The resurgence of high-profile IPOs in 2025 shows no sign of abatingespecially in the fintech space. This week, Wealthfront Corporation announced its intention to go public. Heres what you need to know:
What is Wealthfront?
Wealthfront Corporation was founded 17 years ago, in 2008. It is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and is led by CEO David Fortunato.
The company is one of a number of fintech firms that operate in the robo-advisor space. It offers a financial platform and dedicated smartphone app that allow users to invest in various assets, including stocks and bonds. The company also offers cash accounts and automated index investing.
Wealthfront specifically targets digital natives, which it defines as those born after 1980. These are consumers who use digital platforms for the vast majority of their everyday services ranging from entertainment and commerce to food delivery and ride sharing, the company stated in its Form S-1 registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The demographic includes millennials, Gen Z, and later, and Wealthfront describes them as typically having large liquid savings with long time horizons ahead,” and being “undeterred by corrections and bear markets.”
The companys registration statement also noted that these individuals lost trust in traditional financial institutions which they blamed for high unemployment and an economic downturn.
A study by Oxford Economics, commissioned by Wealthfront, found that the total wealth of digital natives is expected to grow from $12 trillion in 2022 to $140 trillion in 2045.
Wealthfront by the numbers
According to Wealthfronts SEC filing, the companys key metrics include (as of the companys Q2 2026):
Platform assets of $88 billion
Year-over-year (YOY) platform asset growth of 24%
Revenue of $339 million over the last 12 months (LTM)
LTM YOY revenue growth of 26%
LTM net income of $123 million
Around 1.3 million funded users
When is Wealthfronts IPO?
At this time, the exact date of Wealthfronts public offering is unknown. On September 29, the company issued a statement announcing its intention to go public, but it has not specified a date.
Whats interesting about its IPO filing is that Wealthfront actually filed for an IPO with the SEC in June, but the filing was confidential until now. As for when the company might actually debut on public markets, CNBC notes that most companies typically have their IPO within weeks of the S-1 filing being made public.
If Wealthfront adheres to the typical schedule, the companys shares could debut sometime in October.
What is Wealthfronts stock ticker?
Wealthfronts shares will trade under the stock ticker WLTH.
What market will Wealthfronts shares trade on?
Wealthfront shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
What is the IPO share price of WLTH?
In this weeks announcement, Wealthfront declined to specify an IPO share price or expected price range. The company stated that the “number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.
Its likely Wealthfront and its book-running managers, which include Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, are waiting to price WLTH shares until they can better gauge investor interest via its “roadshow”which is when a company markets it shares to potential investors.
How many WLTH shares are available in its IPO?
As with its share price, Wealthfront has also declined to say just how many shares of WLTH will be available in its IPO. The company said the number of shares on offer is yet to be determined.
How much will Wealthfront raise in its IPO?
Until Wealthfront announces the number of shares on offer and the price of those shares, it is impossible to say how much Wealthfront will raise in its IPO. Its also worth noting that Wealthfront has cautioned that, despite announcing its IPO, theres always the chance that the public offering may not come to pass.
The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or other terms of the offering, the company stated.
How much is Wealthfront worth?
Its currently unknown what Wealthfronts current valuation is. However, as noted by CNBC, in 2022, Swiss banking giant UBS announced its intent to purchase Wealthfront for $1.4 billion in cash. The bank later abandoned that deal.
High-profile fintechs IPOs are a thing in 2025
If Wealthfront does indeed go through with its proposed public offering, the company will be far from the only fintech firm to make its public debut this year.
Numerous other high-profile fintech companies have already gone public in 2025, including Klarna, Chime, Circle, eToro, and Bullish.
As Reuters notes, several years ago, fintech firms began falling out of favor with investors due to the challenges associated with rising interest rates, leading ot a dearth of related IPOs.
However, in 2025, the fintech industry has gained increasing favor with investors, resulting in numerous IPOs this year.
Journalists who cover the Pentagon and the Trump administration are in a standoff about new rules that limit the access of the media to most areas within the Pentagon and appear to condition overall entry to the building on an agreement to restrictions in reporting.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team characterizes the changes as an effort to protect national security and the safety of those who work at the Pentagon, while many in the press see it as an effort to exert control and avoid embarrassing stories.Journalists who want to hold on to badges that permit access to the Pentagon were told on Sept. 19 they must sign a letter acknowledging the new rules by this Tuesday or the badge “will be revoked.” The new policy says that Defense Department information “must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if unclassified.” Classified material faces even tighter restrictions.That level of control immediately alarmed journalists and their advocates.“Asking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy, and a continued attempt to throttle the public’s right to understand what their government is doing,” said Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for The New York Times.
