Entity-tagged items that haven't become their own thread yet — candidates if they recur.
TechCrunch reported Character.ai filed for bankruptcy in early October, with Disney the opening bidder at $20 million for a licence to some of its intellectual property (Oct 24) — TechCrunch reported the company cited legal, regulatory and operational headwinds, that the app is still running during the process, and that the sale is expected to wrap up by late November or early December. It also reported Google paid a reported $2.7 billion in 2024 to license Character.ai's technology and bring its founders back. (TechCrunch)
2026-10-26
Google
TechCrunch reported S&P Global Market Intelligence found about 42% of AI initiatives are ultimately abandoned by their corporate parents (Oct 24) — TechCrunch gave the figure in its running list of AI products and startups that shut down, pivoted or missed expectations; the study itself was not read, and the list's older entries (among them OpenAI's Sora, which TechCrunch says shut down in March 2026) are restatements of earlier events and are not carried as news here. (TechCrunch)
2026-10-26
TechCrunch reported Apollo's chief economist Torsten Slok said AI has delivered "zero financial payoff" to corporate America outside of tech (Oct 25) — TechCrunch reported Slok's note looks at what he calls the S&P 493, the S&P 500 minus Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, and finds profit margins and revenue per worker appear flat, with no evidence AI is improving productivity. Slok also said it will be hard for corporate America to turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and profit margins; the note itself was not read. (TechCrunch)
2026-10-26
