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xxxxxStark Industries was, under its founder Howard Stark, a pioneering weapons and defense company. Since Tony taking the reins as CEO two decades ago, the company has diversified. A multinational multibillion dollar company with subsidiary companies worldwide, the technological giant has holdings in everything from weapons to energy to biotech.
Stark Tower, in Midtown, is Stark Industries' headquarters. The soaring skyscraper houses not just a plethora of offices for Stark Industries and various subsidiary and nonprofit enterprises, but a dozen floors solely dedicated to R&D. On the ground two floors there is, also, a museum dedicated to technological innovations, though many of the real marvels lie in their R&D space. Three days a week, Stark Tower has guided tours of the museum and select parts of R&D open to the public.
Stark Industries holds a number of contracts with the U.S. military, supplying arms and defense. In the past years, though, their holdings have diversified widely. Among some of their more noteworthy recent developments:
- Stark Tower is powered by a large arc reactor in its basement; visitors to the museum can see it through the floor of one room and learn all about it in the exhibit. The entire tower runs off the sustainable energy produced by this, utilizing no power at all from the regular city grid. As yet the technology has not made it to mass-production status, but Stark Industries is in line to revolutionize energy if it ever does.
- Visitors to Stark Tower itself can interact with museum exhibits through a startlingly advanced user interface; the AI governing this recognizes voice commands but also can be interacted with through manipulable holographic displays. Tony Stark currently holds the patent on this interactive holographic UI; the technology is expected to hit the market early next year, though as yet is probably prohibitively expensive for most people's personal use.
- In the more everyday, Stark's automotive division, Wardenclyffe, has released this past year the S1 Roadster, a sleek and powerful fully electric car. The car already has state of the art navigational systems, but the company promises fully automated self-driving vehicles by 2014.
- A heavy focus on AI and smart buildings has led Stark Industries to be a pioneer in the fields of energy-efficient home and business automation. Tracking and managing everything from heating to water and light consumption to home entertainment and cataloging individuals' personal preferences, Stark's systems are slowly being spread through homes and offices worldwide.
- Less flashily, Stark Industries and their subsidiary holdings dabble in all kinds of consumer electronics and technology; it is not unlikely that most homes and offices have some Stark tech lying around.
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