Dispute over what the new rules actually mean
In a subsequent letter to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Hegseth aide Sean Parnell suggested that journalists misunderstood some of the new rules. He said, for example, that the restriction against releasing unclassified information is the policy that Pentagon officials must follow not something the journalists must abide by.“It should come as no surprise that the mainstream media is once again misrepresenting the Pentagon’s press procedures,” Parnell said in a post on X. “Let’s be absolutely clear: Journalists are not required to clear their stories with us. That claim is a lie.”However, the new policy says that journalists who encourage Pentagon officials to break the rules in other words, ask sources for information could be subject to losing their building access.While it appeared that Parnell sought to soften some of the hard edges of his policy in response to questions raised by the reporters’ committee, there’s still enough confusion to merit a meeting to clear things up, said Grayson Clary, a lawyer for RCFP. There’s some wariness among news organizations about what they would be agreeing to if they sign the letter, and it’s not clear how many people if any have done so.The new rules continue a tense relationship between the press and the Hegseth team, which had already evicted some news outlets from their regular workspaces in favor of friendlier outlets and limited the ability of reporters to roam around the Pentagon. Hegseth and Parnell seldom hold press briefings.Parnell did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
To one editor, it’s all about control
“It’s control, just 100% control,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine. Goldberg, who is not stationed at the Pentagon, wrote the most embarrassing story of Hegseth’s tenure so far when he was inadvertently included in a Signal group chat where Hegseth and other national officials discussed an imminent attack on Houthis in Yemen. The brouhaha became widely known as “Signalgate.”Pentagon leadership was also reportedly unhappy over a story that said Elon Musk was to get a briefing on military strategy for China, leading President Donald Trump to stop it, and other stories about initial assessments of damage in the military strike against Iran.No American reporter accredited to the Pentagon that he knows is interested in subverting national security or putting anyone in the military in harm’s way, Goldberg said.In his own case, Goldberg did not report on what he learned until after the attack was over. He said he contacted officials in the group chat to ask if there was anything he learned that was harmful to the country in any way. He did not include in his story the name of a CIA official mentioned in the messages who was technically still undercover, he said.“The only people in Signalgate who were putting American troops in harm’s way were the national leadership of the United States by discussing on a commercial messaging app the launch times of strikes on a hostile country,” he said.Access to officials in the Pentagon has been invaluable in helping reporters understand what is going on, said Dana Priest, a longtime national security reporter at The Washington Post who is now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. With the exception of a few areas, reporters are not permitted under the new rules to walk through the Pentagon without an official escort.Priest said the corridors of the Pentagon were like areas around Congress where reporters buttonhole politicians. Priest recalled staking out military officials waiting for them to come out of a bathroom.“They know the goal of the media is to get around the official gobbledygook and get out the truth,” Priest said. “They may not help you. But some of them want to help Americans know what is going on.”Experienced national security reporters know there are many ways to get information, including through other channels of government and people in the private sector. “The Pentagon is always very well versed in the advantages of controlling the story, so they always try to do that,” she said. “The reporters know that. They’ve known that for decades.”
Is there any room for common ground between the Pentagon and reporters?
Reporters who don’t follow the new rules won’t necessarily be expelled immediately, Parnell told the reporter’s committee. But access will be determined by Hegseth’s team.While reporters already stationed in the Pentagon were given until Sept. 30 to sign, they were allowed to request an additional five days for legal review.Although the Times, Washington Post and Atlantic all put out statements against the Pentagon’s plan, none of the publications would say what they have recommended that their reporters do perhaps an indication that they consider negotiations potentially fruitful.President Donald Trump hasn’t hesitated to fight the media when he thinks he’s been wronged, launching lawsuits against CBS News, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal and the Times. Yet he’s also frequently accessible to the press, more so than many of his predecessors, and there has been some uncertainty in the White House about the Pentagon’s policy.When a reporter asked, “should the Pentagon be in charge of deciding what reporters can report on?” the president replied, “No, I don’t think so. Listen, nothing stops reporters. You know that.”Goldberg noted that it’s more than just an issue for reporters. “The American people have a right to know what the world’s most powerful military does in their name and with their money,” he said. “That seems fairly obvious to me.”
David Bader writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
David Bauder, AP Media Writer
Amazons new Echo Dot Max is a $99 ball. Its Echo Studio is a $199 ball. Its Echo Show is a tablet (starting at $179), attached to a ball.
