It's a bright September morning in San Carlos, California, and Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank, is throwing me off schedule. I'd come, as he had, to meet with the people he's tapped to run the Vision Fund, his $100 billion bet on the future of, well, everything. After almost four decades of building SoftBank into a telecom conglomerate, Son, an inveterate dealmaker, launched this unprecedented venture two years ago to back startups that he believes are driving a new wave of digital upheaval. He has staked everything on its success–his company, his reputation, his fortune. We'd both arrived with the same basic question: Where is this massive vehicle heading? But because I wasn't the one footing the 12-figure allowance, I understood that I'd be the one to wait. When I finally arrive at the Vision Fund's offices, just off California's Highway 101, I'm struck by how mundane they are. Son is known for big, showy statements. He reportedly paid $117 million for a home in Woodside in 2013, the highest price ever in the U.S. This glass and concrete building, on the other hand, could be found in any part of suburban America. The room where I wait is spartan.

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Jan. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHKP), a leading provider of cyber security solutions globally, today announces it has acquired ForceNock Security Ltd. of Tel Aviv, Israel. Founded in 2017, ForceNock, developed a Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) technology which utilizes machine learning, behavioral and reputation-based security engines. Check Point plans to integrate ForceNock's technology into its Infinity total protection architecture. "Check Point is committed to providing the most comprehensive security architecture to prevent current and future generations of cyber attacks. The growing usage of platforms - Cloud, Network, Mobile, Endpoint and IoT - requires complete, simple to deploy and easy to use security technologies", said Dr. Dorit Dor, Check Point's VP Products.

America's first autonomous robot farm launched last week, in the hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can remake an industry facing a serious labor shortage and pressure to produce more crops. Claiming an ability to "grow 30 times more produce than traditional farms" on the strength of AI software, year-round, soilless hydroponic processes, and moving plants as they grow to efficiently use space, the San Carlos, California-based company Iron Ox aims to address some of the agricultural industry's biggest challenges. Such challenges have also caught the attention of investors, who made more than $10bn in investments last year, representing a 29% increase from 2016. In a 2,000-sq ft grow space, leafy greens and herbs are planted in individual pots housed in 4ft by 8ft white "grow modules", which weigh about 800lb. Autonomous machines do the heavy lifting, farming and sensing.

Iron Ox has just opened its first fully automated farm in San Carlos, California. The company claims that its hydroponic system can produce 30 times the yield per acre of land comparing to traditional farms, while using 90 percent less water.

Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, not to mention a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Sure, Angus is a robot. But don't hold that against him, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed than C-3PO.

Brandon Alexander would like to introduce you to Angus, the farmer of the future. He's heavyset, weighing in at nearly 1,000 pounds, not to mention a bit slow. But he's strong enough to hoist 800-pound pallets of maturing vegetables and can move them from place to place on his own. Sure, Angus is a robot, but don't hold that against him, even if he looks more like a large tanning bed than C-3PO. Arobotic arm lifts plants being grown at Iron Ox, a robotic indoor farm, in San Carlos, Calif.

Farmers Business Network, a San Carlos, Calif.-based farmer-to-farmer network raised $110 million in Series D funding. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc and Temasek led the round, and were joined by investors includingAcre Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GV and DBL Partners. Ripcord, a Hayward, CA robotic digitization company, raised $59.5 million this year in a March Series A and Aug/Dec Series B equity funding led by GV and Icon Ventures with Lux Capital, Telstra Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Kleiner Perkins, Google and Baidu Ventures. Ripcord has developed and is providing as a service a digitization service using AI, scanning and robotics to go from cardboard storage boxes full of tagged manila folders, to scanable pdf files available through ERP and other office systems. JingChi, a Chinese-funded Beijing and Silicon Valley self-driving AI systems startup, raised $52 million (in September) in a seed round led by Qiming Venture Partners.

"Should I tell the story about the killer robots?" "I love telling this story. A group of roughly 50 people listened raptly as Weinberg, president of a think tank called the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, addressed a public-policy luncheon in San Carlos, California, on Thursday afternoon. The event--whose guests of honor included Democratic lawmakers Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, and Tim Ryan, from the Thirteenth District of Ohio--was meant to foster a lively discussion about connecting Silicon Valley "to the heartland." There would also be a sneak peak of a report showing the economic impact of Bay Area companies on every single congressional district in America. Weinberg began his killer story as the crowd--including the mayor of Akron, Ohio; Silicon Valley municipal leaders; health care executives; business school academics; tech investors; representatives from Oracle and Palantir; and a Teamsters rep--made quick work of the carb-heavy boxed lunches.