether Citadel Securities the largest market maker in options in the U.S. had pushed the firm to impose trading limits. Robinhood gains a significant chunk of its revenues from routing orders to market makers likeCitadel Securitiesand Virtu. Citadel,a separate hedge fund business, helped infuse close to $3 billion intoMelvin Capital, a hedge fund that bet against stocks like GameStop.

"To what degree are you beholden to Citadel?" Musk asked, to which Tenev replied: "There is a rumor that Citadel or other market makers pressured us into doing this and that's just false."

"This was a clearinghouse decision and it was just based on the capital requirements," Tenev added. "From our perspective, Citadel and other market makers weren't involved in that."

"Citadel Securities has not instructed or otherwise caused any brokerage firm to stop, suspend, or limit trading or otherwise refuse to do business," a Citadel Securities spokesperson told CNBC. "Citadel Securities remains focused on continuously providing liquidity to our clients across all market conditions."

CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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Robinhood CEO explains to Elon Musk why his platform restricted trading last week - CNBC

Elon Musk’s Twitter Break Is Over. See What He Posted – NDTV

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Elon Musk broke his Twitter silence with tweets on Dogecoin.

Elon Musk is back on Twitter less than two days after he announced he would be taking a break from the microblogging platform. The Tesla CEO broke his self-imposed Twitter silence with a series of tweets this morning praising Dogecoin - the meme-based cryptocurrency which was initially started as a joke. As the value of Dogecoin surged, Mr Musk, in his trademark style, 'welcomed' investors with a meme.

It all started when Elon Musk shared a picture of a rocket to the moon and followed it up with a one-word tweet: Doge.

The tweet was enough to send the value of Dogecoin surging by over 44 percent, reports Market Watch.

"The most entertaining outcome is the most likely," he wrote - likely referring to his past record of fortune-making tweets. His posts on Twitter recently drove up the stock of Etsy and Signal, and helped boost the GameStop surge.

The tweets were not the only time Musk moved markets on the platform in recent weeks. When he changed his Twitter profile to read simply "#bitcoin" last Friday, the cryptocurrency's price temporarily skyrocketed by around 20 percent.

This time, as Dogecoin surged, Elon Musk shared a meme based on the iconic Lion King scene of Rafiki showing Simba his kingdom. He posted a pic with his face superimposed over Rafiki, holding up the Doge meme which is the logo for the cryptocurrency.

The meme was followed by two more Dogecoin tweets.

"Dogecoin is the people's crypto," reads one, while the other says, "No highs, no lows, only Doge."

Mr Musk overtook Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to become the world's wealthiest person last month, with a fortune estimated at $185 billion following a nine-fold surge in Tesla's share price over the past year.

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Elon Musk's Twitter Break Is Over. See What He Posted - NDTV

Virtual Reality Is Helping This Transformer Maker Train Employees For Heavy Lifting – Forbes

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The view a trainee would see using TRANSFR's bridge crane VR training.

Youre probably familiar with the service transformers that reduce the electrical power feeding your home to its proper voltagetheyre the can-looking things up on the power poles in your neighborhood, or the metal box at the edge of your front yard.

The Hyundai Power Transformers plant in Montgomery, Alabama.

The ones that handle the really big voltages at electrical substations, though, are tremendously larger than those little jobs. Those huge transformers are the kind made by Hyundai Power Transformers (HPT), a division of Koreas Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co., Ltd., in its plant in Montgomery, Alabama. The size of their transformers makes simply moving them within the factory a considerable safety challenge. The plants bridge cranes, which can lift up to 400 tons, are specialized pieces of equipment that require extensive training to service and operate.

Our oil-filled transformers weigh anywhere from 100,000 to 800,000 pounds, said Tony Wojciechowski, HPTs Chief Human Resources Officer. So any crane lift is a highly critical operation. HPT President JuSeok Kim has noted the plants enviable safety record, with over six million hours worked in Montgomery without a Lost-Time Accident. With highly-experienced Baby Boomer employees nearing retirement and a need to grow their workforce, the company wanted a better way to train new employees for those critical crane operations.

Transformers on a rail car for shipment after their construction at the Hyundai Power Transformers ... [+] facility in Alabama. Note the worker in the distance for scale.

