News

Visa Partnership Takes X Closer Toward Musk’s “Everything App” Vision

The real-time payment service will launch in the US later this year, as the platform evolves into a Western equivalent of China’s WeChat.

Published

1 year ago

January 29, 2025

Nour Nasir

visa partnership takes x closer towards musk's everything app vision

X is taking another step toward becoming an “everything app” by partnering with Visa to introduce a real-time payment service known as the X Money Account. The news marks a significant milestone in Elon Musk’s vision for the platform, which has been evolving since his $44 billion acquisition in 2022.

According to X CEO Linda Yaccarin, the new feature will enable users to make peer-to-peer payments via an in-platform digital wallet. The transactions will link to users’ debit cards, allowing them to send money to others or transfer funds to their bank accounts.

Visa confirmed the partnership in its own announcement, stating that X Money will leverage Visa Direct, the company’s instant transfer service. Initially, the feature will be available only in the US, with no details yet on whether it will expand internationally.

Yaccarino described the Visa deal as a “milestone for the Everything App” and hinted at more major announcements for X Money in the near future.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Musk’s ambition to create a super app has been well-documented. Even before acquiring Twitter, the billionaire frontman of SpaceX and Tesla had spoken about turning it into a Western equivalent of China’s WeChat — a single platform combining messaging, video, streaming, and payments.

However, entering the financial services space is a risky undertaking for X, putting it in direct competition with other tech heavyweights such as Apple, Google, and Meta.

Finally, as X moves forward with its payment service, it remains to be seen how the platform will navigate regulatory challenges and competition. Whether Musk’s long-standing dream of an “everything app” will materialize is still uncertain, but this partnership with Visa signals a determined step in that direction.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.