For its grand refresh of its Alexa-powered line of speakers and tablets, Amazon spent three years rethinking the foundations of its audio engineering to conquer the home theater market in the most spherical manner possible. Legitimatelythey sound really good, says our senior editor Liz Stinson, after a listening test.
But from my own discussions with the design team, its clear that what Amazon has created are not just new voice assistants, or even mix-and-matachable speakers capable of creating a 3D soundscape for movies and music in your home. What these new Echo products are supposed to do is enable a more intuitive (and intimate, and surveillant) AI for home tomorrowone that doesnt just hear what you say, but senses what you do.
The Echo Studio (left) and Echo Dot Max (right). [Photo: Amazon]
The industrial design behind Amazon Echo
This is not the first time that Amazon has snuck Alexa into a little speaker ball. Its existing Echo Dot is already exactly that. But the Dot’s sound quality is middling at best. If you wanted something that sounded better from Amazon, you had to buy a larger Echo Studio: a big cylinder.
When Amazon talked to its own customers, people often said it was just too large for them to buy. And thats because our entire culture has been wooed by tiny Bluetooth speakers with good enough audio quality.
If I can get acceptable sound out of a small device, that’s what I expect now, says Phil Hilmes, Director, Audio Technology at Amazon Lab126.
Amazons goal was to make a more competitive wave of smaller Echos that still sounded superbeven if that meant they cost more. So they doubled down on space efficient spherical designs across the new Echo line. To a casual observer, nothing looks all that new. But once you actually remove the original Dots candy shell, its clear just how differently the new Echos are built compared to the old ones.
The old Dot was basically a single driver (a sound emitter), wrapped in a block of plastic housing that kept it positioned inside the ball.
The new Echo speakers get rid of this housing entirely. A single driver has been replaced with multiple that specialize in different frequency ranges. These drivers connect directly to the outer shell, which doubles as an exoskeleton. This design leaves lots of empty space inside the sphere for tweeters and subwoofers to float, blowing air out of the speaker to make sound.
At the end of the day, when we want to get more sound, it’s all about how much air can we push out of this thing? says Hilmes.
Echo Dot Max, interior view. [Photo: Amazon]
The Echo Dot Max has two driversone tweeter for the highs, and a larger woofer for mids and lows. They aim right at you for maximum clarity. Amazon telegraphs what right at you looks like by placing a new, flat control panel on the front of each speaker. Amazon says the Dot Max is one of the smallest two-way speakers ever created.
The larger Echo Studiopromising Dolby Atmos soundhas three drivers that handle highs and mids. It also features a 4-inch subwoofer for the bass.
Echo Studio [Photo: Amazon]
Subwoofers are large by nature; they push more air and have bigger diaphragms to make those low sounds. When Richard Little, senior manager of audio technology at Amazon, holds up the Studios subwoofera cone the size of a coffee mug complete with saucerI cannot imagine how it fits inside.
In fact, it barely fits. It fires straight down into the base, and the entire bottom of the Studio has been perforated to allow air out. Meanwhile, those three other drivers can only squeeze in by being integrated right into the subwoofers own structure. Its basically a wad of sound structures. Clever geometry and some small plastic caps are all that keep this pile of drivers sounding clear rather than buzzy and cacophonous.
Amazon is wrapping the Echos in a new, 3D-knit fabric that offers a more luxe texture but doesnt dampen sound. I actually think thats a missed opportunity. The black cannonball design is still jarring, even when wrapped in domestic-friendly textiles. So why not lean into the unique shape? The internal components are so interesting that Amazon could have created a clear speaker celebrating high-end audio with throwback vibes like Nothing has been capitalizing upon.
We want to work our way [there], says Pete Kyriacou, VP of product at Amazon, who admits Amazon has considered the more head-on audiophile approach. And we want to earn that credibility through people listening to our devices.
[Photo: Amazon]
Everything else the Echos can do
The new Dot Max and Studio configure themselves automatically to project sound inside any room, and the more you add, the more the speakers can position 3D audio in space. This is particularly exciting for the team as its planning that the Echo can be part of a come-as-you are home theater setup.
One in front of your TV acts something like a soundbar. Another stuck on a shelf to the side widens the soundscapewith each speaker compensating the right frequencies to sound balanced. Stick one behind your couch, and audio flies in from behind your head for full surround sound with three speakers. The system supports up to five, and the better 3D audio positioning is only available with the Studio, as the Dot Max doesnt have Dolby Atmos support.