Thats where virtual reality (VR) comes in. This week Hyundai and Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT), a division of the Alabama Department of Commerce, announced the launch of a statewide initiative that used HPTs training needs as the catalyst and built a VR-based crane inspection and operation instructional program. They worked in conjunction with TRANSFR, a New York City-based tech startup thats using the $12 million in Series A funding it raised last November to develop hands-on, simulation-based training for industrial users. Most people dont think of the government as innovative, said Bharani Rajakumar, CEO of TRANSFR. But here you have the AIDT leading the charge, bringing in Hyundai to help develop this, then implementing it and getting real results.

For us, heavy crane work is a great fit for the VR application, Wojciechowski said. Its repeatable, and it makes things very easy to learn. If someone uses this, when they hit the floor theyre already a year ahead of where theyd have been without this training.

One of the bridge cranes at the Hyundai Power Transformers plant. This one will lift up to 200 tons.

We give people the real experience of what its like to do the job, said Rajakumar. Its immersive, which can mean different things, including just having a 360-degree view. Here, its that but more, and gives the worker the experience of actually using the equipment and making mistakes. TRANSFRs technology is based on the Oculus Quest for Business platform. The tech allows the learner to acquire skills in the virtual setting, and then go straight to work in the HPT system.

Ed Castile is Executive Director, AIDT, and deputy secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce. As Tony said, it provides consistent training, he said. But its also a psychological thing. It lets you get comfortable with the equipment in a virtual environment. The real thing can be very intimidatingits a daunting task to take on. TRANSFR worked directly with Tonys people to develop training thats very real, but in a safe environment.

To me, whats interesting is not just the technology, but using it to give outsiders a peek at what happens behind the walls at HPT, said Rajakumar. In a way its a recruiting tool. Most young people have no idea what goes on in manufacturing.

The program launched this week is intended to help manufacturers across Alabama see the potential of VR training. What we learned from TRANSFR will apply to any industrial setting, Wojciechowski explained.

A trainee using TRANSFRs virtual instructional program.

Weve been at this since pre-Covid-19, Rajakumar added. We already have over 100 industrial applications in our catalog, and we expect to have over 500 by the end of this year. The company is entirely focused on manufacturing applications for now. Weve developed applications for automotive, construction, manufacturing fundamentals, and safety, he said. In the future, after weve mastered these applicationsmarrying the technology with the workforce ecosystem to get people onto a solid career paththen we might explore other areas like healthcare.

A key consideration in all of this is the development of the next generation of workers. One of the things we encounter a good bit is people really arent comfortable with this, Castile said. People say it looks funny to put on these headsets. But for younger people, this is where they come from. Theyre used to this kind of technology. This is just the leading edge of whats coming.

But it also goes deeper than simple worker training. In 2018 Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set out an ambitious state economic development goal of adding 500,000 highly-skilled employees to the states workforce by 2025. Were diligent in our promotion of workforce development in Alabama, said Wojciechowski. We have great support from Governor Ivey and Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield, Ed Castile, Chairman of the Alabama WIOA board George Clark, and a host of various high-level supporters of workforce development in the seven Alabama Workforce Development Regions.

For Rajakumar it goes deeper still. The times were in are scary for a lot of people, he said. A lot of them arent sure when theyll get back to work or where their next paycheck will come from. Thats especially true for the underprivilegedpeople of color and people from rural areas especially. Were very excited to work with people in government, industry and education to equip workers with valuable skills. This is a real opportunityits not a gimmick. It can help put people on a path to prosperity.

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Virtual Reality Is Helping This Transformer Maker Train Employees For Heavy Lifting - Forbes

The State of the Virtual Reality Movie in 2021 – The Ringer

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In March 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook that his company had just acquired the virtual reality headset maker Oculus. At the time, a social media giant like Facebook getting its hands on a nascent VR initiative sounded ominous, and that was before the platform became a font for misinformation during the Donald Trump presidency. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people, Zuckerberg wrote in his post. The $2 billion deal hasnt proved that fruitful thus far, in part because the experience doesnt yet feel totally immersive. For the time being, at least, the closest approximation of all-encompassing virtual reality is still best found in science fiction.

