Augmented-reality glasses are expected to make a comeback as tech giants increasingly shift their efforts toward the technology, the WSJ reports today. After Google Glass fizzled on the consumer side, it appears that companies are ready to try again, with many announcing plans in recent weeks for various AR devices:

• Facebook's AR/VR research division last month showed off its futuristic wristband for controlling AR glasses. The company's Ray-Ban smart glasses will arrive later this year, though they won't have an integrated display. They're considered a precursor to future glasses with full augmented-reality features.
• Last week, Niantic CEO John Hanke teased what appears to be a see-through headset or smart glasses; he said the company is working on "new kinds of devices" that leverage its augmented-reality platform. (The WSJ reports that Niantic is developing AR glasses with chipmaker Qualcomm.)
• Apple is expected to reveal its $1,000+ AR/VR headset in the next several months, possibly during Apple's virtual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. They're a forerunner to Apple's more complicated AR glasses, due out by 2025.
• Snap, which already sells its Spectacles smart glasses with a camera but no display, is expected to reveal its AR glasses in May at its Partner Summit. After that, Snap will ship the glasses to developers and creators.
• Google opened up its Glass Enterprise Edition 2 AR headset, geared toward businesses and developers, for direct purchase last year. Now, the WSJ reports that Google is "likely to try a consumer play again" in the AR space.
• While fewer than 1M AR glasses and headsets are expected to sell this year, IDC projects that will skyrocket to 23.4M in 2025, mostly on the business side:

This story first appeared in Inside XR. You can read the full issue here.

Credit Suisse is developing a blockchain service that will allow for stock settlements in less than two hours. The T+0 settlement cycle makes use of blockchain settlement services offered by Paxos.

More:

• Paxos emerged in 2012 as the first blockchain-based clearing system for U.S. stocks.  
• Paxos' offerings include settlement services on a private, permission-based blockchain, as well as stablecoin services.
• Credit Suisse was attracted to the Paxos infrastructure, in part, to find a solution to settlement delay issues. Similar issues resulted in Robinhood having to halt all Gamestop trading during January's short squeeze on the stock. 

This story first appeared in Inside Cryptocurrency. You can read the full issue here.

SoftBank, a heavy investor in AI and robotics, will pay $2.8B for a 40% stake in AutoStore, a Norwegian developer of robots for warehouses. The deal values 25-year-old AutoStore at $7.7B.

More:

• The warehouse automation company AutoStore developed the "R5" bot to move bins. It also sells "The Router" and other software to optimize how robots move around warehouses. Its "cube storage automation" helps them maximize storage space.
• Through this technology, customers can store 4x the inventory in the same space or all existing inventory in 25% of the space, according to Softbank.
• About 20,000 of AutoStore's robots have been deployed across 600 sites in 35 countries. Clients include Best Buy, Siemens, and Asda.
• SoftBank says it will acquire the stake from existing stakeholders, the U.S. private equity group Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Swedish VC firm EQT.

Other robotics news:

• Robotic exoskeleton maker Sarcos Robotics says it plans to go public via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
• Through the deal, Sarcos and blank-check company Rotor Acquisition Corp. would have a combined valuation of $1.3B including debt.
• To help fund the deal, the companies raised $220M in a "private investment in public equity" from BlackRock Inc., Millennium Management, Palantir Technologies Inc., and others.
• Sarcos' robotic systems are geared toward non-repetitive tasks to help industrial and military workers improve productivity. For example, its wearable devices have mechanical limbs that help workers move heavy items.

This story first appeared in Inside AI. You can read the full issue here.

NASA projects the COVID-19 pandemic will cost the agency up to $3B according to a recent audit. Launch dates for several missions have been delayed by up to 10 months.

Notable projects that were affected:

• The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble telescope, was delayed by seven months and will cost NASA $100M.
• The launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which focuses on dark energy and exoplanets, was pushed back six months and will cost the agency $399.9M.
• NISAR was delayed by seven months and will cost NASA $36M. This satellite's data will help scientists understand land surface changes, making it easier to manage resources and combat global warming.
• The PACE satellite, which measures the health of Earth's climate, was set back nine months and will cost the agency $29.2M.
• A link to the full report is available here. It's important to note the true impact of the pandemic won't be known until it ends.

This story first appeared in Inside Transportation. You can read the full issue here.

Funding Tracker

• The built-in text and video interactions provider Sendbird has raised $100M at a $1.05B valuation.
• Indian financial services startup CRED has raised $215M in Series D at $2.2B valuation, up from $800M in December.
• Seattle-area-based Darklight, developer of AI software for workflow task automation, raised $5.1M from Jay Lee of Agile Defense and Tom Bruderman of MAG Ventures.
• PlayShifu, an early-learning AR platform raised $17M Series B, led by Inventus Capital India, participation from Inflexor Ventures.
• Digital genome engineering platform Inscripta has raised $150M Series E from Fidelity, T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from D1 Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners.
• Indian food delivery platform Swiggy has raised $800M from Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital, and Carmignac. With $2.2B total raised to date, and valued at $4.9B.

QUICK HITS:

• Keep these things in mind to ensure reliability and professionalism when connecting to a large, remote audience.*
• Hardware hacker lucas_vrtech's DIY haptic gloves, his third prototype, work in "Half-Life: Alyx" and some other VR games. Lucas released diagrams and a Github open-source driver for people to build their own gloves.
• Computer science professor/tech entrepreneur Andrew Ng wants the ML community to focus more on data than models; he emphasized the importance of MLOps to build and deploy machine learning models more systematically.
• Imperial College London researchers created a machine learning algorithm to convert 2D images of "composite materials" into 3D.
• Clubhouse launched a new monetization feature called Clubhouse Payments which enables users to send money to content creators on the platform.  The startup is partnering with Stripe to process the payments.
• Attackers are targeting critical bugs in unpatched SAP enterprise applications, warned a report by SAP and security firm Onapsis.
• You don’t need a PhD in molecular biology to understand the investment potential of this scientific breakthrough.*

* This is sponsored content.