Optimization is automatic and constant. In fact, one of the most important parts of the audio is an AI that analyzes frequencies every moment, and tunes the power draw up and down across each individual driver dynamically to milk the most possible sound at any given moment. (The team tells me that this AI system doubles bass output through software optimization alone.)
But of course, while Amazon is focusing on audio quality, its vision for Alexa+ goes much deeper. The speakers will glow with a blue ring when you activate them, and as the conversation goes on, it dulls to something more akin to a smile than a circlea nod to the Amazon logo that glows less brightly in your face.
We’re finding what’s the right way to keep that light ring on without being intrusive, says Kyriacou, noting that the smile gives this human aspect of what you’re talking to.
[Photo: Amazon]
Beyond music
Inside all of the new Echo devices live various sensors, including Wi-Fi for mapping devices in space, ultrasonic proximity detection that knows where you are, vibration-reading accelerometers that feel the tremors of your touch (or perhaps footfalls?), microphones for your voice, and cameras inside the two Echo Show tabletop tablets that can see who you are. For the first time, Amazon is assembling all of these sensors into an AI platform it calls Omnisense.
AI is incredibly powerful at discovering insights hiding in sensor data. And with Omnisense, Amazon will likely be able to detect subtleties in our habits that we cant even imagine. But in the immediate, Kyriacou says it will allow Amazon to start getting more proactive with Alexa. That means these devices will know who is in the room, learn their routines (are they cooking or winding down with a book), and offer the right response (turn up the music? dim the lights?) for these moments. The Echo Show will see you coming, and change its own UIperhaps from family photos to smart home notificationsas you move closer.
This sort of specific, contextually aware understanding has been a holy grail of the quite flawed promise of the smart home, and Amazon is redoubling its efforts to own the space through its latest wave of meticulously developed Echos. No doubt, Amazon’s storefront and services will move ever closer to our daily routines through speakers that are capable of harvesting new troves of largely invisible data.
And while its a crafty enough plan, I cant help but wonder if theres one significant flaw. To use the Echo Dot Max or Studio to watch movies, in particular, you need to be using a Fire TV. Amazon has a grand vision for taking over the smart home through your home theater, but its limiting its reach to the most ardent Amazon loyalists. Sure, Amazon has shipped more than 200 million Fire TV devices to date. But thats a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of TVs in use worldwide.
Google’s YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump brought after the video site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol following the election that resulted in him leaving the White House for four years.The settlement of the more than four-year-old case earmarks $22 million for Trump to contribute to the Trust for the National Mall and a construction of a White House ballroom, according to court documents filed Monday. The remaining $2.5 million will be paid to other parties involved in the case, including the writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.Alphabet, the parent of Google, is the third major technology company to settle a volley of lawsuits that Trump brought for what he alleged had unfairly muzzled him after his first term as president ended in January 2021. He filed similar cases Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Twitter before it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded as X.Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trumps’ lawsuit over his 2021 suspension from Facebook and X agreed to settle the lawsuit that Trump brought against Twitter for $10 million. When the lawsuits against Meta. Twitter and YouTube were filed, legal experts predicted Trump had little chance of prevailing.After buying Twitter for $44.5 billion, Musk later became major contributor to Trump’s successful 2024 campaign that resulted in his re-election and then spent several months leading a cost-cutting effort that purged thousands of workers from the federal government payroll before the two had a bitter falling out. Both Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg were among the tech leaders who lined up behind Trump during his second inauguration in January in a show of solidarity that was widely interpreted as a sign of the industry’s intention to work more closely with the president than during his first administration.ABC News, meanwhile, agreed to pay $15 million in December toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. And in July, Paramount decided to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit regarding editing at CBS’ storied “60 Minutes” news program.The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability, the filing says. Google confirmed the settlement but declined to comment beyond it.Google declined to comment on the reasons for the settlement., but Trump’s YouTube account has been restored since 2023. The settlement is will barely dent Alphabet, which has a market value of nearly $3 trillion an increase of about $600 billion, or 25%, since Trump’s return to the White House.The disclosure of the settlement came a week before a scheduled Oct. 6 court hearing to discuss the case with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California.
Barbara Ortutay and Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writers
The new Adobe Premiere Mobile is now available for free in the Apple Store. It promises pro-level video editing for YouTube and TikTok prosor anyone who needs cutting multiple tracks of video at 4K resolution together with motion graphics, subtitles generation, overlay captions, AI-generated stickers, and a never-ending list of technical features.
