Payment Giants Deploy Agentic AI

PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa are rolling out autonomous AI agents that handle transactions and fraud detection without human intervention. PayPal's new commerce services improve checkout conversion through AI-powered product discovery. Mastercard's Agent Pay and Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol use cryptographic signatures to let AI bots complete purchases securely. These agents analyze transaction patterns in real-time to detect fraud anomalies and adapt risk scoring automatically—meaning fewer false alarms for legitimate purchases.

AI Drug Discovery Startup ChemLex Raises $45M

AI-for-science company ChemLex announced major funding to expand its self-driving laboratory in Singapore. The autonomous chemistry system runs 24/7 experiments, capturing real-time data to accelerate pharmaceutical development. ChemLex already serves over 70 customers, including six of the world's top ten pharma companies. The AI-powered drug discovery market is projected to explode from $3.6B in 2024 to nearly $50B by 2034.

Tokyo Electron Shifts AI Focus

Tokyo Electron projects AI-driven semiconductor sales will hit 40% of revenue by FY2026, offsetting China market slowdown. This acceleration shows manufacturing equipment makers are betting heavily on AI infrastructure buildout.