From the many doomsday scenarios imagined by (and adapted from) Philip K. Dick to wacky tangents on Rick and Morty, television and film have long been interested in the line between whats real and whats imagined, as well as the idea that virtual escapism can bring about more harm than good in the wrong hands. (Facebook hoping to get billions hooked on VR headsets definitely sounds like the first line of a dystopian novel or a supervillains origin story.) But even though virtual reality hasnt reached the Is this really happening? level of, say, Total Recall, its still easier than ever to buy into the idea that nothing around us is real.

In Rodney Aschers latest documentary, A Glitch in the Matrix, the filmmaker explores the increasingly widespread belief that what we perceive to be the real world is, in fact, some type of complex simulation. Pulling from sources as varied as Plato and Elon Musk, the documentary takes a measured approach to the followers of simulation theory, some of whom are interviewed through the prism of CGI avatars, an interesting (and slightly goofy) stylistic choice. In the film, Ascher seems less interested in definitively proving or debunking these beliefs than exploring how they are formed and cultivated through the echo chamber of the internet. The scarier implications of simulation theorys desensitizing effects are also examined through one of the documentarys interviewees, Joshua Cooke, who chillingly recounts how he murdered his parents in 2003 because he thought he was living in The Matrix. (According to Cooke, he even recited Keanu Reevess final lines from the movie before committing the crime.)

The Matrix is probably the poster child of the virtual reality movie, in terms of its broad appeal and wide-ranging influence. But its also safe to assume that the vast majority of viewers appreciated the film for the Wachowskis distinct visual style, intriguing world-building, and breathtaking action sequences, and didnt see it as an open invitation to take the red pill. (Im, like, 98 percent sure we arent lying suspended in goop while a bunch of robots have taken over the planet.) Instead its other films that have embraced a more ambiguous approach to their virtual worldsand examined whether those worlds are really worth celebrating.

In Mike Cahills Blisswhich, in what is either a strange coincidence or a minor hiccup in the simulation we call life, was released the same day as A Glitch in the MatrixOwen Wilson plays Greg, a sad-sack divorce whos having the worst day of his life. Greg is called into his bosss office and promptly fired, and then he accidentally (and somewhat comically) kills his boss. After hiding the body, Greg goes to the bar across the street where he meets Isabel (Salma Hayek), an eccentric homeless woman who tells him theyre living in a virtual world and almost everybody around them is, in video game parlance, a non-player characterincluding Gregs children.

Its easier to buy Isabels story once she uses telekinetic powers to shape their reality; Greg is able to do the same after he takes these mysterious orange crystals. Soon, Greg and Isabel are using their powers to knock supposed NPCs over in roller skating rinks. The movie also features equally mysterious blue crystals, which, if enough are ingested, will thrust Isabel and Greg back into reality. The use of crystals, combined with the grimy and crime-ridden world the characters inhabit, will draw inevitable comparisons to The Matrixespecially since Greg has his own reawakening in a much more idyllic world. (This isnt much of a spoiler, considering the trailer gives away the reveal.) But as Agent Smith explained to Morpheus in The Matrix, mankind wasnt able to accept the machines vision of a utopian world, which is why the Matrix is filled with familiar imperfections. Bliss, then, will make you question how much of what Greg is experiencing is real. Skepticism is encouraged, particularly considering the blue crystals bear some resemblance to a, uh, real-life substance. What would a simulated reality with vivid detail and a lack of apparent consequences be if not highly addictive?

That brings to mind Zuckerbergs real-life Oculus endgame: Billions of people buying into a breakthrough immersive technology to the point that it becomes a staple of everyday life. But you get the impression that VR would only be embraced so wholeheartedly if it would serve as an attractive alternative to the state of the world. And, as has been repeatedly expressed in VR movie canon, thats a fraught proposition.

While Ernest Clines Ready Player One is mostly concerned with dropping a bunch of 80s pop culture references in its nostalgia-obsessed text, Steven Spielbergs 2018 film adaptation is more disturbing and self-aware than it probably gets credit for. Spielbergs subversive approach to Clines source material is apparent from the films chilling opening sequence, where everyday people are hooked into the pop culturecentric fantasy of the Oasisbasically VR at the level of Zuckerbergs wildest dreamsas a means of escaping a world crumbling under the weight of capitalism, poverty, and greed. (The use of Van Halens Jump is a nice touch.)