That’s cool, but Adobe really had me on board when it showed off its AI sound generator, which can interpret your vocals to generate actual effects. Like you hum, “pa-pa! pa-pa! Paaaaa-para-pa-PA!” in your iPhone’s microphone, ask Premier to turn it into a fanfare, and it will remake your voice into a full orchestral 20th-Century-Foxy intro. It’s a fun feature that will save people countless hours going through never-ending lists of sound effects and music clips for their video edits.
But please disregard my childhood Freddie Mercury dreams for a minute. The new Premiere looks like an excellent upgrade to Adobe Premiere Rush, the company’s previous free mobile video app. Rush looked bad and behaved even worse. Its interface was too hard and imprecise for my fat fingers to navigate on a tiny screen, and its feature set was lacking at best. Users often complained about the app simply not working.
Adobe promises that this will not happen with the new Premiere Mobile, which is supposed to handle 4K HDR video with ease on any modern iPhone thanks to its new native iOS architecture.
“Premiere Mobile is built from the ground up to take advantage of the core technology the iPhone offers”, says Mike Folgner, director of product management, digital video and audio at Adobe. “Creators want frame-by-frame precision, responsive and fast performance, and the ability to work across multiple tracks with full creative control. We saw how excited creators were about infinite layers in Photoshop mobile, and we knew we needed to bring that same freedom to Premiere mobile where were offering creators unlimited tracks.”
Its unlimited multitrack timeline actually works like the desktop version, the company claims, editing with frame-accurate precision.
[Image: Adobe]
“We know that more and more content is being created entirely on mobile, from quick, short-form clips to more advanced edits,” Folgner tells me. “Its important to us that we meet creators where they are and empower all creators to tell their stories. “With Premiere Mobile, our goal is to provide the precision and control needed for complex edits, while keeping the experience intuitive for those just getting started.”
A new look
Aesthetically, the new apps interface seems to have taken a page from the successful Photoshop Mobile, with new, bolder control handles and style. Indeed, as Folgner points out, they have applied the same design principles and language to the new app. “Were making significant strides so that if a user is familiar with a toolset or interaction in one app, they can easily recognize and understand it in another,” he says.
It seems that Adobe has finally figured out that a tiny phone display requires an entirely different interface. The larger controls and AI-aided featuresfrom the way clips get cut and snap to each other to its one-click background removal featurewill help with that.
[Image: Adobe]
At least one beta tester is happy with the UX redesign. YouTuber and designer Mai Pham believes “it is just truly built differently.” When I asked her how, she say it’s built for mobile workflows, and that it is a “game changer.”
For Pham, “the large timeline view really makes it feel powerful, but still intuitive on a phone. Its not just a desktop tool squeezed into mobile, its designed differently, and I cant wait to see how it grows and evolves. Folgner says Adobe has worked with hundreds of creators throughout several stages of the process to shape the new app with their feedback. He claims that beta testers are excited about “how more efficient, unconstrained, and fluid” the new app is.
Music to my lips
The Generative Sound Effects tool is what stole my attention, however. It’s a good example of how AI can actually help the creative process. Premiere Mobile doesn’t make you search in a database to slap a stock audio clip onto your timeline: it creates perfectly timed sound elements based on text prompts and voice input. You describe the sound you want, hum the timing, and the AI builds custom audio that matches exactly what you want.
This matters because most creators spend ridiculous amounts of time hunting through stock audio libraries or recording their own Foley effects. Now they can conjure soundscapes with their mouths.
The app also includes a speech enhancing feature, another mus-have AI feature when it works. In theory, it transforms amateur audio recordings from your phones mic into crystal-clear voiceovers by removing echo and background noises.
[Image: Adobe]
AI galore
Adobe is leaning hard on AI for many other functions. The new app includes a way to generate animated captions following different styles, with automatic subtitle generation, motion effects, and cinematic transitions all powered by AI.
It also has automated color grading tools to unify your clips’ looks or change the mood of your video. These are handled with a single finger in what Adobe calls tap-to-adjust functionality.
Adobe also claims that its Firefly-based tools will let users generate commercially safe stickers, turn images to video clips directly within the mobile interface, and expand the background of a video clip.
Finally, one-tap exports automatically resize videos for every major social platform including TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram, keeping the main action in frame again using AI. This intelligent export system, Adobe claims, creates platform-optimized versions with proper aspect ratios and compression settings.
Adobe Premiere Mobile is available now forpaPA-paPAAAAAA!free.
OpenAI just released Instant Checkout for ChatGPTa new feature that lets users directly make purchases within the ChatGPT interface.
ChatGPT can now spend your money for you. Its a huge dealboth for users, brands, and the future of agentic AI.
