The business of tech stories our desk judged worth your time, written so anyone can follow them.
Western Union's third quarter revenue fell 2% to $1 billion, and it is betting on Stablecard, a digital dollar wallet with a Visa card, to help it grow.
Read more: Western Union Launches a Digital Dollar Card as Sales Slip 2%ZentriBase has launched a portal that puts client branding, contracts and payment records in one place for freelancers, agencies and businesses with several brands.
Read more: New ZentriBase tool puts client portals, contracts and payments in one placeExpedia's CEO says AI assistants are good at helping people plan trips, but travelers still prefer to book on a brand they trust.
Read more: Travelers plan trips with AI helpers but still book on ExpediaMercari says moving customer service to a managed browser and Chromebooks could cut costs by more than half over three years while keeping customer data in check.
Read more: Online marketplace Mercari expects to cut costs by half with a browserAnthropic is telling investors its AI assistant Claude can design chips, ahead of a stock debut reportedly valued near $1.5 trillion. Here is what to weigh.
Read more: Anthropic pitches its AI as a chip designer before stock debutCircle Internet Group cut about 5% of its staff to push into AI, even as its third-quarter revenue and earnings beat analyst forecasts.
Read more: Circle cuts 5% of its staff to focus on AI, as profits beat forecastsNetflix hired Darshan Kantak, a longtime ad tech executive, to fix delays in its ad business, which affects its cheaper plan with ads and the companies that buy those ads.
Read more: Netflix hires a veteran ad tech leader to speed up its ads businessElevenLabs says its AI voice agents now plug into NiCE, Genesys, Amazon Connect and Five9 phone systems, so businesses can automate routine calls without a rebuild.
Read more: ElevenLabs lets AI voice agents answer calls inside big company phone systemsA Menlo Ventures report says companies will spend $176.8 billion on AI in 2026, and most of it is not coming out of software budgets.
Read more: Companies Will Spend $177 Billion on AI This Year, Mostly Not From Software BudgetsNooks, an AI sales startup, has a $500 million commitment from General Catalyst's fund, which shares in the returns. Sales teams may feel the effect soon.
Read more: Sales AI startup Nooks lands a $500 million funding commitmentA system called PRIMA pairs an eye implant with camera glasses, and most recipients with a central blind spot could read and use phones after training.
Read more: Eye implant helps most patients with a central blind spot read againCycurion has launched Habit, a security service that learns what normal looks like inside a company and flags what breaks the pattern, with people on watch 24/7.
Read more: Cycurion launches Habit, a security service that watches for odd behaviorGoogle says its updated data platform lets AI assistants search a company's records across rival clouds with no variable transfer fees, though the figures come from its own tests.
Read more: Google lets AI assistants work across all of a company's dataIsomorphic Labs, owned by Google's parent Alphabet, is reportedly in talks to raise about $5 billion to use AI to discover new drugs.
Read more: Google's sister company seeks $5 billion to find new medicines with AIQualcomm, the company behind many phone chips, is pushing into AI data centers as smartphone sales fall about 20 percent. Here is what it expects and what is unclear.
Read more: Qualcomm, the phone chip maker, is turning to AI data centers as phone sales fallSen. Ted Cruz has set a November 10 hearing for a new Republican FCC nominee before Democrats take the Senate, raising questions about who runs phone and internet rules.
Read more: Senate Republicans push to fill the FCC with their own partyAMD posted a record $13.4 billion quarter driven by AI chips, while its gaming sales fell 40 percent. Here is what that says about where chip money is going.
Read more: AMD has a record quarter as AI demand soars and gaming sales fall 40%Adobe's AI marketing helper now runs inside ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and more, so teams can use it in the AI tool they already have.
Read more: Adobe's marketing AI helper now works inside ChatGPT and ClaudeSnap shares fell more than 9% after hours when daily users and ad growth came in below what analysts expected, which matters to advertisers and investors.
Read more: Snap stock falls 9% after slower user and ad growthOpenAI's policy chief wants AI to be a top issue in the 2028 race. Critics say his plan mostly helps AI companies, and it touches jobs, power bills and schools.
Read more: OpenAI Wants AI to Be a Big Issue in the 2028 ElectionFigma beat forecasts and raised its outlook, yet shares fell 7% after hours because it is giving customers more AI at the same price.
Read more: Figma stock falls 7% even after beating profit and sales forecastsElon Musk has launched an AI company meant to compete with ChatGPT, which could mean more choice for anyone who uses chatbots.
Read more: Elon Musk starts his own AI company to rival ChatGPTAnthropic says its FlashProve system could let users confirm which AI model answered them, so a cheaper stand-in could not be swapped in unnoticed.
Read more: Anthropic is building a way to prove which AI answered youThe SBA will pay cash rewards for tips that lead to action on pandemic loan fraud, and owners who took PPP or COVID EIDL money should expect more scrutiny.
Read more: SBA Offers Cash Rewards for Tips on Pandemic Loan Fraud
