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Nreal, a Chinese augmented reality glasses company, rebranded as Xreal. Co-Founder Peng Jin told CNBC this reflects the company’s expanded product range and international expansion.

Xreal

Chinese augmented reality (AR) glasses maker Nreal on Thursday said it rebranded to Xreal — a name it hopes will encapsulate its expansion into Europe and latest products.

Peng Jin, co-founder of Xreal told CNBC in an interview that the “X” in the new branding reflects the company is “expanding beyond what we thought was possible” and highlights new AR applications. The company, whose products are already sold in the U.S., U.K., China, Japan and South Korea, is planning to launch into European markets in the third quarter of the year.

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Augmented reality refers to technology that allows digital images to be imposed over the real world and represents an area of current investment for the world’s largest tech companies, from Apple to Meta. It is a key technology in the so-called “metaverse.”

Xreal makes two models of a headset that looks like sunglasses — the Xreal Air and Xreal Light — which run the company’s own operating system, called Nebula. Like Apple with iOS on iPhones, developers can make apps for Nebula that people can then use via Nreal headsets.

When people put on their headsets and open an app, they will see a large version of that content in front of their eyes. But Nebula is only available for Android devices, limiting its appeal. On Thursday, Xreal announced a new piece of gear called Xreal Beam, which it describes as an “iPod-shaped device” that can connect, wired or wirelessly, to smartphones, gaming consoles and PCs.

This will allow someone with almost any device to use the headset. One of the key areas Xreal is targeting is gaming. For example, you could connect Xreal Beam to a gaming console, such as PlayStation, and then play a game on a massive virtual screen within your glasses rather than on a physical TV.

Since its commercial launch last year, Xreal said it has sold 150,000 products globally. Jin did not give specific numbers, but said Xreal is looking to “double or triple” its sales in the coming year.

He also revealed the company is looking to raise money. CNBC reported that Xreal fundraised $100 million in 2021 — which at the time valued the company at $700 million — followed by $60 million from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba last year. Xreal has some high-profile backers that include Nio Capital, the investment arm of electric carmaker Nio, as well as venture company Sequoia Capital China.

Rising AR and VR competition

Augmented and virtual reality are drawing interest from some of the world’s biggest technology companies. Meta has pinned its future to such innovations, while Apple is reportedly working on its own virtual reality headset and gaming giant Sony last year released its second virtual reality headset called PlayStation VR2.

Jin said the competition will help expand the market.

“When you have companies like Sony or even Apple start investing in the space it brings more attention to this general direction, it will draw more talent,” Jin told CNBC.

But Xreal operates in an interesting space. Its headset can be used with consoles like the PlayStation, so that people can play a game on a huge virtual screen rather than a TV.

This is not a direct competitor to the PSVR 2, which immerses players as if they were in the actual game. But it does pose questions about whether companies may move to block Xreal’s device in the future, a risk not lost on Jin.

“I’m not saying these companies will not one day decide to build their own AR glasses and decide to block us. I m not saying that’s not going to happen. But there’s so much more to gain than just blocking us,” Jin said.

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Xi tells Dutch prime minister: No force can stop China’s tech advance

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Xi tells Dutch prime minister: No force can stop China’s tech advance

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS – MARCH 23:Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte meets with the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping at the Catshuis March 23, 2014 in The Hague, Netherlands. (Photo by Valerie Kuypers-Pool/Getty Images

Valerie Kuypers-Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

China’s technological progress cannot be stopped, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte when they met in Beijing Wednesday for talks on areas such as the critical semiconductor industry.

“The Chinese people also have legitimate development rights, and no force can stop the pace of China’s scientific and technological progress,” said Xi, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Xi said China will “continue to pursue a win-win approach.”

Relations between China and the Netherlands have been strained since the the Netherlands, together with the U.S., blocked exports of advanced chip technology to China over concerns they could be used for military purposes.

Semiconductor chips are critical components which can be found in everything from smartphones to automobiles.

Dutch tech giant ASML has been barred from exporting extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China — it is the only company currently capable of making such machines To date, it has not shipped a single EUV machine to China yet.

Such EUV lithography machines are crucial for chip manufacturing and are used by companies like Taiwan’s TSMC to make the smallest and most sophisticated chips.

In January, the Netherlands barred ASML from exporting some of its deep ultraviolet lithography systems to China, which are used to make slightly less advanced chips.

Semiconductor chips: There's a 'three horse' race outside mainland China, analyst says

Beijing slammed the Dutch government’s move, urging the Netherlands to “uphold an objective and fair position and market principles” and “protect the shared interests” of the two countries and their companies.

“Creating scientific and technological barriers and severing industrial and supply chains will only lead to division and confrontation,” Xi said Wednesday, according to Xinhua state media.

He said cooperation is the only way and added that “decoupling and breaking the chain” is not an option.

Xi said China is ready to continue dialogue with the Netherlands and urged the Dutch side to “provide a fair and transparent business environment for Chinese enterprises.”

According to Reuters, Rutte said Wednesday the Netherlands tried to ensure that export restrictions, when related to semiconductor industry and companies like ASML, are never aimed at one country. “We always try to make sure the impact is limited,” he was quoted as saying.

Chinese state media reported that Rutte responded by saying decoupling is not a policy choice for the Dutch government either, “since any act undermining China’s development interests will only boomerang.”

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China-made vehicles will comprise a quarter of Europe’s EV sales this year, study shows

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China-made vehicles will comprise a quarter of Europe's EV sales this year, study shows

A BYD Co. Atto 3 electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) on day two of the Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. 