Heres why.
Stickers at the ready
Consumers are already enthusiastically turning to chatbots like ChatGPT to research products before deciding what to buy.
As TechCrunch shared earlier this year, referrals from chatbots to top merchant websites are up almost 400% year over year. I personally used ChatGPT to research an $800+ laptop purchase this summer.
Before, users could do their research in ChatGPT, but they needed to go directly to a merchants website to actually check out.
Instant checkout seeks to close that loop by allowing you to buy products within ChatGPTs interfacesometimes with as little as a single click.
I tested out the new system within hours of its launch.
OpenAI initially rolled out Instant Checkout with a single merchant partner: Etsy. (Shopify retailers will apparently follow soon.)
To see how it works, I fired up my ChatGPT interface and asked the bot to find me a Bichon Frise sticker on Etsy (Bichons are the best kind of dogand the kind I happen to have).
After about 30 seconds of research, ChatGPT presented me with three different Bichon Frise sticker options. Helpfully, it suggested which sticker would be best for a water bottle, the back of my laptop, and other use cases.
Before, I wouldve had to go to Etsys website to actually buy my sticker. Now, though, when I clicked on the one I liked best, a prominent Buy button appeared.
Clicking it brought up a standard set of payment optionsGoogle Pay, Link payments, and the like.
Selecting an existing credit card from my Google Pay account, I confirmed my address and pressed Buy.
ChatGPT popped up a message saying it was communicating with Etsy. Seconds later, I got a purchase confirmation in my ChatGPT window. I had spent $4.81, and my Bichon Frise sticker was on the way!
Why it matters
Yes, the ability to purchase bespoke vinyl stickers using the worlds most powerful AI is neat. But in the bigger scheme of things, why does Instant Checkout matter?
Firstly, instant checkout is significant because its not intended to be a one-off tool. Along with its launch, OpenAI rolled out a new open source protocoltermed the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)that the company says will allow for direct communications between merchants and providers of chatbots like ChatGPT.
By implementing ACP, merchants can make it easy for chatbot users to purchase things directly from them.
The fact that OpenAI rolled out a fully formed protocol along with its new feature suggests theyre trying to build an ecosystem for chatbot shopping, not simply rake in a bit more revenue during the upcoming Black Friday season.
The company clearly hopes that other chatbot builders will adopt its protocol, creating an ecosystem that will bring in a wide range of merchants.
The release notes for Instant Checkout say that any merchant using the Stripe platform can enable the new protocol in a few clicks. Many retailers are doubtless scrambling to have their tech teams do that straight away.
If OpenAI succeeds with this ambition, theyll put their tool in a place to compete with the Amazons and Walmarts of the worldnot just Google and other search engines.
If chatbot shopping really takes off, it could become a whole new sales channel for merchants. The fact that it suppots small merchants and allows purchases in a single clickwithout an external merchant accountcould help to dramatically level the playing field for merchants and creators who struggle to compete with Amazon and other giants.
The new protocol is also significant because it gives a clear why to the emerging discipline of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
As Ive shared previously, brands are scrambling to get their products mentioned and recommended within chatbots. Before, though, many brands wondered if doing the work of GEO was really worth it.
Referrals from AI bots are increasing rapidly, but theyre still tiny. Why invest money and resources in getting your brand into chatbots now? Why not wait and see what the future brings?
With Instant Checkout, chatbots are now not just a research tool, but an actual source of revenue and sales. Its also far easier with a protocol like ACP to attribute purchases directly back to a chat.
That will make brands far more willing to throw money at generative engine optimization in an effort to get not only mentions, but actual sales from the bots. I already predicted a generative engine optimization craze before Instant Checkout rolled outthe new feature only deepens the appeal of GEO.
Useful agents?
Finally, instant checkout represents the newest direction for the concept of AI agentswhich has seen feverish excitement in Silicon Valley, but not much application in the real world.
Its cool to watch a computer research your flight to Atlanta or plan out a lunch for you. But most people probably wont actually use AI to do those things.
If an AI can actually close the loop and directly make purchases on your behalf, though, that might make AI agents worth using.
Imagine asking ChatGPT to plan your kids firetruck themed birthday party (the kind of thing many parents, myself included, already do).
If the system just gave you some ideas for cake toppers and placemats, that would be neat, but of limited value.
If it could list all of the items you needed to make an awesome party, get your permission to buy them from 10 different merchants at once, and then have them all sent to your door with a single click, that would be a much more useful tool.
