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A sign that reads “Epic Intergalactic Headquarters” on campus.

Epic Systems

Dorothy Gale was right — the Land of Oz is not in Kansas. Rather, it’s nestled within the rolling green fields of Verona, Wisconsin, a town of nearly 16,400 people located about 10 miles southwest of the capital city of Madison.

Verona is home to the whimsical, sprawling 1,670-acre headquarters for Epic Systems, one of the biggest privately held U.S. tech companies. Epic’s software is seemingly ubiquitous across hospitals and clinics, storing the medical records of more than 280 million people in the U.S.

While the company’s workforce is tasked with the hefty responsibility of building tools to support doctors and nurses as they provide care to patients, Epic employees spend their days milling in and out of offices that look as if they were plucked straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel or children’s book.

A yellow brick road inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” winds through the hallways of a gleaming, emerald green building. Giant chocolate chips mark the entryway to the chocolate factory, and a mischievous cat grins through the window of a building guarded by life-sized playing cards.  

The Oz office building on Epic’s campus.

Courtesy: Epic Systems

Last week, thousands of health-care executives descended on Epic’s sprawling campus for the company’s annual Users Group Meeting, in part to hear about new products and upcoming initiatives. This year’s theme was “storytime,” and Judy Faulkner, the company’s 81-year-old CEO, took the stage dressed as a swan, complete with a plume of feathers in her hair.

Faulkner, a reserved mathematician who founded Epic in a basement in 1979, told the crowd that the surrounding buildings and their upkeep account for 8% of the company’s total expenses. But she made the obvious point, that it’s a lot cheaper for Epic to buy land and build in Verona than it would be in a tech hub like San Francisco, Seattle or New York. And in this small midwestern town, the company is far from big city distractions.

“Most of us in software development are active sci-fi readers,” Faulkner said during her keynote. 

The Wizards Academy Campus.

Courtesy: Epic Systems

For public market investors, Epic has always been somewhat of a fantasy.

The company, with its 14,000-person workforce, doesn’t follow a preordained budget, has made zero acquisitions and never accepted any investment from venture capitalists. It abides by its own set of Ten Commandments, according to its website, the first of which is, “do not go public.”

Epic generated revenue last year of $4.9 billion. Cerner, Epic’s top rival in the electronic medical records market, went public in 1986 and was acquired by Oracle in 2022 for over $28 billion. According to Oracle’s financials, Cerner contributed $5.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023.

The S&P 500’s sub-index of software and services companies trades for 9 times revenue. At the average, that would give Epic a valuation of roughly $45 billion.

Faulkner doesn’t care for a Cerner-like outcome. Epic’s second commandment, after all, is “do not be acquired.”

“Why be owned by people whose interest is primarily return of equity?” Faulkner said onstage last week.

Touring Epic’s campus, it’s clear that the company exists a universe away from Wall Street.

Each of Epic’s 28 office building is themed. They’re clustered into mini-campuses, with names like Prairie Campus, Farm Campus, Central Park Campus, Wizards Academy Campus and Storybook Campus. The buildings have gotten more ornate over the years, which has necessitated some haggling with architects, according to Epic’s website.

Conference room chairs match their buildings’ intricate themes. And while the campus’ dinosaurs, suits of armor and its functioning carousel are fun to observe, they also serve a purpose. Faulkner says her plan was to build a friendly environment that could attract and inspire talent and to ensure that her employees have the quiet space they need to be productive, according to a series of testimonials on Epic’s website.  

“We compete with big tech,” Faulkner said in a testimonial. “These attributes help us hire the best staff possible. That helps us be more productive.”

An aerial view of Epic’s campus.

Epic Systems

Faulkner says individual offices should be available to every worker who wants one. With the vast majority of the company’s workforce showing up daily to headquarters, some people double up, since hiring often outpaces construction.

Those who want to escape the office altogether, can hop on one of the company’s 600 cow-print bikes to take meetings from a treehouse, slide down a rabbit hole or grab lunch in a train car. 

A universe underground

Epic’s address provides the first clue of its netherworld existence. The company is located at 1979 Milky Way, a nod to the date of its inception and Faulkner’s affinity for a celestial theme.

Visitors are greeted by a sign that reads “Epic Intergalactic Headquarters” as they travel down a road that winds between buildings and vast fields of green. Around 750 acres of Epic’s campus are active farmland sprinkled with 42 sheep, 14 cows and a donkey.   

The majority of the company’s parking structures are underground, which helps the campus maintain an impressive feel from above. It also means employees don’t have to worry about scraping snow or ice off of their cars during the bitter midwestern winter. 

Even when not parking, workers are no strangers to the underground. The campus’ buildings are connected via a network of tunnels and enclosed skyways, so people don’t have to step outside to travel between them. 

The exterior of Epic’s Deep Space auditorium.

Courtesy: Epic Systems

Employees are also required to attend a monthly staff meeting in an underground auditorium called Deep Space. The meetings last for around two hours, and employees present projects and discuss industry trends.

