50 Smartest Companies 2016
- 23
Why
Created a more efficient lithium-ion battery that could reduce the cost of energy storage for the electric grid and electric vehicles.Company Details50 percent
The company claims it can reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50 percent. - 7
Why
Vindicated this year when the U.S. FDA granted permission to tell customers whether their DNA puts them at higher risk for some diseases.Company Details1 million plus:
number of customers who have consented to have their genetic information used for scientific research - 1
Why
Creating an AI-powered store of the future with Amazon Go while expanding intelligent voice assistant Alexa into phones, cars, and more.Company Details12,000:
number of programs that software developers have published for Alexa - 18
Why
Building an operating system for commercial drones, as well as a traffic control system that could increase their usefulness.Company DetailsLeader
Airware’s founder and CEO also leads an investment fund that supports businesses creating technologies for commercial drones. - 5
Why
Its innovative batteries for the power grid make this startup unusually successful in a tough industry.Company DetailsBackers
Include Bill Gates, Shell. - 8
Why
Continues to dominate research into AI while expanding innovation in phone systems, virtual reality, and self-driving cars.Company Details40 percent:
amount of energy the company says it saves applying machine-learning algorithms from its DeepMind subsidiary to cooling its data center. - 47
Why
This e-commerce company is the continent’s first tech company to be valued at more than $1 billion.Company Details26
Africa Internet Group operates in 26 African countries. - 24
Why
Quickly expanding the artificial intelligence in its Alibaba Cloud platform, including industry-specific products, and launching a global electronic trade platform to build its business with small and medium-size companies around the world.Company Details57 percent:
Alibaba’s share of Chinese online commerce - 33
Why
Advanced manufacturing facilities it is developing rely on connected sensors and sophisticated software to improve factory efficiency.Company Details$80 billion
Record revenue generated in 2015. - 2
Why
Despite the high-profile loss this year of its well-regarded head of AI, Andrew Ng, the company is doing important work in the field, including leading China’s National Engineering Lab of Deep Learning Technology and Application.Company Details1,300:
number of employees dedicated to working on AI - 25
Why
Uses of its life-saving immunotherapy, Opdivo, has expanded to lung cancer, advanced renal-cell carcinoma, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.Company DetailsFive years
One-third of patients with advanced melanoma survived for five years in a study of Opdivo. - 44
Why
South Korea’s largest and fastest-growing online-only retailer is innovating in mobile commerce and same-day delivery.Company Details$5 billion
Coupang’s most recent valuation. - 13
Why
Last summer a hospital in London used Cellectis’s gene-editing technology to heal a child with otherwise untreatable leukemia.Company Details$300 million
Though not profitable, the company has over $300 million in cash, enough to last through 2018. - 32
Why
Its novel 3-D printing process makes it possible to fabricate parts out of a wide variety of plastics.Company Details100,000:
number of pairs of shoes Adidas will print by the end of 2018 using Carbon technology - 21
Why
Apple’s $1 billion investment, part of $7 billion raised this year, will help the Chinese ride-hailing app continue to fend off Uber.Company Details14 million
Number of rides its drivers complete a day. - 14
Why
A number of Australian radiologists are now using the company’s deep-learning software to analyze x-rays.Company Details50 percent
Claims its algorithm read chest CT images 50 percent more accurately than experts in its own test. - 35
Why
Plans to begin testing a powerful new form of gene repair in humans within two years.Company Details$94 million
Money raised in its February IPO, and the stock is up 85 percent since then. - 15
Why
Despite controversies over fake news, live streaming video, and discriminatory advertising, and poor sales of its Oculus VR headset, it continues to work on interesting applications of AI and VR, and its Instagram business is singing.Company Details20:
number of natural-language data sets built into the company’s AI research tool, ParlAI. - 41
Why
With clients like JPMorgan Chase, Sony Pictures, and Target, it’s creating a new model for computer security on a large scale.Company DetailsIn the works
New products focus on securing public and private clouds and detecting targeted e-mail attacks. - 11
Why
Making advances in cadmium telluride cells; building three of the five largest solar projects in the U.S.Company Details$2.9 billion:
estimated 2017 revenue - 27
Why
World’s largest maker of industrial robots is incorporating machine learning.Company DetailsEight
Number of hours a Fanuc robot needs to learn a task with 90 percent accuracy. - 10
Why
This Chinese telecommunications giant is now the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor thanks to strong sales in both premium and entry-level devices.Company Details27.5 million
Number of smartphones Huawei shipped in the first quarter of 2016, according to market researcher IDC. - 31
Why
The Oxitec division of this biotech holding company genetically engineers mosquitoes that could reduce the spread of Zika.Company Details$174 million
Acquisitions increased sales from $8 million to $174 million in five years. - 45
Why
Exploring new technologies like blockchain and cloud AI while continuing work on important long-term challenges like quantum computing.Company Details400:
number of customers the company has worked with on blockchain applications - 19
Why
Its large-scale desalination process is winning big contracts in China and Australia.Company Details30 percent
By October IDE will be producing 30 percent of Santa Barbara’s water. - 49
Why
