OpenAI Ends Instant Checkout to Focus on Retail Apps
- Instant Checkout Termination: OpenAI has confirmed the end of its Instant Checkout feature, shifting focus to developing dedicated apps with retailers to enhance user shopping experiences and give retailers more control over transactions.
- Limited Product Selection: Despite launching six months ago, Instant Checkout struggled with limited product offerings and outdated information, prompting OpenAI to reassess its e-commerce strategy due to poor user experience.
- Intensifying Competition: As OpenAI pivots, Google has released updates to its shopping agent platform that load real-time product data, highlighting the increasing competition in the AI shopping space, particularly under the pressure from giants like Amazon.
- Retailer Reactions: Retailers like Walmart and Etsy are developing ChatGPT apps to better control the shopping experience, although the current app experience has significant shortcomings, and user conversion rates are lower than expected.
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Company Overview: Affirm Holdings is a key player in the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) sector, reporting significant growth in gross merchandise volume, revenue, and net income in its recent quarterly results.
Financial Performance: The company achieved a gross merchandise volume of $13.8 billion, a 36% increase year-over-year, with revenue climbing 30% to $1.12 billion and net income rising 61% to $130 million.
Market Position and Risks: Despite strong financials, analysts express caution due to potential credit risks and competition from established players like PayPal and Klarna, as well as rising delinquency rates in the credit market.
Investment Outlook: Affirm is seen as a high-risk, high-reward investment, with analysts generally bullish on its growth potential, but investors are advised to be wary of associated risks before investing.
- Bitcoin Value Decline: Bitcoin has lost nearly 50% of its value since reaching over $126,000 last October, primarily due to elevated interest rates driving investors toward conservative investments, which has negatively impacted market sentiment.
- Solana vs. Bitcoin: As a proof-of-stake (PoS) token that cannot be mined, Solana achieves transaction speeds of 2,000 to 5,000 transactions per second, significantly surpassing Ethereum's 30 TPS, attracting 17,708 active developers and establishing itself as a major blockchain platform.
- Real-World Applications: Solana is utilized by Visa for stablecoin payments and Shopify for cryptocurrency transactions, making it more competitive in the market and drawing increased attention from institutional investors due to its practical use cases.
- Market Potential Analysis: With a market cap of $48 billion, significantly smaller than Bitcoin's $1.3 trillion, if interest rates decline and the macro environment stabilizes, more investors may flock to smaller altcoins like Solana, potentially driving a price rebound.
- Rapid Developer Growth: By the end of 2025, Solana attracted 17,708 active developers, making it the second-largest blockchain developer platform after Ethereum, indicating rapid ecosystem expansion that could further enhance its market position.
- Transaction Speed Advantage: Solana's Layer 1 blockchain achieves 2,000 to 5,000 transactions per second, significantly surpassing Ethereum's 30 TPS, making it more practical for payment settlements, which has attracted applications from companies like Visa and Shopify.
- ETF Attracts Institutional Investment: The approval of Solana's first spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with staking features is expected to draw more institutional investor attention, potentially boosting its market capitalization, which currently stands at $48 billion.
- Significant Market Potential: Despite Bitcoin's $1.3 trillion market cap, Solana has the opportunity to attract more investors, especially as interest in smaller altcoins grows in a stabilizing macro environment with declining interest rates, which could lead to a price rebound.
- Unusual Market Reaction: Following the release of Anthropic's Claude Code, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF dropped over 14%, marking its worst stretch since 2008, indicating a market panic regarding AI innovation that severely impacted software stocks.
- Software Companies Hit Hard: Major software firms like Microsoft (MSFT, down 23.3% YTD), Shopify (SHOP, down 26.4%), Adobe (ADBE, down 32.2%), and Salesforce (CRM, down 31.3%) were caught in the sell-off, as investors feared that AI could undermine their pricing power and business models.
- Investor Logic Confusion: Analysts noted that investors are simultaneously worried about AI disrupting software companies and hyperscalers over-investing in AI infrastructure, leading to a contradictory market pricing that reflects uncertainty about the future.
- Diverging Future Outlook: Despite the short-term pressure on software stocks, analysts believe that companies leveraging AI to deepen their competitive moats will emerge stronger, particularly those with unique data and customer relationships, potentially capturing greater market share in the AI era.
- Market Reaction Analysis: Following the release of Anthropic's Claude Code, software stocks experienced a sell-off exceeding 14%, leading the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF to its worst performance since 2008, reflecting market fears of AI replacing SaaS products.
- Investor Sentiment Fluctuation: Despite J.P. Morgan analysts labeling the market reaction as 'broken logic', short interest in mid- to large-cap software has surged over the past three months, indicating profound concerns about future profitability, particularly in cybersecurity and SaaS sectors.
- Changing Competitive Landscape: The rise of AI threatens the pricing power of enterprise software, especially Salesforce's per-seat model, with analysts suggesting that its control over customer data may become a key advantage in the AI ecosystem.
- Future Investment Strategy: As the market reassesses the impact of AI, investors will need to be more selective in choosing companies that can leverage AI to deepen competitive advantages rather than merely relying on AI exposure, indicating a more discerning investment approach ahead.
- Significant Revenue Growth: Braze reported a 28% year-over-year revenue increase to $205 million in its fiscal 2026 Q4, driven by new customer acquisitions and upsells, thereby enhancing its competitive edge in the AI-driven market.
- Customer Base Expansion: The number of Braze's customers grew by 14% to 2,609, with those generating annual recurring revenue (ARR) of at least $500,000 increasing by 35% to 333, indicating the company's growing appeal among high-value clients.
- Surge in Operating Income: Adjusted operating income soared by 83% to $14.5 million, reflecting effective management in cost control and revenue growth, further solidifying its market position.
- Optimistic Future Outlook: Management expects revenue for fiscal 2027 to rise to between $884 million and $889 million, up from $738 million in fiscal 2026, while adjusted operating income is projected to reach $69 million to $73 million, showcasing strong commercial momentum and the fastest product delivery pace in the company's history.