Clines book, along with its derivative sequel, is largely predicated on the surface-level proclamation that some dope stuff came out of the 80s. But Spielberg seems more interested in the role pop culture plays in providing shallow escapist comforts. And considering Spielbergs massive cultural footprintfrom Jaws and Indiana Jones to Jurassic Park and E.T.Ready Player One can be viewed as a filmmaker coming to terms with his own legacy within a glitzy blockbuster where the Iron Giant and a Gundam fight Mechagodzilla. (Obviously, the pop culture fan service of Ready Player One is still plentiful, and theres a reason the film isnt among Spielbergs highly regarded works.)

Ready Player One ends as the Oasis is placed in the hands of the people rather than a greedy corporation trying to monetize the platform further, a cushy landing that closely mirrors its source text. Protagonist Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) and his friends decide to close the Oasis two days per week for its users to spend time outside of ita bizarrely pitiful compromise in the context of a real world thats in a state of decay. But Ready Player Ones climax is also, in a way that Cline doubtless never intended, a bleak inverse to the Matrix trilogy. Instead of actively trying to fix the real world, the Oasis proves to be too alluring to quit outright. Theres no point enduring the hardships of repairing society from the ground up when, like Cypher enjoying the simulated taste of a perfectly prepared steak entering his mouth, ignorance is bliss.

Which is not to say that all fictionalized concepts of VR carry such bleak undertones. While virtual reality isnt the subject of every Black Mirror episode, its one of the anthology series favorite go-to storytelling devices. Anyone familiar with Black Mirror knows to brace for the worst, and the VR-centric episode Playtest absolutely fits the bill. But one of the shows most celebrated installments, San Junipero, abandons that formula to spotlight a moving love story between two women (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis) whose connection transcends death in a simulated reality where their avatars represent their younger selves. The hopeful tone of San Junipero is the exception to the Black Mirror rule of distrusting technology, especially in the hands of large corporations. But thats exactly what makes the episode so greatand in its own way, ambitious.

Maybe its only natural that recent onscreen depictions of virtual reality have underlined its escapist appeal, and, as expressed by the real-life interview subjects of A Glitch in the Matrix, convinced people that theyre living in a simulation. (Who among us wouldnt want to get whisked away to a world of pure imagination, especially in the midst of a pandemic?) But with a fourth Matrix movie arriving at the end of 2021, bringing us back to the franchise where a messiah-like figure freed mankind from its virtual prison, it feels like the virtual reality movie is coming full circle. Or perhaps were getting caught in the same nostalgic comforts that these stories have been warning us about in the first place.

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The State of the Virtual Reality Movie in 2021 - The Ringer

Travel the world without leaving home, thanks to Peterborough virtual reality company – Global News

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You can now satisfy that travel bug, even during the pandemic. With the help of Peterborough-based virtual reality company, AVROD, you can visit historical hubs around the globe, without leaving home.

We have 40 sites from all over the world, including some here in Canada, said founder Jeremy Brooks.

You can explore sites from almost 20 countries. We have Teotihuacan in Mexico, the temple of the Feathered Serpent. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Colosseum, we have a T-Rex skeleton, a Pillbox bunker from World War II and things like that where you can jump around and explore.

READ MORE: Virtual reality archeology pitch wins Cubs Lair young entrepreneurs competition

AVROD is short for Archaeological Virtual Reality Online Database. Brooks started to develop the platform while studying Archeology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., as a way to explore dig sites from afar. Now, the team is hoping to connect people to history, preserve the past and expand to bridge the gap in travel and tourism left by COVID-19 restrictions.

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We really want to bring it into a space where people are in their homes, but really feel like they are standing in awe of the history and archeology that is out there in the world and show people that even now, in a pandemic it is accessible, said Brooks.

The virtual sites are created using images taken of the real-world location. That series of photographs is turned into a 3D replica. To visit the virtual locations you need a VR headset, a streaming app and an internet connection.

READ MORE: Toronto non-profit bringing virtual reality to seniors for chance to relive memories

Brooks said AVROD would soon be launching for the Oculus Store and for Oculus Quest VR headsets.

These days, one of those stand-alone headsets will set you back about $400. The cost of your virtual ticket to the Oval Office, an archeological site in Mongolia or maybe the Cave of Hands in Argentina.

