From small startups like Halter to large corporations like Microsoft, traditional, non-agricultural tech companies are searching for inroads to invest in farming operations.

In Microsoft’s case, it has been developing a suite of farm-focused solutions called Project FarmVibes to offer farmers data to, ideally, build more efficient operations, from monitoring and planning for planting conditions to weather data and harvesting metrics.

The grass is always greener: Ranveer Chandra, managing director for research for industry and CTO of agri-food at Microsoft, told Tech Brew that Project FarmVibes is designed to “help a farmer augment their decisions” using data sources like heat maps, temperature and soil sensors, and satellite imagery.

“It’s for three key goals. The first is they can produce more, they can grow more food to help solve the world’s food problem. Second, to make them profitable; that is, they can reduce costs, they use less chemicals, they use less water. And the third is to help them practice sustainable agriculture,” Chandra said.

Keep reading here.—JM

On a Friday afternoon in February, near the end of a two-week stretch of Super Bowl bliss that turned bitter for the city of Philadelphia, a packed house of sneakerheads were momentarily distracted. The crowd at Lapstone and Hammer, a jawny Center City retailer of tasteful fits, had been given a passcode, one that would enroll them in the future of the world’s largest sportswear brand, they were told.

It was a code to enroll in Nike’s latest and highly anticipated bet on Web3, Dot Swoosh.

Nike unveiled Dot Swoosh in November, describing it as a “new, inclusive digital community and experience and a home for Nike virtual creations.” Exactly what that means is a little unclear, and the company kept things mostly under wraps at first (including rebuffing Morning Brew’s repeated requests for an interview).

Keep reading here.—MA, RB

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Emerging Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

I am responsible for driving the company’s product strategy and roadmaps to deliver our product offerings (from lidar up to our full Sentinel solution) at the right time and the right price. A VP of product focuses on aligning the company’s product strategy with the overall business strategy and the market needs and trends. It’s a role that requires a broad knowledge base and experience that ranges from managing the unknowns and uncertainties around emerging tech (like lidar) to understanding the ins and outs of automotive supply chain and pricing dynamics, competitive positioning, and areas of strength for Luminar that help us differentiate.

What’s your favorite emerging tech project you’ve worked on?

There would be two favorites; I’ve been in this space a long time, and all have been exciting. My first new product was the Passive Occupant Detection Systems, [which is] a weight sensor in the front seat to detect small children and enable or disable the airbag, which was mandated by the US. I was there to witness a product go from zero to 100% market share in the span of two years. Next was radar and camera, which I watched grow and helped manage at my previous companies. And the growth of this tech and the amazing engineers I’ve worked with over the years really made this challenging technology fun.

And perhaps a third would be converter and inverter technologies for electric vehicles in the early stages of development before this major market push we’re seeing for EVs today. It’s a completely different tech from ADAS [advanced driver-assistance system], with its own set of complexities. That was a great learning opportunity for me as well.

What emerging tech are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

One of the emerging technologies that I’m most optimistic about is lidar, because we are still in the early phases of lidar development. I’ve been a part of the roadmaps for radar and camera and have seen the product greatly improve over time in every aspect; Size, weight, cost, power, and performance—and we can expect the same for lidar. There is still tons of room for improvement in all these areas and it’s nice to be in the technical leadership position; not only for today’s lidar but also for our future roadmap and product offerings.

What’s the best piece of tech-related media you’ve read/watched/listened to?

I’m a big fan of the Formula 1: Drive to Survive series on Netflix. F1 does an amazing job of demonstrating the value of emerging technologies in an incredibly demanding driving environment.

Stat: 85%. That’s the estimated percentage of staff expected to be laid off at Virgin Orbit, which recently went into an “operational pause” due to a lack of new funding.

Quote: “I felt lost. It was all gone.”—Tine Wagner, a user who virtually married her Replika bot not long before an update that weakened its ability to connect intimately

Read: This weekend, electric scooters faced the guillotine in Paris as residents voted to consider regulation in a referendum.

Catch up on the top Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Can you build a car only on wi-fi?
• Consumers aren’t connecting their smart appliances to the internet
• VCs invest nearly $650 million for automotive-related startups