They always include a grammar lesson, too, Faulkner told the Users Group Meeting in the auditorium, which opened in 2013 and can seat around 11,400 people. The room is a feat of engineering, as there are no pillars holding it up.

To get to Deep Space, visitors must descend through levels of the Earth. The different levels of the building are named Sky, Grass, Dirt, Rock, Magma and Core. The lobby outside the auditorium is inspired by “The Lord of the Rings” series, and the word “precious” is scrawled ominously on the wall in giant, glowing red letters.   

Sci-fi references are everywhere. There’s a cafeteria called 42, which is the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything in the “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The Wizards Academy Campus draws clear inspiration from “Harry Potter,” and has its own King’s Cross train station, giant chess set and collection of unruly portraits.  

Epic is building a brand new campus, on the same grounds, that’s inspired by epic fantasies like “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars.” The cranes were decorated with massive kites that soared high above the campus during last week’s event.

Epic’s Endor Treehouse.

Courtesy: Epic Systems

Though each office building sports its own unique theme, the skeleton of the physical structures are all very similar. Long hallways of offices are broken up by the occasional conference room, and most buildings are no more than three stories tall, a design choice that Faulkner says is intended to promote in-person meetings.

The Prairie Campus, home to the oldest offices at Epic, has buildings named after celestial bodies like stars, planets and galaxies.  

On the Storybook Campus, the building called Mystery looks like an old mansion, where one could easily imagine Sherlock Holmes wandering the halls. The Castaway building resembles a ship, and its interior is full of nautical decor.

The walls in many of the buildings are decorated from floor to ceiling. Trinkets, ceramics, mosaics and paintings sourced from local artists are displayed at every turn.

A snowy day at Epic’s campus.

Epic Systems

Wandering the grounds during the Users Group Meeting, it was easy to forget that Epic is a software company.

However, on the outside of its fantasy campus, medical professionals and their patients have very real-world needs from this massive technology vendor. And there are plenty of very real critics.

Epic has for years been accused of dragging its feet around interoperability efforts that would help streamline the exchange of patient information between vendors.

Health-care data in the U.S. has historically been siloed and difficult to move around, as clinics, hospitals and health systems can store their information in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors. The data is also protected by federal laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.

Oracle, which is now Epic’s chief rival, says Epic is fiercely protective over its turf. In a May blog post, Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck wrote that “everyone in the industry understands that Epic’s CEO Judy Faulkner is the single biggest obstacle to EHR interoperability.”

Epic has of late been helping the federal government establish a data exchange network called the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, which aims to iron out both the legal and technical requirements for sharing patients’ data at scale. Epic said last month that it’s planning on moving all of its customers to TEFCA by the end of next year.

But the company still plans to use its extensive proprietary network. At its Users Group Meeting, Epic announced a number of new generative artificial intelligence features for its Cosmos platform, which is a deidentified patient dataset that clinicians can use to support treatment and conduct research.

Seth Hain, Epic’s senior vice president of research and development, spoke to reporters after the keynote in a meeting room decorated like a lodge. Hain had just presented a lofty demo to the audience where an AI agent evaluated his recovery after a supposed wrist surgery by cross-referencing data from Cosmos.

He said these sorts of tools could be ready in as soon as a few years.

“The technology is progressing very rapidly,” Hain said.

WATCH: AI disrupts medical records field

A.I. disrupts medical records field as doctors adopt new tech to fight burnout

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

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How TikTok’s rise sparked a short-form video race

TikTok’s grip on the short-form video market is tightening, and the world’s biggest tech platforms are racing to catch up.

Since launching globally in 2016, ByteDance-owned TikTok has amassed over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to Backlinko. American users spend an average of 108 minutes per day on the app, according to Apptoptia.

TikTok’s success has reshaped the social media landscape, forcing competitors like Meta and Google to pivot their strategies around short-form video. But so far, experts say that none have matched TikTok’s algorithmic precision.

“It is the center of the internet for young people,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at Emarketer. “It’s where they go for entertainment, news, trends, even shopping. TikTok sets the tone for everyone else.”

Platforms like Meta‘s Instagram Reels and Google’s YouTube Shorts have expanded aggressively, launching new features, creator tools and even considering separate apps just to compete. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, traditionally a professional networking site, is the latest to experiment with TikTok-style feeds. But with TikTok continuing to evolve, adding features like e-commerce integrations and longer videos, the question remains whether rivals can keep up.

“I’m scrolling every single day. I doom scroll all the time,” said TikTok content creator Alyssa McKay.

But there may a dark side to this growth.

As short-form content consumption soars, experts warn about shrinking attention spans and rising mental-health concerns, particularly among younger users. Researchers like Dr. Yann Poncin, associate professor at the Child Study Center at Yale University, point to disrupted sleep patterns and increased anxiety levels tied to endless scrolling habits.

“Infinite scrolling and short-form video are designed to capture your attention in short bursts,” Dr. Poncin said. “In the past, entertainment was about taking you on a journey through a show or story. Now, it’s about locking you in for just a few seconds, just enough to feed you the next thing the algorithm knows you’ll like.”