People already use OpenAIs Deep Researchone of the only successful applications of agentic AI technologyto explore new topics or summarize news. With Instant Checkout OpenAI may have created another agentic AI tool that normal people will actually use.
OpenAI has already proven itself adept at spending gobs of money from venture capital backers and partners like Microsoft. With Instant Checkout, its ready to start spending yours, too.
Wholesale Produce Supply, a food supplier based in Minneapolis, has recalled more than two dozen varieties of its fresh cut and processed cantaloupe products due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced.
According to a notice posted by the FDA on Monday, September 29, no illnesses have been reported to date, but Listeria has the potential to cause serious infections. Here’s what to know:
Which products are affected by the recall?
Wholesale Produce Supply fresh cut cantaloupe was sold to distributors in Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, who may have distributed the product to other states.
The impacted products were sold under two brands: Harvest Cuts and Fresh and Finest. They were distributed to “traditional grocery locations.” The recall notice does not name specific retailers.
Fast Company reached out to Wholesale Produce Supply for additional details and will update this story if we hear back.
Affected products were packed in traditional plastic clamshell containers. Some packages included only cantaloupe, while others featured cantaloupe mixed with other fresh-cut fruits.
The potential Listeria contamination was discovered during routine testing performed by the company, according to the FDA. Wholesale Produce Supply has suspended production and distribution of the affected lot and is investigating the cause of the problem.
The company has recalled the following retail products. You can find the full product descriptions, UPC codes, and lot numbers on the FDA website.
Cantaloupe and Honeydew (12-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (8-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (16-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (6-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks F&F (12-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (5-pound)
Cantaloupe Spears (16-ounce)
Fruit Medley (8-ounce)
Fruit Medley F&F (12-ounce)
Fruit Mix (16-ounce)
Fruit Mix (6-ounce)
Fruit Mix CHWG (MCT) (5-pound)
Fruit Salad (16-ounce)
Fruit Salad (6-ounce)
Fruit Tray CHPG w/ Dip HC RND (2-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Strawberries HC (2-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Watermelons HC (2.5-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Watermelons HC (2.5-pound)
Luau Blend Fruit Mix F&F (10-ounce)
Melon Mix (16-ounce)
Melon Mix (6-ounce)
Melon Mix Bowl (48-ounce)
Melon Mix Bowl & Grapes (48-ounce)
Melon Mix CHW (MCT) (5-pound)
Melon Mix Spears (16-ounce)
Consumers should not eat the recalled product
Customers who have purchased affected Harvest Cuts or Fresh and Finest products should not consume them. Rather, return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.
If you have any questions, contact Wholesale Produce Supply by calling (612) 378-2025.
Some people are more at risk of Listeria infection
Consuming foods contaminated with Listeria can lead to infection, which can be potentially serious and even fatal.
According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy people rarely become very ill from Listeria infection. However, pregnant women, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk for infection.
As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Listeria infection is “the third leading cause of death from food borne illness in the United States.”
Charlie Javice, the founder of a startup company that promised to revolutionize the way college students apply for financial aid, was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison for cheating JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by greatly exaggerating how many students it served.Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000.Addressing the court before she was sentenced, Javice, who was in her mid-20s when she founded the company, said she was “haunted that my failure has transformed something meaningful into something infamous.”Sometimes speaking through tears, she said she “made a choice that I will spend my entire life regretting.”Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein largely dismissed arguments by Javice’s lawyer, Ronald Sullivan, that he should be lenient because the negotiations that led to Frank’s sale pitted “a 28-year-old versus 300 investment bankers from the largest bank in the world.”Still, the judge criticized the bank, saying “they have a lot to blame themselves” after failing to do adequate due diligence. He quickly added, though, that he was “punishing her conduct and not JPMorgan’s stupidity.”Javice was among a number of young tech executives who vaulted to fame with supposedly disruptive or transformative companies, only to see them collapse amid questions about whether they had engaged in puffery and fraud while dealing with investors.Her prosecution drew comparisons to the case against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of a blood testing company, Theranos, that collapsed amid fraud allegations.Javice, who lives in Florida, has been free on $2 million bail since her 2023 arrest. The judge said she could remain free while she appeals the verdict. She was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud charges. Her lawyers had argued that JPMorgan went after Javice because it had buyer’s remorse.A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Javice founded Frank to launch software that promised to simplify the arduous process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a complex government form used by students to apply for aid for college or graduate school.Frank’s backers included venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg. The company said its offering, akin to online tax preparation software, could help students maximize financial aid while making the application process less painful.The company promoted itself as a way for financially needy students to obtain more aid faster, in return for a few hundred dollars in fees. Javice appeared regularly on cable news programs to boost Frank’s profile, once appearing on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list before JPMorgan bought the startup in 2021.Sullivan told Hellerstein that his client was very different from Holmes because what she created actually worked, unlike Holmes, “who did not have a real company” and whose product “in fact endangered patients.” Sullivan said the bank rushed its negotiations because it feared another bank would acquire Frank first.A prosecutor, Micah Fergenson, though, said JPMorgan “didn’t get a functioning business” in exchange for its investment. “They acquired a crime scene.”Fergenson said Javice was driven by greed when she saw that she could pocket $29 million from the sale of her company.“Ms. Javice had it dangling in front of her and she lied to get it,” he said.And in seeking a long prison sentence for Javice, prosecutors cited a 2022 text she had sent to a colleague in which she called it “ridiculous” that Holmes got over 11 years in prison in the Theranos case.Prosecutors added that the message was “desperately needed” because of “an alarming trend of founders and executives of small startup companies engaging in fraud, including making misrepresentations about their companies’ core products or services, in order to make their companies attractive targets for investors and/or buyers.”
Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Shares of Spotify Technology SA were put on the spot this morning as the Swedish audio-streaming company announced that CEO Daniel Ek will be transitioning out of the role at the end of the year.
He will be replaced by two new co-CEOs: Gustav Söderström, Spotifys current copresident and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, copresident and chief business officer.
Ek will remain with the company and oversee its long-term strategy and capital allocation, and provide guidance in his new role as chairman of the board.
Kicking and streaming
Investors may take some time to absorb the news. Spotify stock, listed in the U.S. and trading on the New York Stock Exchange, was down nearly 4% as of 8:30 a.m. during premarket trading.
However, shares are up almost 6% over the past month and a whopping 60% year-to-date as Spotify has reported consistent user growth and its first full profitable year in 2024.
I always believed that Spotify could play an important role in revolutionizing listening around the world, and with more than 700 million users, weve truly charted a new course bringing creativity to every corner of the globe, Ek said in a company statement.
The CEO also announced his departure on Instagram.
The 42-year-old Ek cofounded Spotify in 2008 and has been with the company ever since, seeing it grow from a small Swedish startup to become the top music streaming platform in the world, with almost 700 million users worldwide along with 276 million subscribers in 180 markets.
More recently, the company has leaned into the burgeoning audiobook segment, rolled out new features like Mix mode, and more.
‘Can’t wait to get started’
With a lot of momentum, Spotifys new CEOs said in a joint statement that theyre confident theyll take the company forward.
Weve worked together a very long time and have seen Spotify through many different chapters,” Söderström and Norström said. “Nearly three years ago, when we stepped into our role as co-Presidents, we charged our teams with relentlessly focusing on building the best and most valuable experience available anywhere and that ambition hasnt changed.”
Shares of Beyond Meat slumped to a record low on Monday after the maker of plant-based meat launched an exchange offer for convertible bonds to cut more than $800 million in debt.
The stock was last down 32.1% at $1.93, after falling as low as $1.23.
The company last month posted a revenue drop and a wider-than-expected loss, citing weak U.S. consumer demand. It said it was still facing “an elevated level of uncertainty” and will not provide any full-year estimates.
Consumer spending has been affected by economic uncertainty and consumer tastes have been shifting in the plant-based meat market.
The company will exchange its $1.15 billion 0% convertible notes due 2027, with up to $202.5 million of new convertible payment-in-kind 7% notes due 2030, along with 326 million shares of its common stock, according to a filing on Monday. Payment-in-kind means Beyond Meat will be able to pay interest with additional debt instead of cash, with the payment-in-kind notes paying interest at a 9.50% annual rate.
The exchange offer is meant to sharply reduce leverage and extend maturity to support Beyond Meat’s long-term vision of being a global plant protein company, President and CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement on Monday.
The filing showed about 47% of holders of the 2027 notes have already agreed to the exchange offer, while other creditors have until October 28 to accept the offer.
Following Beyond Meat’s results, TD Cowen analysts said in an August note that the management and board have recognized the “existential threat facing the business and are taking steps to preserve cash and stabilize sales.”
However, they recommended selling the stock, noting that the company’s fragile financial situation and weak demand for meat alternatives create too much risk.
Of the nine analysts who cover Beyond Meat, three have a “hold” rating on the stock and six have a “sell” or “strong sell” rating, according to LSEG.
Beyond Meat’s stock is down about 50% for the year to date.
Additional reporting by Lance Tupper
Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters
