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This Weekender takes a fresh look at Halloween in the era of AI: how payments shape the party, how algorithms pick your costume, why chocolate feels pricier than ever, and where the season’s luxe splurges live. Consider it your lighthearted field guide to October’s weirdest mash-up: fintech, AI and fright night.
“Boo baskets” went from neighborly prank to budget line item. TikTok’s...
Amazon reseller Pattern reportedly raised $300 million Friday (Sept. 19) in its initial public offering and saw its shares close up 11%.
Pattern sold shares at $14 in its IPO. Its stock opened at $13.50 and closed at $15.63, CNBC reported Friday. The IPO valued the company at $2.5 billion.
Pattern was founded in 2013 as iServe Products, changed its name to Pattern in 2019, and...
Elon Musk denied a report that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is raising money.
In a reply to a post on social platform X about a report that xAI was raising $10 billion at a $200 billion valuation, Musk said Friday (Sept. 19): “Fake news. xAI is not raising any capital right now.”
Fake news. xAI is not raising any capital right now.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19,...
Overseas retailers are reportedly replacing their B2C models with B2B2C models to reduce the cost of tariffs.
By routing customers’ online orders to a wholesale platform that acts as a merchant of record in the United States, retailers can shift the responsibility for paying the tariff to the middleman, CNBC reported Friday (Sept. 19).
The wholesaler, in turn, buys the product from the...
Stakes are high for the banking and FinTech sectors as cyberattacks grow more frequent and costly.
These firms sit on oceans of sensitive data and operate interconnected networks that attract sophisticated hackers.
At the center of their defense strategy is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA), a law that outlines how private companies share cyber threat information...
OpenAI reportedly plans to work with at least two manufacturers that supply Apple when it begins production of its own devices.
The artificial intelligence startup has signed a contract with Luxshare to assemble at least one device and has approached Goertek to supply components, The Information reported Friday (Sept. 19).
Luxshare share assembles Apple iPhones and AirPods in China,...
The Treasury Department has issued another call for public comment as it prepares to implement the new stablecoin law, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
Treasury issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) Thursday (Sept. 18) related to its implementation of the GENIUS Act.
This ANPRM builds upon a request for comment issued...
Consumer financing company Synchrony aims to promote personal finance education for K-12 students with a $1 million investment in nonprofit organizations and with an employee-led effort to share financial literacy expertise.
Both efforts will focus on preparing teachers and others to teach financial literacy, the company said in a Friday (Sept. 19) press release.
Synchrony’s $1 million...
Google is giving Chrome its biggest overhaul in more than a decade, embedding its Gemini artificial-intelligence system into the browser to make AI a default part of how people search, shop and navigate online.
The move, detailed in two Thursday (Sept. 18) company blog posts, underscores Google’s effort to turn Chrome from a gateway to the web into a platform for AI-driven productivity...
Stablecoins officially exist. They’ve gotten their own regulatory framework in the U.S., after all.
But existing isn’t the end goal.
In order to not just exist but to function, stablecoins will need to interoperate safely and scale. They’ll need to knock on the doors of bank balance sheets, everyday commerce and the broader financial services landscape and be welcomed in.
To make the...