Despite sky-high engagement, monetizing short videos remains an uphill battle. Unlike long-form YouTube content, where ads can be inserted throughout, short clips offer limited space for advertisers. Creators, too, are feeling the squeeze.

“It’s never been easier to go viral,” said Enberg. “But it’s never been harder to turn that virality into a sustainable business.”

Last year, TikTok generated an estimated $23.6 billion in ad revenues, according to Oberlo, but even with this growth, many creators still make just a few dollars per million views. YouTube Shorts pays roughly four cents per 1,000 views, which is less than its long-form counterpart. Meanwhile, Instagram has leaned into brand partnerships and emerging tools like “Trial Reels,” which allow creators to experiment with content by initially sharing videos only with non-followers, giving them a low-risk way to test new formats or ideas before deciding whether to share with their full audience. But Meta told CNBC that monetizing Reels remains a work in progress.

While lawmakers scrutinize TikTok’s Chinese ownership and explore potential bans, competitors see a window of opportunity. Meta and YouTube are poised to capture up to 50% of reallocated ad dollars if TikTok faces restrictions in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

Watch the video to understand how TikTok’s rise sparked a short form video race.

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Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings in talks to raise $20 billion, Bloomberg News reports

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Elon Musk's xAI Holdings in talks to raise  billion, Bloomberg News reports

The X logo appears on a phone, and the xAI logo is displayed on a laptop in Krakow, Poland, on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Elon Musk‘s xAI Holdings is in discussions with investors to raise about $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The funding would value the company at over $120 billion, according to the report.

Musk was looking to assign “proper value” to xAI, sources told CNBC’s David Faber earlier this month. The remarks were made during a call with xAI investors, sources familiar with the matter told Faber. The Tesla CEO at that time didn’t explicitly mention any upcoming funding round, but the sources suggested xAI was preparing for a substantial capital raise in the near future.

The funding amount could be more than $20 billion as the exact figure had not been decided, the Bloomberg report added.

Artificial intelligence startup xAI didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

Faber Report: Elon Musk held call with current xAI investors, sources say

The AI firm last month acquired X in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $80 billion and the social media platform at $33 billion.

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent,” Musk said on X, announcing the deal. “This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin contributed to this report.

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

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Alphabet jumps 3% as search, advertising units show resilient growth

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, on May 10, 2023.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Alphabet‘s stock gained 3% Friday after signaling strong growth in its search and advertising businesses amid a competitive artificial intelligence environment and uncertain macro backdrop.

GOOGL‘s pace of GenAI product roll-out is accelerating with multiple encouraging signals,” wrote Morgan Stanley‘s Brian Nowak. “Macro uncertainty still exists but we remain [overweight] given GOOGL’s still strong relative position and improving pace of GenAI enabled product roll-out.”

The search giant posted earnings of $2.81 per share on $90.23 billion in revenues. That topped the $89.12 billion in sales and $2.01 in EPS expected by LSEG analysts. Revenues grew 12% year-over-year and ahead of the 10% anticipated by Wall Street.

Net income rose 46% to $34.54 billion, or $2.81 per share. That’s up from $23.66 billion, or $1.89 per share, in the year-ago period. Alphabet said the figure included $8 billion in unrealized gains on its nonmarketable equity securities connected to its investment in a private company.

Adjusted earnings, excluding that gain, were $2.27 per share, according to LSEG, and topped analyst expectations.

Read more CNBC tech news

Alphabet shares have pulled back about 16% this year as it battles volatility spurred by mounting trade war fears and worries that President Donald Trump‘s tariffs could crush the global economy. That would make it more difficult for Alphabet to potentially acquire infrastructure for data centers powering AI models as it faces off against competitors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to develop largely language models.

During Thursday’s call with investors, Alphabet suggested that it’s too soon to tally the total impact of tariffs. However, Google’s business chief Philipp Schindler said that ending the de minimis trade exemption in May, which created a loophole benefitting many Chinese e-commerce retailers, could create a “slight headwind” for the company’s ads business, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. The loophole allows shipments under $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free.

Despite this backdrop, Alphabet showed steady growth in its advertising and search business, reporting $66.89 billion in revenues for its advertising unit. That reflected 8.5% growth from the year-ago period. The company reported $8.93 billion in advertising revenue for its YouTube business, shy of an $8.97 billion estimate from StreetAccount.

Alphabet’s “Search and other” unit rose 9.8% to $50.7 billion, up from $46.16 billion last year. The company said that its AI Overviews tool used in its Google search results page has accumulated 1.5 billion monthly users from a billion in October.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post said that Wall Street is underestimating the upside potential and “monetization ramp” from this tool and cloud demand fueled by AI.

“The strong 1Q search performance, along with constructive comments on Gemini [large language model] performance and [AI Overviews] adoption could help alleviate some investor concerns on AI competition,” Post wrote in a note.

WATCH: Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital’s Chris Ballard

Gemini delivering well for Google, says Check Capital's Chris Ballard

CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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