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You can stand there, hold your hand up against this wall against the handprints from pre-history, and really even feel a connection to those people, said Brooks.

He said they are working to achieve that connection in other ways as well.

Were creating a platform where people can interact with each other, share ideas, look at an object and create a comment in 3-dimensional space, which has never been done before, he said.

READ MORE: Halifax virtual reality company ramps up software testing to respond to the pandemic

While the technology takes you all over the world, AVROD is based in Peterborough, Ont. The platform was developed at The Innovation Cluster, a startup incubator that has a virtual reality makers space.

Innovation Cluster CEO, Michael Skinner, said he thinks we will see significant growth in online platforms.

Because of the pandemic I think we will see a lot more virtual reality, he said. The pandemic has definitely put a lot more focus on it and at the end of the day you have a lot of people sitting at home, unable to travel and I think they are looking for something else and virtual reality could be a key piece to that.

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Skinner said the resources available at the Innovation Cluster will be significant for entrepreneurs looking to break into that market.

It allows developers the ability to test their program on a number of different platforms without that significant initial investment, he said.

READ MORE: Peterborough company Kavtek Software launches AR/VR platforms for real estate and consumers

Brooks said along with the historical sites and tourism potential they have also applied the technology to create nursing simulations for Trent University, using VR to create life-like practice scenarios.

He said they also have other ideas in the works, but that he couldnt disclose the details just yet.

What I can say is that we are constantly expanding to new destinations, he said. These technologies exist, the platforms exists and now its just our job to provide that for Canadians and people all over the world so they can get out and explore the world from home.

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Travel the world without leaving home, thanks to Peterborough virtual reality company - Global News

10 Cinematic Worlds That Would Create Amazing Virtual Reality Experiences – Screen Rant

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There are plenty of movies and franchises that are just ripe for further exploration in the world of virtual reality. These are some worthy options.

Filmmakers are always looking for new ways to tell their stories. As the idea of an expansive cinematic universe continues to evolve, virtual reality has become a new platform for creators to continue to push their fictional worlds, allowing fans to explore them further.

RELATED:10 Video Games Based On Movies That Everyone Forgets About

Huge brands, likeStar WarsandHarry Potter,have already made the leap into virtual reality, with games likeTales From The Galaxy's Edgeand aFantastic Beasts And Where To Find Themspin-off experience. But there are a surprising number of cinematic universes that have yet to utilize this new, ground-breaking technology. Many of them would surely succeed if they did take advantage of these advancements in VR.

James Cameron'sAvataris gearing up for a seemingly never-ending supply of sequels. Alongside the release of a novel, a video game and the creation of Pandora at Disney Parks, Cameron is always looking for the next way to expand upon his fictional world.

Virtual reality is perhaps the most logical next move for the franchise, considering it would pretty fantastical to step into Pandora from the comfort of a fan's own home. An experience like this would be a perfect way to tie into the underwater adventure that Jake will be embarking on inAvatar 2, and it would surely look beautiful in this format.

No one really knows too much about the upcomingPercy Jacksonreboot on Disney+, besides the fact that author Rick Riordan is heavily involved in the production and scripting process. When it finally does launch on the streaming service, this Greek mythological world will surely be a hit.

A fantasy land like this definitely deserves to be realized in virtual reality. Gods and monsters aside, there's something quite exciting about giving the player the power of a demi-god and allowing them to go on a journey through this fictionalized version of the United States.

The Lord Of The Rings,as it is known today, is really a combination of work between the original author, J.R.R. Tolkien, and what Peter Jackson has done with Middle Earth since. An area that has yet to be explored is the concept of moving this fictional landscape into VR.

RELATED:TimeSplitters & 9 Video Game Properties That Would Make A Great Christopher Nolan Movie

Lord Of The Ringshas a long history in video games. Indeed, the recent success oftheShadowseries, as well as the upcoming launch ofGollumdemonstrates there's still a large appetite for LOTR content. Middle Earth would be an incredible world for fans to step into and experience first hand, as audiences relive the most goosebump-inducing moments of the series.

