SAO PAULO/DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. said on Tuesday it will close its oldest factory in Brazil and exit its heavy commercial truck business in South America, a move that could cost more than 2,700 jobs as part of a restructuring meant to end losses around the world. Ford previously said the global reorganization, to impact thousands of jobs and possible plant closures in Europe, would result in $11 billion in charges. Following that announcement, analysts and investors had expected a similar restructuring in South America. Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett said last month that investors would not have to wait long for the South American reorganization plan. The factory slated for closure is in Sao Bernardo do Campo, an industrial suburb of Sao Paulo that has operated since 1967.

Austin, Texas-based NarrativeDx, a startup that helps hospitals analyze patient comments, grievances and online reviews, has secured a strategic investment, according to a news release. NarrativeDx cofounder and CEO Kyle Robertson confirmed the investment amount is $3 million. Christiana Care Health System, the Texas Medical Center and Summation Health Ventures (a fund backed by MemorialCare Health System and Cedars-Sinai Health System) led the round. HealthX Ventures and Cultivation Capital, which took part in the startup's previous funding rounds, also participated. NarrativeDx intends to use the money to boost its sales and marketing efforts, continue innovating its product and hire new talent.

Munich-based industrial equipment usage analytics startup Corrux has raised $3.1 million in a seed funding round led by German venture capital firm Target Partners, with participation from Josef Brunner, who is the CEO of Relayr and US venture investor Sean Dalton. This seed funding has taken place to implement artificial intelligence in the arena of industrial equipment and scale up its operations. Corrux is an industrial equipment usage analytics startup, which develops simple, powerful applications that let users understand heavy machinery ranging from excavators to track laying machines. The company provides construction managers and OEMs with software to monitor on-site operations and gain insights from data. Moreover, the company's analytics layer lets construction companies and OEMs understand their heavy machinery – ranging from excavators to track laying machines.

Bengaluru based AI start-up Clootrack Software Private Limited ("Clootrack") has announced raising $500K in seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN), the country's largest horizontal seed stage funding platform. Led by IAN, the round also saw participation from Unicorn India Ventures (existing investor), SEA Fund and Malabar Angel Network. Anthony Thomas, Global CIO, Nissan Motors and Salliel Gupta have led the round on behalf of IAN with Anthony joining the company board. IAN investor group also includes Kris Gopalakrishnan (Co Founder, Infosys). Founded in April 2017, Clootrack is the first of its kind AI-driven data analytics platform that discovers and measures brand perceptions in real time.

Apple has acquired PullString, the startup behind the voice technology powering the interactive "Hello Barbie" doll Mattel released in 2015. PullString, previously known as ToyTalk, was founded back in 2011 by former Pixar employees. Its AI platform gave its partner companies and clients a way to create digital and physical characters and voice apps that can communicate with people. Hello Barbie was one of those -- an interactive Thomas The Tank Engine toy was another. The company previously launched software that makes it easy even for non-technical pros to create Alexa apps of their own, as well.

When it comes to the future of healthcare, perhaps the only technology more powerful than CRISPR is artificial intelligence. Over the past five years, healthcare AI startups around the globe raised over $4.3 billion across 576 deals, topping all other industries in AI deal activity. During this same period, the FDA has given 70 AI healthcare tools and devices'fast-tracked approval' because of their ability to save both lives and money. The pace of AI-augmented healthcare innovation is only accelerating. In Part 3 of this blog series on longevity and vitality, I cover the different ways in which AI is augmenting our healthcare system, enabling us to live longer and healthier lives.

It's been an eventful week in tech. Amazon announced it would abandon plans to open one of its two HQ2 locations in New York City, and the company also acquired Wi-Fi mesh network startup Eero for an undisclosed sum -- a hint at Amazon's future smart home ambitions. The California Department of Motor Vehicles released reports from companies currently testing self-driving cars -- like Apple, Alphabet's Waymo, and GM Cruise. Google pledged to spend $13 billion on U.S. datacenters and offices in 24 states this year, and driverless truck startup TuSimple raised $95 million at a $1 billion valuation, joining the ranks of Aurora and Nuro as one of the best-funded companies in the autonomous vehicle industry. Nearly lost in the shuffle was President Trump's signing on Monday of an executive order establishing a program -- the American AI Initiative -- that formalizes several of the proposals made last spring during the White House's summit on AI.

Auris raised $220 million to further commercialize the technology, the company said in November. The California-based company had more than $700 million in funding at the time, including that investment. The founder and chief executive of closely held Auris, Frederic Moll, will join J&J when the deal closes. Dr. Moll is also a co-founder of Intuitive Surgical Inc., the medical-technology firm that makes the da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery system as well as the Ion endoluminal system, designed for lung biopsies. Large medical-device makers have been pushing into the robotics market, partly because the equipment can command high price tags.

NVIDIA wasn't joking when it warned that its performance for the quarter ending in January 27th, 2019 will fall short of expectations. The chipmaker's earnings report for the period shows that it posted a $2.2 billion revenue, which sounds impressive until you realize that it's down 24 percent from the year before. That figure is also down 31 percent from the previous quarter, which saw NVIDIA posting $3.18 billion in revenue. In addition, the company made $294 million in operating income, down a whopping 73 percent year-on-year and down 72 percent from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, its operating expenses went up by 25 percent from the same period a year before.

The company has entered into newer growth areas such as data centers, artificial intelligence and self-driving cars as it looks beyond its bread-and-butter business of selling chips that enhance video game graphics. Nvidia has grown at a rapid pace in the past few years, but a slowdown in China and a fading cyrptocurrency craze have started to weigh on its operations. Fourth-quarter total revenue fell to $2.21 billion from $2.91 billion, but came above its already lowered estimate of $2.20 billion.