Chase vs Mercury

Chase Expands Ultimate Rewards® with New “Invest Your Points” Feature

New redemption option connects Ultimate Rewards with accessible investing, expanding the program’s flexibility and highlighting J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing’s client-first features.

The Chase Air Canada Aeroplan® Credit Card Refresh Delivers Automatic Aeroplan 25K Status, New Earn Categories and More Ways to Save on Flights

Primary cardmembers can now earn up to 5X total points on Air Canada, 3X on travel and 2X on gas, dining and grocery store purchases. New benefits include up to $100 in Air Canada statement credits annually and 15% savings on eligible flight rewards on Air Canada.

US Open Brand Partnerships Enhance Fan Experience

The 2026 US Open (Aug. 23–Sept. 13) has expanded brand partnerships and on- and off-site activations aimed at improving fan experience. The U.S. Tennis Association and partners are deploying physical activations (charging stations, recovery and cooling stations, complimentary parking, product sampling) and expanded citywide programming including a Hudson Yards fan experience and a branded ice cream truck. Sponsors mentioned include long-running partners (Chase, American Express, Wilson, Grey Goose, Heineken, Lavazza) and new partners (AT&T as connectivity partner, Oura, Peloton, Gwoop). The tournament is also broadening its digital footprint with gaming and metaverse presences to reach younger audiences and year-round engagement. USTA says planning for each year begins immediately after the event, and this year added five new partners.

• The 2026 US Open runs from August 23 through September 13, 2026.
• The tournament added more partners than ever this year, including five new partners.
• Chase (45-year partner) sponsors free charging stations; AT&T is the new connectivity partner sponsoring Wi‑Fi.

Introducing Mercury Books

Mercury has launched a new product called Mercury Books, a bookkeeping solution, and also introduced exclusive mutual fund products through Mercury Treasury.

Grok Bot Built in a Month by Small Team

Roman Ugarte, who led Growth at Cursor, details how he and a small team built Grok Bot for SpaceXAI from scratch in four weeks, then launched it publicly three weeks later. The article covers key decisions, such as building independently rather than integrating with Cursor, and the team's manual onboarding of nearly 300 initial users. Early product choices and a 'colleague-pilled' philosophy contributed to the bot's success. Roman also discusses moats and Cursor's competitive strategy.

• Grok Bot was built from scratch in four weeks by a small team at SpaceXAI.
• Roman Ugarte previously led Growth at Cursor, scaling it from 15 to over 1,000 employees before acquisition by SpaceX.
• The team manually onboarded nearly 300 of the first users.