It's not quite clear which direction Disney will take the future of thePirates Of The Caribbeanfilm series. There's plenty of talk of Disney+ picking up future films or series, but it does seem that the company wants to put the brakes on the franchise for now.

Perhaps a virtual reality experience or game might be the best way forward, while pirate fatigue subsides in cinema-goers. There are a few swashbuckling games already on the market, but none would be able to combine the fantasy elements and iconic characters in the same way as this property would.

The dystopian narrative is still a popular one, with plenty of TV shows and films taking cues from the original young adult novels and cinema releases, which relaunched the genre in recent years.The Hunger Gameswas certainly at the forefront of that movement.

The film series may have concluded, although thanks to the release of a President Snow centered novel, fans are still hungry for Suzanne Collins' work. With cinematic moments put on the backburner, perhaps fans can interact with this beloved series through the much more personal VR.

Hollywood is often looking for the next place to draw inspiration from. Comic book movies are the current trend and novel adaptations have powered cinema for years. Video games have yet to be fully tapped into and there areonly a few great movies actually based on toys.

RELATED:10 Live-Service Video Games That Could Make A Comeback In 2021

Luckily for LEGO, they managed to hit it out of the park with a trio of movies:The LEGO Movie, its sequel andThe LEGO Batman Movie.The world of LEGO has been explored a great deal in video games. Fortunately, there's still a lot of interest in this franchise amongst kids and adults alike, which means a VR experience would be a huge success and a lot of fun to interact with.

Peter Panis one of the public domain properties that Disney has used which ultimately became synonymous with the company. Audiences have a very specific image of Neverland in their minds and that is largely due to the animated classic.

There have been a number of other takes on the famous boy that never grew up, although Disney's iteration is still the most popular. With plenty more versions of Neverland in development over the next few years, a VR trip to this fantasy island would be a different way for players to explore this famous world.

Masters Of The Universeis really the toy brand that just keeps giving. Countless times throughout its history it seemed as if the franchise was about to crumble in on itself. Yet, the year is 2021, and not only is a popularShe-Rashow streaming on Netflix, but another live action movie is in the works,one that will hopefully learn from the mistakes of the first.

Of course, many kids in the current generation might not have any idea whattheMasters Of The Universereally is. A VR tour of this toy brand, where players can meet He-Man, Skeletor and travel around Eternia, would probably be a perfect way in fornew fans.

Godzilla Vs. Kongis setting itself up as one of the biggest cinematic battles of the year. Those invested in the MonsterVerse are already betting on this monumental battle, over who will eventually triumph out of the two titans.

The mythology of this cinematic universe runs deep. One location of particular interest is that of Skull Island. With a number of terrifying monsters and strange creatures to investigate, virtual reality could be the right platform to expand upon the dangerouslocation further.

Nonetheless, they have already invested in VR experiences withCocoforOculus Rift, so there's potential forThe Incrediblesto also follow suit. There's a lot of space for designers to make the most out of this retro, vigilante era that the studio has created.

NEXT:10 Times A Franchise Used A Short Story To Expand Its Universe

Next Top 10 Vietnam War Films, Ranked (According To MetaCritic)

Politics graduate, freelance writer and all around film geek. If George isn't lecturing someone on the history of the MCU, he's probably ranting about the political consequences of Putin's latest horse riding trip.

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Here’s how virtual reality, hybrid instruction helped hospitals and medical schools continue instruction during pandemic – Modern Healthcare

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"We thought, How do we teach anatomy if students are not on-site for access to cadavers? And [we] thought to apply new technologies to resources we already had," said Melvin Rosenfeld, senior associate dean for medical education at NYU Grossman.

Virtual reality tools have allowed for hybrid instruction, unlocking the potential of certain platforms such as simulation centers for a large number of remote learners, said Dr. Marc Triola, director of the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education at NYU Grossman. For example, with a faculty member on-site at the simulation center, students could interact with mannequins and observe their "vitals" all through a virtual space, Triola said.

Virtual learning benefits schools and health systems as well as students, said Dr. Daniel Katz, vice chair of education for the Mount Sinai Department of Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine. Before the pandemic, a refresher course for advanced cardiac life-support certification required an instructor to conduct it with a mannequin. At Katz's department, with about 200 people to be recertified, that process could take up to 10 days for everyone, assuming a ratio of one instructor for every five students.

However, Katz's department adopted the use of virtual reality headsets during the pandemic and found that not only was it more time-efficient, but it also resulted in cost savings. There were fewer variable costs involvedno expensive mannequins that had to be maintained, and no external instructors were neededand individuals were able to undertake the training as their schedules permitted. Katz did a study on the VR tool for the recertification training and found that it achieved savings of 83% per learner, assuming the training was carried out four times a year.

"For some learners who needed more time, they could definitely do so, as opposed to a classroom setting, where they had to absorb all that information at the same pace as everyone else," Katz said.

Technology has also improved the logistics of medical education. Faculty members can now prerecord their lectures when it is convenient for them, freeing up their day for clinical matters, Rosenfeld said. Not being locked into fixed times provided individuals the flexibility to carry out their own training, and this has allowed providers more time to interact with their patients, Katz said.

Technology won't completely replace in-person learning, however, said Cole.

"Absolutely nothing replaces the actual experiences of dissection, for example," he said.

Rosenfeld agreed, saying that even after the pandemic, all the innovations borne from the crisis will need to be preserved and adapted for future education needs.

For example, telehealth has become a mainstay, and the technologies involved in enabling it will need to be taught to students, Triola said.

"Medical education won't ever be the same," Rosenfeld said.

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Here's how virtual reality, hybrid instruction helped hospitals and medical schools continue instruction during pandemic - Modern Healthcare

Apple’s AR/VR Headset Said to Feature Dual 8K Displays, Eye Tracking, Swappable Headbands, and More – MacRumors

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Apple is rumored to be working on a virtual reality headset for launch as early as next year, and The Information today reported on some potential features to expect, based on information shared by a source with direct knowledge of the device.

The Information said it viewed internal Apple images of a "late-stage prototype" of the headset from last year, which show a "sleek, curved visor attached to the face by a mesh material and swappable headbands."

The report claims one headband would feature spatial audio technology like the AirPods Pro for a surround sound-like experience, while another optional headband would provide additional battery life on the go. Similar to AirPods Max replacement ear cushions, it is possible that the headbands will be offered in a variety of colors as well.

Apple is said to be developing multiple ways to control the headset, including a "thimble-like device to be worn on a person's finger." The headset would also be able to respond to the wearer's eye movements and hand gestures, the report claims, while one prototype of the headset also had a physical dial on the visor's side.

Apple has internally discussed pricing the headset around $3,000, according to the report, which would place it within the ballpark of Microsoft's mixed reality HoloLens 2 headset, which retails for $3,500. This price would certainly make Apple's headset a high-end, niche product, with the company apparently setting an internal goal of shipping only 250,000 units of the headset in the first year of its release.

Some of these details have been previously reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, CNET, and other sources, and The Information agrees that the headset will likely be released in 2022 at the earliest. Apple is also rumored to be working on a pair of sleeker, more affordable augmented reality glasses, but those are not expected until 2023 or later.

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Apple's AR/VR Headset Said to Feature Dual 8K Displays, Eye Tracking, Swappable Headbands, and More - MacRumors

Aurora Public Schools partners with new program to bring virtual reality to teacher development – The Denver Channel

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AURORA, Colo. Aurora Public Schools is using a unique virtual reality program to help teachers engage with students.

The district is the first in Colorado to partner with Mursion, a virtual reality simulation for teacher development. The program allows teachers to interact with a group of digital students, controlled by a human simulation support person.

Students constantly need to be engaged and you need to be asking them the right questions and giving them the right answers to keep interest levels up, said Andrew Salzillo, a science teacher at Mrachek Middle School.

In a demonstration of the software, it was clear the realistic responses from the digital students helped Salzillo shift gears when students became distracted.

APS Director of Professional Learning Jennifer Sheldon said the district plans to use the Mursion simulation primarily for newer teachers in their first five years. The district also plans to create different scenarios to practice serious discussions about educational equity, social justice and restorative justice.

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Aurora Public Schools partners with new program to bring virtual reality to teacher development - The Denver Channel

Augmented reality and virtual reality spending to reach $28.8 billion in Asia-Pacific in 2024: IDC – Gadgets Now

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NEW DELHI: The IT spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is set to grow rapidly at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.7% and reach $28.8 billion by 2024, according to a new report.

