Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Pharrell Drives Latest XPRIZE Concept

Los Angeles-based nonprofit XPRIZE--which runs prize competitions to help advance technology and solutions to world problems--said on Tuesday that celebrity Pharrell Williams has won the top prize in its latest "Visioneering 2019" annual gathering. According to XPRIZE, the concept for a new XPRIZE--from the Charter Communities XPRIZE team--won the top prize among 50 XPRIZE designs that were proposed during the gathering. The team was led by music artist Pharrell Williams, and was Andrew Nikou Foundation and philanthropists John-Paul Dejoria, amon gothers. The new concept for a prize proposed a competition to create transformational public housing alternatives that will provide a self-sustaining life beyond subsidized housing. XPRIZE did not say if it intends to take the idea proposed by Pharrell and turn it into an actual prize. XPRIZE said, during its Visioneering event, over $15M was pledged by philanthropists to support XPRIZE and prize development; the group said speakers at the event included Harrison Ford, Deepak Chopra, Gwynne Shotwell, Morris Kahn, and others.