Good morning. What’s Fidji Simo up to?
Fortune’s Emily Forlini recently spoke to the former OpenAI executive, who took leave from the ascendant AI company this summer after revealing a multiyear struggle with the neuroimmune condition POTS, or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
Her newish startup, ChronicleBio, aims to tackle chronic diseases like POTS. Naturally, AI is on the agenda.
“The complexity of these diseases made it that without AI they were incredibly difficult to solve,” Simo told Fortune, later adding: “We are at a moment in time where we have the best tools we’ve ever had to solve diseases that are considered incurable.”
Give it a read. Today’s news follows. —Andrew Nusca
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Visa to acquire BioCatch, which uses AI to detect fraud
The largest traditional payment network in the Western world is on the cusp of making one of its largest-ever acquisitions.
Visa on Monday said it agreed to acquire BioCatch, an Israeli fraud intelligence company, for $2.4 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2027.
The Ryan McInerney-led giant, No. 119 on the Fortune 500, intends to take the 15-year-old Tel Aviv company off the hands of the global investment firm Permira and other investors.
BioCatch focuses on a slice of the cybersecurity world known as behavioral biometrics, wherein your digital device interactions are analyzed to verify your identity. The company uses AI to determine in real-time the identifiable signatures of cybercriminals, with a particular focus on financial fraud.
It’s no surprise, then, why Visa might want the company’s technology as a competitive differentiator—not to mention as a service it can sell to bank partners. BioCatch says it serves more than 350 financial institutions worldwide; it finished last year with $185 million in annual recurring revenue.
Like its partners and peers, Visa is spending billions of dollars—$13 billion over the last five years, it says—to protect against fraud and fight AI-driven fire with AI-driven fire.
“We are all in an arms race to protect this ecosystem,” Visa’s chief executive said at an investor conference in 2024, later adding that Visa arms its efforts with “arguably the largest global payments data set that exists.” —AN
Palantir shares jump 13% as U.S. AI demand sends revenue soaring past targets
Palantir blew past Wall Street’s financial targets in its second quarter and forecast strong growth in the coming months, sending its stock surging 13% in after-hours trading on Monday.
Revenue in the three months ended June 30 increased 93% year over year, totaling $1.94 billion, compared with the $1.8 billion that analysts were expecting.
The AI software company posted net income of roughly $1.1 billion, or 41 cents per share, versus the average analyst estimate of 35 cents.
Palantir’s growth was fueled by continued strength in the U.S., where commercial revenue jumped 149% from a year earlier and government revenue climbed 90%.
“Our business is compounding at a rate and scale that we have never before witnessed,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in a letter to shareholders, noting that Palantir’s second-quarter net income was more than the company generated in total revenue the year before.
The AI software company also issued another bullish outlook. Palantir expects third-quarter revenue of $2.16 billion and adjusted income from operations of $1.29 billion.
It also raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $8.15 billion and $8.16 billion, up from its start-of-year forecast of about $7.2 billion.
Shares of Palantir, which are down roughly 30% this year, jumped 13% to $142 in after-hours trading. —Preston Fore
Snap tops Q2 expectations for engagement, revenue
It’s been a rough year for the parent company of Snapchat, but things are looking up.
The Los Angeles-area company on Monday reported better-than-expected revenue for its second quarter, sending its shares up some 10% in after-hours trading.
Snap reported quarterly revenue of $1.6 billion; analysts expected $1.54 billion. It recorded a net loss of 10 cents a share, slimmer than the 16 cents this time last year.
Wall Street expected Snap to tally average revenue of $3.16 on 487 million daily active users; the company flaunted an ARPU of $3.25 on 493 million DAUs.
Snap’s Q3 revenue outlook, at about $1.72 billion, also topped analyst estimates.
The company’s shares are down 38% year to date, and activist investor Irenic is circling. So what gives?
In a statement, CEO Evan Spiegel pointed to “improving advertising performance” and “rapidly growing our direct revenue business,” plus the requisite “strengthen the core” talk that usually comes in the wake of layoffs—about 1,000 of them, or 16% of its workforce, four months ago.
(Snap cut 530 staffers in 2024 and another 1,000 in 2022; today’s Snap is only a few hundred heads bigger than it was at the end of 2020.)
Fair enough, but expect Snap to embrace its newfound momentum with caution. Some of its recent revenue success was tied to the World Cup; that, of course, is now over. And while the company is spending on AI like everyone else, and dabbling in wearable tech like everyone else, its greatest gains are coming from less spectacular stuff: product tweaks, bigger ad deals, and reining in costs. —AN
More tech
—Amazon becomes the fifth $3 trillion company, joining Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
—Microsoft may bring Xbox 360 games to the PC, according to a leaked memo.
—Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI staffers were invited to the White House to review the federal government’s unreleased AI oversight framework.
—Apple is legally challenging the U.K. government’s attempts to create a “backdoor” to encrypted customer data.
—On hijacking fears, LG and Samsung have banned smart TV apps that share internet connectivity with strangers.
—More than 50 U.S. law enforcement officers have been accused of using Flock-style camera systems for stalking exes and other people of personal interest.
—Valar raises $1 billion at a $6 billion valuation. The LA startup is focused on building small modular nuclear reactors for data centers.