Commercial segment surpassed consumer AR/VR spending last year and will continue to account for a larger share of the spending, said IDC Worldwide Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide.

This growth is primarily driven by the AR/VR technology capabilities addressing the issues of different industries in current Covid-19 scenario and creating immense opportunities throughout the forecast.

"The restrictions imposed due to the pandemic urged many organisations to rely on technologies to support their business processes/functions such as customer service, remote health, and minimised in-person meetings among others.

"With this, there was strong new demand across many industries for AR/VR technology in the market especially in the second half of 2020," said Ritika Srivastava, Associate Market Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific.

Education, with online virtual teaching turning out to be a more engaging experience for students. It is then closely followed by retail, and discrete manufacturing the three industries encompass close to 50 % of the overall commercial sector in 2020.

Virtual reality games are a leading use case in 2020, with more than one-third of the overall AR/VR technology market being one of the top entertainment sources in 2020 owing to the limitations of physical interaction due to pandemic.

This is followed by training, and video/feature viewing (VR) use cases.

"However, emergency response and internal videography are the fastest-growing use cases in terms of compound annual growth rate over the forecast (2019-2024)," the IDC said.

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Augmented reality and virtual reality spending to reach $28.8 billion in Asia-Pacific in 2024: IDC - Gadgets Now

With a Massive Spike in Virtual Reality Training, Immerse Expands US Operations – PRNewswire

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The Immerse customer base focuses on enterprise training, including industries with urgent response times, from pharma and life sciences to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), energy, and more, all who must reskill and upskill for peak performance, especially to meet the more than 1 billion jobs that could be transformed by technology(source, OECD).

The company's growth trajectory is further buoyed by the pandemic, given that teaching can be done remotely, en masse, is visually stimulating and precise, a mere fraction of the cost, and results in 75% higher knowledge retention*. Those being taught in VR also demonstrated 340% more confidence to employ what they learned versus traditional e-learning methods at 10% (source PwC, 2020).

Joining the global team in the U.S. office to focus on expanding its operations include XR tech futurist, Cathy Hackl, as global strategic advisor, and Johnathan Sutherlin, an XR/VR/AR business expert as a business development manager. They will join Bill Finegan, North America executive vice president to accelerate the growth of their global strategic relationships and through its Immerse Platform, empower organizations to revolutionize their employee experiences with boosted engagement, an upskilled workforce, and increased performance and retention.

"I'm delighted to welcome Cathy and Johnathan and see our U.S. team expand to meet rapidly increasing needs, says Tom Symonds, Immerse CEO. "Research reveals that only 14% of major companies are not engaged in the utilisation of VR/AR at some level. These skills will help us meet the need of solutions rising up the priority list for global companies. We look forward to even greater growth in 2021."

Hackl brings a wealth of expertise as a globally recognized tech futurist and business leader in AR, VR and spatial computing. She's worked with some of the biggest names in technology including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap and HTC VIVE. She also is one of 2020's 10 most influential women in tech by BigThink, and on LinkedIn's prestigious Thinkers50 Radar list, a management thinker's global ranking. Her passions lie in the importance of reskilling and upskilling, diversity and inclusion.

"I am really excited to join at such a pivotal time for enterprise VR. Major companies and reports show evidence that effective training is key to supercharging workforces and future-proofing businesses," notes Hackl.

Sutherlin is a well-respected industry thought leader with extensive knowledge of VR technology and with over a decade of leadership strategy and operational achievements, he understands what drives customer engagement. In his previous role with HTC Vive, he helped introduce immersive technologies to organizations across a range of industries, including architecture, engineering, construction, education, training/simulation, entertainment and healthcare.

About ImmerseImmerse is a virtual reality technology company headquartered in London that has developed the Immerse Platform. Built for enterprise from the ground up, the Immerse Platform enables companies to create, scale and measure virtual reality training.

With clients in a wide range of industries such as FMCG, oil and gas, pharma and life science and power and utilities, using the Immerse Platform enables companies to train and assess their employees in radically new ways maximizing human performance and the employee experience.

* Source: The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training on the Enterprise PWC, June 2020

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With a Massive Spike in Virtual Reality Training, Immerse Expands US Operations - PRNewswire