Renaissance Venture Capital announces it has officially raised about $50 million from private corporations to help spark more venture capital investments in Michigan. RVCF, which funds other venture capital firms, says has already invested about $5.8M in six VC firms, who, in turn, have distributed about $23 million to 12 Michigan companies, which have hired about 200 new workers, according to RVCF's figures.

Marc Andreessen -- engaged, opinionated, assertive -- has long been a geek's geek but is now a power player like never before. Seventeen years after he developed the breakthrough Web browser that launched Netscape and the dot-com era, Andreessen is playing roles at HP, eBay, Skype and Facebook that prompted the tech news site VentureBeat to dub him "the King of Silicon Valley."

As part of his pre-election push to spur the slumping economy and his party, President Obama this week will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend a popular but costly tax credit for businesses’ research expenses, and to pay for it by closing other corporate tax breaks, according to administration officials.

Reports of an effort to revive an on-again, off-again tax credit for research and development, and possibly to make it permanent, were met with a mix of hope and skepticism among advocates for Silicon Valley tech firms, who see it as a vital driver of innovation.

Craig Venter, now 63, made his name as a gene hunter. He nearly left the federally funded Human Genome Project in the dust in the race to determine the complete sequence of DNA in human chromosomes. Now Dr. Venter is turning from reading the genetic code to an even more audacious goal: writing it. Andrew Pollack tells the story of his current venture:

Tri-State Biodiesel was struggling to find capital last year, in the middle of a credit crunch. "Banks weren't lending at all," said Brent Baker, founder and chief executive. In the end, Baker got a $50,000, three-year loan at a reasonable rate from Boc Capital, a lender that received $750,000 in federal stimulus funds last year to help small businesses.

A shift in the distribution of venture capital dollars has San Francisco significantly outpacing its South Bay competitors and buoying key industries during the economic downturn. “This is a new trend,” said Ted Egan, chief economist for San Francisco. “High-tech is thought of being a South Bay, Santa Clara thing, [but] we are the leader.”

There are 3.5 million people missing in the U.S. Their families know them. Their neighbors see them come and go. But 3.5 million people who should be in the labor force are no longer there -- and the government doesn't know what has become of them.

Perhaps never before has there been a greater need for innovation to reinvent the economy. In Arizona's business world, creativity could be defined by the young paramedic who launched an air-ambulance company, the owner of a janitorial service who developed a more sanitary approach, or the creators of countless energy-saving, time-saving new products.

Intel was stumped. For a key step in a new design, Intel needed a technique to strip out some materials while leaving others for connections and insulation. Conventional approaches had failed, so Nabil Mistkawi put his imagination to work.

They work in Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone, a collaborative space that supports the commercialization of digital innovations from young entrepreneurs. It's a wonderful thing to behold: all of these super-bright people working across the traditional silos and with people from outside academe, too. Here are three of the inventions that have just emerged from this space:

U.S. technology companies are in a bind. Much of their cash is parked abroad and they risk higher taxes if they bring profits from overseas back home. They have joined other U.S. businesses in lobbying for a tax holiday for repatriated earnings, and with no prospects of success in the near term, they're looking for something to do with that money.

Unemployment is chronic in much of the country, but in Silicon Valley, employees have their pick of jobs. In an economic climate that is the near converse of a recession, talent is scarce and star programmers have the upper hand.

While many manufacturers across the state are languishing in the recession, Automated Dynamics Inc. of Schenectady is seeing a surge in business. That's because the privately held company makes specialized robots that produce advanced materials and prototype devices.

The antitrust scrutiny of Google, Apple and Intel has reignited a simmering debate in academic and legal circles over the appropriate regulation of dominant technology companies. Put simply: Is antitrust outdated for the Information Age?

In academia, the research is determined by various factors, many of which have little to do with market incentives. Secondly, the key to marketing market tend to need, not licensing opportunities.

Innoation is one of the most seductive words in the business world. It conjures up visions of bold new products and processes, entrepreneurial heroism, market leadership and big financial rewards. Small wonder, then, that the study of innovation has attracted all manner of executives, scholars, government officials and other curious observers.