Hartmann Capital

AI + Gaming saw significant fundraising in the third quarter -- signaling a growing belief in AI's ability to change how games are created and experienced. Read the first edition of our quarterly AI in Gaming Industry Report by Daniel Derzic: https://lnkd.in/euvMwR6M

This week in Generative AI and Gaming 🤖🕹 👇 - Pika released version 1.5. - Jars AI dropped its first AI text-to-show generator. - Microsoft introduced Copilot Labs with new AI features. - Gaxos.AI launched Gaxos Labs AI development tools for game devs. - Nvidia announced a massive, open-source AI model to rival GPT-4. - Sony is using AI for faster game development. - Microsoft Paint is getting Photoshop-like generative AI fill-and-erase features. - AI reading coach startup Ello now lets kids create their own stories. - Meta unveiled open source Llama 3.2. - Google announced new video features for Google Photos. Business and Funding: - Series Entertainment raised a $28M Series A. - SoftBank pours $500m into OpenAI. - Supabase raised $80M in funding. - Qodo raised $40M. - Accenture’s Gen AI bets pay off with $3 bn in bookings. - DeepOpinion raised €11M.

This week in Generative AI and Gaming 🤖🕹 👇 - James Cameron joins Stability AI Board of Directors. - Neurable launched smart BCI headphones with Master & Dynamic. - Meta introduced a range of new AI features across its platforms, including voice interactions, image understanding and editing, and translation capabilities. - Microsoft claims its new tool can correct AI hallucinations. - Apple Intelligence is now live in public beta. - Alibaba released 100+ open-source models and new text2video generator. - Deepgram launched voice agent API that brings AI conversations to life. - Amazon Ads launched a new AI video generator. - Duolingo launched AI adventures mini-games and video call features. - Nvidia gets almost half its revenue from just four customers. - Cloudflare lets sites block AI crawlers with one click. - YouTube boosts content creation by generating ideas, titles, and full videos. - Jamba 1.5 family by AI21 Labs is now available in Amazon Bedrock. Business and Funding: - Black Forest Labs is raising $100M at a $1B valuation. - Scale AI nearly quadrupled sales YoY to ~$400M in H1 2024 and had ~$980M in cash. - Peratech secured $31.5M. - Ujet raised $76M. - Qura raised €2.1M. - Momos secured $10M Series A, teams with OpenAI. - World Labs AI out of stealth with $230M. - BlackRock, Microsoft to raise $30B for AI investments. - Fathom raised $17M. - Fal.ai raised a $9M seed and a $14M Series A. - Harmonic raised $75M.

Congrats Ramses Alcaide and the Neurable team on incredible innovation in non-invasive consumer brain computer interfaces! Neurable has worked with Master & Dynamic to bring a new type of wearable to the market - one that makes sense of your brain activity.

In our latest piece by JP Minetos, he explores the social phenomenon that is Gorilla Tag -- a free-to-play VR game that has generated $100MM in revenue -- and has become a new gathering spot for Generation Alpha. https://lnkd.in/ei8FA-DE

EA wants to double its global audience to over a billion people in five years! At Electronic Arts' recent Investor Day, the CEO highlighted how AI improves player experiences and unlocks new opportunities beyond traditional gaming. He said AI is "the very core" of EA's business, with over 100 novel AI projects in development. Looking ahead, EA is developing "Imagination to Creation" tools that could allow players to generate custom experiences using assets from popular franchises.

How does Free-to-play Gorilla Tag Make $100MM? In-game cosmetics. Games are the new social media for Gen Alpha - and their status is tied to it. Players buy and wear to show off to their friends and people online. Check it out 👇

Big week ahead as Felix Hartmann keynotes the season opener of the CT Digital Forum -- and shares our thesis across GenAI, Spatial Computing, Gaming, and more.

I’m working on a piece to explain the success of Gorilla Tag and Social VR - and it coincides with the death of the 3rd place (where people spend time outside of work/school & home) IRL daily social activity for youth has dropped 40% in 20yrs, from 48.4% to 29.5% attending some daily social interaction. GenZ/GenA’s 3rd place is digitally native - and they’re spending a lot of time there.

Can you tell the difference between these two videos of Doom? One of them is real - the other one is completely AI generated. Incredible break though in generative content technology.