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China-made electric vehicles will make up more than a quarter of the EV sales in Europe this year, with the country’s share increasing by over 5% from a year earlier, according to a new policy analysis. 

About 19.5% of battery-powered EVs sold in the EU last year were from China, with close to a third of the sales in France and Spain constituting EVs shipped from the Asian country, the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) reported in a paper shared Wednesday. 

The share of made-in-China vehicles in the region is expected to rise to just over 25% in 2024, according to the T&E research, as Chinese brands such as BYD ramp up their global expansion

While most EVs sold in the EU are from Western brands such as Tesla, which manufactures and ships EVs from China, Chinese brands alone are set to account for 11% of the region’s market in 2024. That share could reach 20% by 2027, T&E predicted. 

The findings come as the European Commission probes subsidies given to electric vehicle makers in China to determine if they unfairly undercut local companies. Non-Chinese brands that ship from China, such as Tesla and BMW, could be included in the ongoing subsidy investigation. 

According to Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, incentives put in place in China in the early 2010s led to a surge in startups and increased battery cell capacity in the country, paving the way for affordable EVs.

The EU is focusing its China EV probe on production-side subsidies

“The EU and the US are so far behind because they don’t have quality EVs at affordable prices because the legacy automakers have only really recently focused on designing & engineering them,” he added.

T&E suggested it would take raising EV tariffs to at least 25%, from the current 10%, for “medium” electric cars such as sedans and SUVs from China to become more expensive than their EU equivalents, though compact SUVs and “larger cars” would remain slightly cheaper.

However, the policy group said this would also require Europe to become more self-sufficient in battery cell production for the domestic EV industry. 

“The conundrum they see themselves in is that they can’t build affordable (and profitable) EVs without Chinese batteries because the Chinese are so far ahead of both the EU & US on the mineral mining, refining and manufacturing sides,” said Sino Auto Insights’ Le. 

In response to policy risks associated with shipping made-in-China EVs to Europe, China-based manufacturers such as Tesla and BYD have ramped up manufacturing efforts in the continent. Tesla is seeking to expand its assembly plant in Germany, while BYD plans to build a factory in Hungary. 

“The aim [of tariffs] should be to localise EV supply chains in Europe while accelerating the EV push, in order to bring the full economic and climate benefits of the transition,” T&E said in their report. 

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UnitedHealth Group has paid more than $3 billion to providers following cyberattack

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UnitedHealth Group has paid more than  billion to providers following cyberattack

In this photo illustration the UnitedHealth Group logo displayed on a smartphone screen. 

Sheldon Cooper | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

UnitedHealth Group has paid out an additional $1 billion to providers that have been impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack since last week, bringing the total amount of funds advanced to more than $3.3 billion, the company said on Wednesday.

UnitedHealth, which owns Change Healthcare, discovered in February that a cyber threat actor had breached part of the unit’s information technology network. Change Healthcare processes more than 15 billion billing transactions annually, and one in every three patient records passes through its systems, according to its website.

The company disconnected the affected systems “immediately upon detection” of the threat, according to a filing with the SEC. The interruptions left many health-care providers temporarily unable to fill prescriptions or get reimbursed for their services by insurers.

Many health-care providers rely on reimbursement cash flow to operate, so the fallout has been substantial. Smaller and mid-sized practices told CNBC they were making tough decisions about how to stay afloat. A survey published by the American Hospital Association earlier this month found that 94% of hospitals have experienced financial disruptions from the attack. 

As a result, UnitedHealth introduced its temporary funding assistance program to help providers in need of support. The company said the $3.3 billion in advances will not need to be repaid until claims flows return to normal. Federal agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have introduced additional options to ensure that states and other stakeholders can make interim payments to providers, according to a release.

UnitedHealth has been working to restore Change Healthcare’s systems in recent weeks, and it expects some disruptions will continue into April, according to its website. The company began processing a backlog of more than $14 billion in claims on Friday, and on Wednesday said, “claims have begun to flow.”

Shares of UnitedHealth have fallen more than 6% since the attack was disclosed.

Late last month, the company said the ransomware group Blackcat is behind the attack. Blackcat, also called Noberus and ALPHV, steals sensitive data from institutions and threatens to publish it unless a ransom is paid, according to a December release from the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The Department of State on Wednesday announced it’s offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that could help identify or locate cyber actors linked to Blackcat.

UnitedHealth said Wednesday that it’s “still determining the content of the data that was taken by the threat actor.” The company said a “leading vendor” is analyzing the impacted data. United Health is working closely with law enforcement and third parties like Palo Alto Networks and Google‘s Mandiant to assess the attack.

“We continue to be vigilant, and to date have not seen evidence of any data having been published on the web,” UnitedHealth said. “And we are committed to providing appropriate support to people whose data is found to have been compromised.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, wrote a letter to UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty on Monday requesting information about the “scope and extent” of the breach.

Raskin asked Witty for information about when Change Healthcare notified its clients about the breach, what specific infrastructure and information was targeted and what cybersecurity procedures the company has in place. The committee requested written responses “no later” than April 8.

“Given your company’s dominant position in the nation’s health care and health insurance industry, Change Healthcare’s prolonged outage as a result of the cyberattack has already had ‘significant and far-reaching’ consequences,” Raskin wrote.

The Biden administration also launched an investigation into UnitedHealth earlier this month due to the “unprecedented magnitude of the cyberattack,” according to a statement.

WATCH: UnitedHealth unit begins processing $14 billion medical claims backlog

UnitedHealth unit begins processing $14 billion medical claims backlog after hack

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