SoftBank Shares Surge as It Eyes Up to $30 Billion New Investment in OpenAI 
Google Disrupts Major Residential Proxy Network IPIDEA 
NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Amazon Eye Massive OpenAI Investment Amid $100B Funding Push 
Rewardy Wallet Integrates 1inch Swap API to Enable Gasless, Optimized Token Swaps 
Microsoft AI Spending Surge Sparks Investor Jitters Despite Solid Azure Growth 
Alibaba-Backed Moonshot AI Unveils Kimi K2.5 to Challenge China’s AI Rivals 
Samsung Set to Begin HBM4 Production for Nvidia and AMD 
Meta Stock Surges After Q4 2025 Earnings Beat and Strong Q1 2026 Revenue Outlook Despite Higher Capex 
Intel Stock Slides Despite Earnings Beat as Weak Q1 Outlook Raises Concerns 
ASML’s EUV Lithography Machines Power Europe’s Most Valuable Tech Company 
ByteDance Finalizes Majority U.S.-Owned TikTok Joint Venture to Avert American Ban 
Meta Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Approval of AI Chatbots Allowing Sexual Interactions With Minors 
Rewardy Wallet and 1inch Collaborate to Simplify Multi-Chain DeFi Swaps with Native Token Gas Payments 
Elon Musk Shares Bold Vision for AI, Robots, and Space at Davos 
An outage affected Apple Card, Apple Cash, Apple Pay, and Wallet, leading certain users to have problems with Apple Cash transaction alerts, Apple Pay web purchases, and in-app payments using Apple Pay.
Apple Resolved a Problem With Its Payment Services
According to Apple's System Status page, the outage began at 06:15 am. It is now taking place in Eastern Time. Apple claims that just "some users" are affected, although no specific numbers are provided.
The issue does not appear to affect payments made with Apple Pay in retail stores, with those Apple Pay purchases processing normally. There is no news on when the Apple Pay outage will be resolved, but as of 7:53 am EST, Apple says the issues have been resolved.
Apple Fails In Its Quest to Lift Sales Prohibition on Apple Watch
Apple's appeal to postpone an import and sales restriction on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 was unsuccessful. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) refused Apple's plea to postpone the ban pending an appeal in a filing on Wednesday.
Apple stated on Monday that it would remove the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from shop shelves in response to an ITC verdict in October that said the company's SpO2 sensors infringed on patents from medical device maker Masimo.
The Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be available in Apple stores until December 24th, with the import prohibition taking effect on December 26th. According to Bloomberg, Apple is already looking at ways to circumvent the restriction, including through software changes.
"For the reasons discussed in the Commission Opinion issued concurrently herewith, the Commission has determined to deny Apple's motion to stay the remedial orders pending appeal and/or in light of a potential government shutdown," the ITC's filing reads, as per The Verge. Apple didn't immediately respond for comment.
The prohibition only applies to the United States, and third-party merchants such as Best Buy will continue to sell the pair of watches until their stocks run out. Although Apple's bid to overturn the prohibition was unsuccessful, the company still has a chance to reverse the ruling if President Joe Biden vetoes it. As my colleague Victoria Song points out, Apple receiving a presidential veto "would be like lightning striking the same place twice."
Photo: Martin Sanchez/Unsplash
