Rivian has added another $2.5 billion to its coffers, with the electric truck company closing its first investment round of 2020. The further cash injection comes even before Rivian has released its first model, with the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV not expected to launch until 2021.
After years of declining shipment figures, the traditional PC market, made up of desktops, notebooks, and tablet computers that aren't Chromebooks and iPads, have finally seen a tiny bit of growth in the second quarter of the year. Almost tragically, that growth happened only because the world was plunged into a period of uncertainty, change, and a pandemic. But while the world's PC makers may be delighted to finally see some positive numbers, both Gartner and IDC seem to agree that it's not going to last.
Epic Games announced today that it has a new investor: Sony Corporation. Yes, the very same Sony that makes the PlayStation 4 and will soon be launching the PlayStation 5 has decided to make a $250 million investment in Epic Games. Specifically, Sony will be making this investment through a subsidiary company, but the name of that subsidiary wasn't revealed today.
Attempting to launch a streaming service is a risky endeavor at the moment. Not only is the space a crowded one, but it's dominated by some big names. Quibi is a service that has tried to stand out from the others by offering short-form video content tailored for smartphones, but it seems that the service is having trouble attracting large numbers of new users and keeping them beyond the free trial phase.
WhatsApp has been making some changes here at the beginning of July, first to the way users interact with each other at the beginning of the month and today to the way users interact with businesses on the platform. WhatsApp today announced new features that will make it easier for you to contact a business using the app, while at the same time making it easier for businesses to share products from their catalogs.
When Microsoft announced that it would be shutting down Mixer and offering streamers the chance to join Facebook Gaming, there was a lot of question over what would happen to Ninja and Shroud - two of Mixer's biggest streamers. Ninja and Shroud had both built very successful streams on Twitch, and when Microsoft was pushing to make Mixer a competitor, it signed both streamers to exclusive contracts, causing them to leave their Twitch audiences behind and begin streaming only on Mixer for an certain amount of time.
Amazon has practically won the e-commerce race and much of that isn't simply because of the convenience of online shopping. Its subscription-based Prime membership is a major factor in its success, providing exclusive perks that even go beyond the act of buying things. Amazon's biggest rival isn't taking the threat sitting down, of course, and Walmart may soon launch its own Walmart+ loyalty program within just a few weeks.
Magic Leap has found itself a new CEO, with the beleaguered augmented reality company looking to a former Microsoft exec to help turn itself around. Long the darling of Silicon Valley investors, Magic Leap promised a mesmeric world that blended reality with digital graphics, but its first hardware fell well short on the delivery.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, we've seen a large uptick in demand for home delivery. For weeks, restaurants in many regions of the country were limited to take out and delivery orders, and if coronavirus cases keep increasing in the US, they may be limited to those options once more. Services like Uber Eats, Postmates, and Door Dash have been in high demand in recent weeks, and soon, two of those companies will be joining forces.
Sony's PlayStation is the latest major company to ditch Facebook and Instagram, at least temporarily. The company has joined an ongoing boycott that will involve suspending advertisements on the platform during the month of July. In this case, PlayStation has confirmed that it will suspend all of its activity on both social media websites, including sharing non-paid content.
Loot boxes have been in the news a lot in recent years, as the controversial form of in-game monetization has come under fire from pretty much all sides. For a lot of people, EA's Star Wars: Battlefront 2 seemed to be the tipping point when it launched at the tail end of 2017 with overreaching loot boxes, prompting multiple governments around the world to take a closer look at loot boxes following the outcry from players.
Walmart just made a surprising announcement: it will turn some of its store parking lots into drive-in movie theaters, using its existing real estate to revive a largely defunct way to view movies. The drive-in theaters will start going live in early August, according to the company, but they won't be available at every Walmart destination. In case you're wondering: yes, there will be popcorn.