OpenAI Expands Enterprise AI Strategy With Major Hiring Push Ahead of New Business Offering 
SpaceX Reports $8 Billion Profit as IPO Plans and Starlink Growth Fuel Valuation Buzz 
TSMC Eyes 3nm Chip Production in Japan with $17 Billion Kumamoto Investment 
Instagram Outage Disrupts Thousands of U.S. Users 
Jensen Huang Urges Taiwan Suppliers to Boost AI Chip Production Amid Surging Demand 
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Acquires xAI in Historic Deal Uniting Space and Artificial Intelligence 
Elon Musk’s Empire: SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI Merger Talks Spark Investor Debate 
Nintendo Shares Slide After Earnings Miss Raises Switch 2 Margin Concerns 
AMD Shares Slide Despite Earnings Beat as Cautious Revenue Outlook Weighs on Stock 
Nvidia Confirms Major OpenAI Investment Amid AI Funding Race 
Amazon Stock Rebounds After Earnings as $200B Capex Plan Sparks AI Spending Debate 
Sony Q3 Profit Jumps on Gaming and Image Sensors, Full-Year Outlook Raised 
Alphabet’s Massive AI Spending Surge Signals Confidence in Google’s Growth Engine 
Nvidia, ByteDance, and the U.S.-China AI Chip Standoff Over H200 Exports 
Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s senior vice president of product, recently discussed in an Ask Me Anything session the issues concerning its xRapid product. This product offers users demand liquidity and increased payment processing of cross-border transactions, Oracle Times reported.
However, Western Union recently said that Ripple’s new product is too expensive for the company. Birla address this issue by explaining why this is Western Union’s stance.
“The thing with Western Union is they’re such a massive company that’s been around for longer than most payment companies out there. Really, for Western Union to take advantage of xRapid they would have to move all their volume over to something like xRapid because they already have fixed costs and optimized liquidity flows,” Birla elaborated.
The Ripple vice president of product didn’t disclose when xRapid will be launching but he did say they’re hoping they can roll it out by the end of the year. A precise date has yet to be given, however.
Also, while xRapid is currently in the works, Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, said that their attention is mostly focused on making more companies use xRapid and XRP. There are other issues plaguing the company as well, with the biggest one trying to convince the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) that XRP is not a security.
“I think it’s really clear that XRP is not a security. XRP exists independently of Ripple, and it would operate even if Ripple Labs failed. I don’t think that our ownership of XRP gives us control. Saudi Arabia owns a lot of oil; that doesn’t give them control of oil,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously said.
The chairman of the the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, said in a CNBC interview that barring Bitcoin and Ethereum, most tokens he sees today are considered securities. Whether or not Ripple’s XRP is part of this categorization remains to be seen as the SEC is still trying to draft regulations that will govern the crypto industry.
