Magic Leap, the augmented reality startup that has raised $1.4 billion in funding but has yet to release a product, has made an acquisition to expand its work in computer vision and deep learning, and to build out its operations into Europe. The company has acquired the 3D division of Dacuda, a computer vision startup based out of Zurich. One of Dacuda's focuses had been developing algorithms for consumer-grade cameras (and not just cameras, but any device with a camera function) to capture 2D and 3D imaging in real-time, "making 3D content as easy as taking a video." Dacuda has confirmed the acquisition with a short announcement on its site. It notes that the whole 3D team has moved to Magic Leap and that Dacuda's founder, Alexander Ilic, is now leading Magic Leap Switzerland.

Element AI has acquired the entire team at MLDB.ai, an open source machine learning database. The acquisition includes all staff, MLDB.ai's complete product line, and customer base. The company will continue to be developed as an open-source project and leverage Element AI's resources. The Pro version of MLDB.ai will be open-sourced, as will some plugins associated with the processing of LiDAR datasets. The company said in a blog post that it will be winding down support contracts over the next six months, and replacing it with an expanded presence on free, community-based support channels.

Baidu is furthering its push into artificial intelligence after it announced the acquisition of Raven Tech, a Chinese startup that developed an AI voice assistant platform. Baidu confirmed it has bought the startup's tech, product and staff of 60. The deal comes a month after Baidu hired noted AI expert Qi Lu, formerly with Microsoft, as its COO and Group President. Baidu didn't reveal how much it is paying for Raven Tech, which is an alumnus of the Microsoft Venture Accelerator and Y Combinator and has raised $18 million from investors like DCM Ventures and Zhenfund. Raven Tech's Flow product was likened to a Chinese version of Siri, but it has failed to take off.

In April 2016, Uber announced the acquisition of Otto, a San Francisco-based startup that has developed a kit that can turn any big rig into a self-driving truck. The Otto technology enables complete autonomy on highways: trucks can navigate, stay in their lane, and slow or stop in response to traffic conditions completely without human intervention. Otto's equipment currently costs about $30,000, but that is certain to fall significantly in the coming years. Otto is by no means alone. Massive automated vehicles are already commonly used to move materials for the Australian mining industry.

Baidu is furthering its push into artificial intelligence after it announced the acquisition of Raven Tech, a Chinese startup that developed an AI voice assistant platform. Baidu confirmed it has bought the startup's tech, product and staff of 60. The deal comes a month after Baidu hired noted AI expert Qi Lu, formerly with Microsoft, as its COO and Group President. Baidu didn't reveal how much it is paying for Raven Tech, which is an alumni of the Microsoft Venture Accelerator and Y Combinator and has raised $18 million from investors like DCM Ventures and Zhenfund. Raven Tech's Flow product was likened to a Chinese version of Siri, but it has failed to take off.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), the leader in the graphics processing industry, has been growing like gangbusters. Its performance over the last several years has been nothing short of stunning, and investors will rightly want to know if this growth can continue. Below, we look at several key financial metrics to provide insight into the company's future potential. Revenue gains were the largest driver of results. In its recent earnings release, NVIDIA announced record quarterly revenue of $2.17 billion, which grew 55% over the prior-year quarter, as well as record full-year revenue of $6.91 billion, up 38% over the prior period.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) announced its fourth-quarter earnings last week, and this has gotten many investors excited about the company's future growth potential. In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), NVIDIA's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) platform has emerged as the dominating force buoying NVDA stock. The stock gained almost 30% in the last three months in contrast to the nine percent returns posted by the S&P 500 Index. NVIDIA Corporation reported phenomenal growth in most of its businesses in the Q4 of fiscal 2017. The record revenue posted during the fiscal quarter was boosted by the impressive growth in its "Gaming," "Professional Visualization," "Datacenter," and "Automotive" divisions, The quarterly revenue stood at $2.2 billion, which was an increase of 55% year-over-year and eight percent sequentially.

After one week with a new chief executive, Mattel Inc. is already stepping into new territory -- partnering with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to design products for China and announcing its first male American Girl doll. The El Segundo toy maker said Tuesday it will sell items through Tmall.com, Mattel will also work with the Chinese tech giant's artificial intelligence lab to develop "innovative products" to nurture childhood development. It's the first public move by Margo Georgiadis, a former Google executive who took over as CEO last Wednesday. In another splash, Mattel announced it will add a boy character for the first time to its American Girl line of dolls and accessories. In a Tuesday statement, she said China presents a big opportunity for Mattel.

San Francisco startup Sense.ly has raised $8 million in a Series B round of venture funding to bring its virtual nurse technology to clinics and patients of every kind. The company's app helps physicians stay in touch with patients, and prevent readmission to the hospital. Adam Odessky describes the platform as "A cross between Whatsapp and Siri that captures all the important signals about a person's health." On the patient side, Sense.ly asks users to tell a nurse avatar how they're doing with 5-minute "check ins" either once a day, or every few days, on their smartphones. Patients can simply talk to the app, no typing required.

One concern is that technology may make some staff redundant. Another is that the strats themselves - more likely to hold engineering PhDs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology than MBAs from Wharton - could get ahead of bankers on a career path. Worries have been exacerbated by weak business and broader job cuts across the industry. At Goldman, revenue fell 9 percent last year to its lowest since 2011, and its return on equity remains below the 10 percent investors generally expect. Investment banking had a rough year, hurt by a near-empty calendar for initial public offerings, and a broad slowdown in M&A activity.