What's up: AI finance app Ramp valued at $22.5 billion in funding round; China goes its own way on AI; Starbucks abandons mobile order, pickup-only stores; Will trade iPhones for mangos.

Good morning. Fintech startup Ramp earlier this month debuted an AI agent that helps corporate finance teams automate core work like compliance for expenses reporting. On Wednesday the startup said that it raised $500 million in its latest funding round. 

Tools from companies like Ramp are replacing processes and people at an ever-increasing rate.

Quora said the agent automates the work of an entry-level accountant or clerk. "Every team at Quora should be incorporating AI and reevaluating their workflows and processes," Richard Gobea, a finance manager at the question-and-answer website, tells WSJ Leadership Institute's Belle Lin.

Such tools offer opportunities to free up employees for more important things, but they also demand a new approach to process planning and the workforce.

The downside is that AI has been cited as a factor in rising unemployment rates among recent college graduates. The impact extends beyond entry-level positions as AI takes on even more complex tasks. 

Apple’s AI exodus continues. Bowen Zhang is the fourth Apple AI researcher in a month to join Meta Platforms’s new ‘Superintelligent Labs’ unit, which has been on an AI recruiting tear this summer. Bloomberg reports that Apple recently increased the pay of its researchers in response. 

Adobe announced new generative AI features for its popular Photoshop app that makes it easier for users to add people or objects into photos or–equally important–remove them, Verge reports.

Ambience Healthcare, an AI startup that automates doctors’ note-taking and other health administrative tasks, raised $243 million in a funding round that values it at more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reports.

There is an AI generation gap. People under 30 are more likely to use AI for everything from brainstorming and shopping to work tasks such as writing email, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.  CIOs take note. Four in 10 Americans say they used AI for work or for ideation, according to the poll. 

Shut out from U.S. capital, talent and advanced technologies, China goes its own way in AI. Prodded by Beijing, Chinese financial institutions, state-owned companies and government agencies have rushed to boost domestic supply chains for its chips and deploy Chinese-made AI models, including DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen.

The effort seems to be working, with Morgan Stanley analysts forecasting that China will have 82% of AI chips from domestic makers by 2027, up from 34% in 2024.

But China is also investing heavily in other areas, notably education, WSJ reports. China has approved more than 600 colleges to set up degree programs in AI, according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Education in April.

Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire Israel's CyberArk Software in a deal that could value the identity security provider well above its $20 billion market value.

Cybersecurity has already produced the biggest deal of 2025, after Google parent Alphabet agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz, also based in Israel, for $32 billion in March.

👉 If it happens, the deal may be welcomed by chief information security officers, many of whom are trying to cut the number of cyber companies they use, preferring fewer vendors that can provide more tools.

Coffee mobile-ordering hits high-water mark. Starbucks says it is moving away from operating stores that only accept mobile orders for pickup because they don’t have the right vibes. “We found this format to be overly transactional and lacking the warmth and human connection that defines our brand,” Chief Executive Brian Niccol told investors on a Tuesday earnings call. WSJ reports that the rebalancing is part of a broader reshaping of the coffee chain portfolio of U.S. stores. 

The company is also testing new technology to try to speed up and better schedule orders as WSJ Leadership Institute's Isabelle Bousquette previously reported.

Top Justice Department antitrust officials fired, raising questions about Trump administration antitrust plans. The firings followed weeks of debate over negotiations to defuse a Justice Department lawsuit against Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which paid $14 billion to acquire competitor, Juniper Networks. WSJ reports that part of the feud stemmed from the involvement of outside lawyers hired by HPE brought in for their connections to administration officials. 

The deadly rush-hour shooting at the Midtown Manhattan skyscraper is spurring a furious review of security procedures inside large U.S. employers, building-security experts say. (WSJ)

This week’s Fed meeting could produce something that hasn’t happened since 1993: more than one governor voting against the Fed chair. (WSJ)

The Trump administration is blocking all funding that flows to outside health researchers—billions of dollars that would have gone to study diabetes, cancer and more. (WSJ)

When it comes to the C-suite, Gen X might be doomed to live up to its “forgotten generation” moniker. More baby boomers are working past traditional retirement ages. (WSJ)

The WSJ CIO Journal Team is Steven Rosenbush, Isabelle Bousquette and Belle Lin.

The editor, Tom Loftus, can be reached at thomas.loftus@wsj.com.