Acquisitions in computer vision and AI show it’s serious about adapting to new technology.Company Details46 percent:
portion of revenues derived from areas beyond PC chips - 3
Why
After a drop in sales last fall, unveiled a new machine, NovaSeq, that will be capable of sequencing 48 entire human genomes in two and a half days—and could one day push the cost of genome sequencing down to $100.Company Details$850,000:
price of the cheaper of its two NovaSeq models - 29
Why
Its virtual-world simulation platform is used to create VR software and test driverless cars.Company DetailsFunding
Andreessen Horowitz is a major backer. - 38
Why
The Japanese messaging app is quick to add innovative features, such as group calls for up to 200 people, and plans an IPO this year.Company Details218 million
Number of monthly active users. - 48
Why
Maker of electronic building blocks has accelerated its growth with new funding, new investors, and new distribution.Company Details$299
Basic kits sell for $99 to $299. - 26
Why
Its fast-growing cloud business has reduced the software giant’s reliance on PC sales. Its expanding team of quantum computing experts hopes to develop commercially viable products to compete with efforts by Google and IBM.Company Details$15 billion:
projected annual revenue for its commercial cloud business - 30
Why
Its computer-vision chips are making mobile devices and drones smarter.Company DetailsOn the radar
Drones using Movidius technology can sense obstacles to avoid collisions. - 6
Why
A leader in making driver assistance technology such as collision warning systems for clients including Tesla, General Motors, and Volkswagen, among others, it is working on advances that will enable fully autonomous cars.Company Details600
Number of employees who are annotating the images used to train its autonomous driving system. - 50
Why
Using RNA interference to create alternatives to conventional GMOs.Company Details$1.5 billion
Money invested last year in research on new biotech traits, genomics, and more. - 12
Why
Continues to tweak its chips, originally developed for gaming, to help develop breakthrough technologies like deep learning and autonomous driving.Company Details$3 billion:
spending on R&D to create its new data-center chip - 36
Why
Food giant has jumped into microbiome research, working to develop “healthy gut” products.Company Details$2 billion
At a slow time for its core food business, its nutritional therapies division has reached $2 billion in annual revenue in its first five years, and more strong growth is predicted. - 22
Why
Twelve years and $200 million in the making, its inexpensive, portable genetic analyzer has been successfully tested from Antarctica to space and shows promising for on-the-spot diagnostic testing, germ monitoring, and more.Company Details882,000 letters:
record length of a single DNA strand read continuously by one of its machines - 37
Why
Has begun first human trials of optogenetics, using light-triggered genetic changes to restore some vision to people with retinitis pigmentosa.Company Details$12 million
Revenue raised from foundations and private investors as well as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. - 28
Why
Its smart batteries, which include software to manage energy use and can store energy for later, are transforming the electricity market in Germany.Company Details25 percent
Electricity on its system is 25 percent cheaper than the electricity on the grid, according to the company. - 42
Why
Its software makes it possible to analyze one of the world’s largest genomic data sets.Company Details11,000
Number of patients that have contributed 33 cancer types and subtypes to its Cancer Genomics Cloud. - 43
Why
The workplace communications app burrows more deeply into workplaces. Now you can use your Slack login for all the software your company uses.Company DetailsThree million
Number of daily active Slack users. - 16
Why
Changing the economics of space travel with its successful landing and recycling of rockets to be recycled for multiple tripsCompany Details10 percent:
price discount being considered for customers who agree to fly their payloads on reused rockets - 46
Why
Building out its advertising business by partnering with Viacom to sell ads and with Nielsen for marketing campaign data.Company Details10 billion
Number of videos that are seen on the app every day. - 9
Why
Its blindness treatment could be the first gene therapy approved in the U.S. to treat an inherited disease.Company Details1 in 30,000:
estimated number of individuals affected by the disease, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy - 20
Why
Turning its insanely popular chat platform WeChat into a virtual operating system featuring mini programs.Company Details50 percent:
proportion of WeChat’s 770 million daily users who are on the service at least 90 minutes a day - 39
Why
This money-transfer service, with a peer-to-peer model for sending money abroad, aims to charge lower fees than traditional players.Company Details$750 million
Money TransferWise helps users exchange every month. - 34
Why
Its flexible tool for diagnosing abnormalities more quickly has FDA approval for certain uses, including detecting a fungus that causes sepsis.Company Details35
Number of customers who now use the company’s bench-top diagnostic system. - 4
Why
While advancing autopilot technology in its Model S and X cars, the company is taking electric vehicles mainstream with its $35,000 Model 3 car, which already has 400,000 pre-orders.Company Details50 percent
According to CEO Elon Musk, drivers have a 50 percent lower chance of having an accident when driving with Tesla Autopilot. - 17Company Details
Leader
Roboticist Gill Pratt is CEO of the Toyota Research Institute. - 40
Why
Launched by well-regarded researchers and funded with venture capital backed by Chinese and U.S. pharmaceutical companies, it will sequence anyone’s genome for just $1,000 and interpret it, too. In 2017, it started offering to sequence newborns in China.Company Details1,250:
number of conditions, risks, and traits it will tell parents about in their newborns