April 16 : Credit card giant American Express said on Thursday it would buy Hyper, an artificial intelligence-focused expense management startup backed by OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman. The deal underscores how large financial firms are racing to bring AI into core business software, especially in areas such as expense management where manual work, compliance checks and repetitive approvals can be automated. In a letter to shareholders last month, AmEx CEO Stephen Squeri said AI was