Visa Inc
OpenAI’s first crack at online shopping stumbled. It’s preparing for the next wave
Inkoly | Istock | Getty Images When OpenAI announced its Instant Checkout feature last fall, retailers sprang into action. Etsy, Walmart and Shopify quickly lined up to let users buy merchants’ products directly within its ChatGPT chatbot. Suddenly, the e-commerce world was fixated on shopping agents, the artificial intelligence tools that can make purchases on […]
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Mastercard says it’s acquiring stablecoin startup BVNK in $1.8 billion bet on future of payments
Key Points Mastercard said it agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK for up to $1.8 billion — including $300 million in performance-contingent payments — in its biggest crypto deal ever. The deal gives the payments giant the ability to connect traditional rails with blockchain-based systems supporting stablecoins and tokenized deposits. BVNK, founded in 2021 […]
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‘Significant, but not catastrophic’: A fall in Chinese visitors barely dents tourism numbers to Japan
Visitors (L) dressed in kimonos look at photos they took during a visit to Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa district of central Tokyo on September 16, 2025. Richard A. Brooks | Afp | Getty Images After living in Tokyo for over a year, Karin Nordin noticed something peculiar. The hot spring towns of Kusatsu and […]
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Banking, payments services disrupted after Amazon UAE data centers hit in drone strikes
Foreign workers look at a tall plume of black smoke ascends following an explosion in the Fujairah industrial zone on March 3, 2026. Fadel Senna | Afp | Getty Images Apps and digital services in the United Arab Emirates are reporting outages following drone strikes on Amazon Web Services’ data centers in the country. AWS […]
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Restaurant reservation wars heat up as DoorDash enters the arena with Resy, OpenTable
Now available on your favorite food delivery app: restaurant reservations. The still-simmering reservation wars of the last decade could fully reignite this year, as a shifting tech landscape pits some of the biggest players against each other to capture businesses and users alike. Reservation incumbents, delivery app newcomers and premium credit card partnerships are all […]
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Register now: Applications open for the World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026
Key Points CNBC and Statista chart the top fintech players from around the world, ranging from startups to Big Tech names. The World’s Top Fintech Companies has been expanded this year, with regulation tech — companies helping others meet their financial regulatory obligations — becoming its own segment. Applications are now open for companies to […]
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