By Anne D'Innocenzio, Retail Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Wal-Mart is launching an incubator lab focused on projects in robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence as it aims to compete more aggressively with Amazon.
The so-called Store No. 8 will be located in Silicon Valley and marks the latest attempt by the company's new head of e-commerce operations, Marc Lore, to speed up innovation at the company. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, brought over Lore, the founder of Jet.com, when the discounter bought the online retailer last year for more than $3 billion. Wal-Mart has been on an acquisition binge since then, snapping up ShoeBuy, Moosejaw and ModCloth.
The incubator lab's mission will be to house new startups that will run independently from the company. It will hatch, invest in and team up with entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists to create proprietary technology. Wal-Mart says these startups "will be ring-fenced from the broader organization, so they have the room to grow and develop."
Store No. 8 is named after an early store where Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton used to test different ideas that could be rolled out.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More