Ant International Launches Industry's First Full-Stack AI-Native Solutions for Payment, Account, FX, Treasury and Growth Operations for Global Businesses

SHANGHAI & SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 18, 2026--

In an industry first, Ant International launched a full stack of AI-native solutions for payment, account, FX, treasury and growth operations for global businesses.

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The AI-native product suite is built on a 2-layered security architecture, and our 2 proprietary foundation models: a payment foundation model (Antom 3-in-1 Transformer), and a time-series transformer (TST) forecasting model for FX and liquidity (FalconTST).

Underpinning the FinAI stack are also 2 major pillars for payment interoperability for the AI era: our Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP) and a blockchain-based wholesale settlement platform (WhaleRTP).

This round of sweeping product upgrade aims to support all businesses with an AI action plan to complete two critical tasks:

“The future fintech leader delivers two things: a future-ready trust infrastructure and foundational FinAI models that combine complex types of deep data and rich domain expertise, and a full stack of connected AI-native solutions across payment, account, FX, treasury and growth operations that prepare them for today and the fully agentised future," said Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, to over 1,100 executives at the company's annual VOYAGE merchant event in Shanghai.

Under Antom, Ant International's merchant payment service, 89.5% of merchants have already deployed AI agents. 81.4% of payment tasks were aided by AI. Clients are also demanding more connected fintech solutions beyond payment to tackle the increasing complexities of their global operation.

Ant International offers cross-border digital payment, account, treasury management and credit tech solutions to global merchants across 4 business pillars: Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and Bettr.

Building on a mobile payment network of 53 digital wallets and 10 national QR schemes, Ant International links 150 million global merchants to over 2 billion consumer accounts. Clients include top-tier global e-commerce, digital & entertainment (D&E), OTA platforms and industry leaders as well as fastest-growing SMEs in emerging markets. Daily average transactions exceed 25 million across 210 markets.

Technology Foundations

Unique Payment Foundation Model: The Antom 3-in-1 Transformer

Pioneering FX and Liquidity Forecast Model: FalconTST

2-Layered Security Architecture

On top of the Antom 3-in-1 Transformer, we build another security layer — a second Shield — with

Alipay+ Agentic Mobile Protocol (AMP)

The Alipay+ Agentic Mobile Protocol is an open payment protocol built for digital wallets, super apps, smart devices, and other mobile interfaces to enable payments by AI agents.

Since its launch in April 2026, 10 Alipay+ wallet partners and 7 acquirers now supports AMP in Phase 1. In addition to AgentSafePay and our KYA architecture as its pillars, key features of AMP include:

Blockchain-based Wholesale Settlement Platform: WhaleRTP

Full-Stack, AI-Native Solutions across Global Payment, Account, FX, Treasury and Growth Operations

AI-Native Global Payment

Built on the payment foundation model, Antom Autopilot handles the entire merchant payment lifecycle in a single conversational window, from onboarding, integration, orchestration, risk protection, revenue recovery, to troubleshooting, financial analysis and reconciliation, and new market expansion.

In real cases, Antom Autopilot cut lead time to first transaction from days to minutes. Merchants using AI integration quadrupled in last 12 months. By the end of 2026, 95% of merchants are expected to onboard new payment methods within 1 hour.

Antom SmartDispute, which advises on full dispute management and appeal strategies, drives average dispute success rate from 24.5% to 41.8%. The fully automated Antom AutoDispute is also available.

Other key AI payment products include:

It solves 3 challenges of integrating payments into agentic environments: (1) different integration techniques beyond traditional SDKs, (2) changing new business rules and protocols, and (3) existing payment methods not compatible with agents.

AI-Native Global Account

In partnership with Antom and Bettr, WorldFirst, our flagship global account brand, provides AI-native onboarding, payment, account management and treasury services for both enterprises and SMEs.

Within WorldFirst for Enterprise, merchants and e-platforms use our autopilots to

Wyn is a natural-language AI agent that manages the account workflow for SMEs. Merchants open accounts and apply for virtual or physical World Card supporting 17 currencies with a single command. Other value-adding features include:

AI-Native Global FX & Treasury

The AI FX and treasury suite, embodied in WorldFirst for Enterprise Treasury Autopilot, helps enterprises tackle fragmentation of cash visibility, imbalance of liquidity and FX fluctuations. Merchants are able to see and forecast current and future cash positions, optimize liquidity, manage FX risks, and make smarter global payout decisions. Core products include World Map, Falcon Forecast,Whale Pooling, Falcon FX, and World Payout.

AI-Native Global Growth Solutions

Across our services, agentic tools help merchants in market expansion, multi-channel promotion, subscription, billing, and tax filing support. AI also powers more targeted and efficient credit and financing products for SMEs and consumers.

These products are being rolled out in fall and winter 2026 to global markets. Ask your Ant International contact or reach us at:

Alipay+: https://www.alipayplus.com/contactUs/

WorldFirst: https://www.worldfirst.com/sg/help-support/contact-us/

Antom: https://www.antom.com/contact-us

Bettr: https://www.bettr.com/contact-us/

About Ant International

Ant International helps businesses to thrive through a full stack of AI-native payment, account, foreign exchange, treasury and growth solutions, underpinned by our trusted foundation models, security architecture, blockchain RTP platform and a world-leading mobile payment ecosystem. We drive relentless innovation to bring inclusive growth for merchants and communities of all sizes, today and tomorrow. To learn more, visit https://www.ant-intl.com/.

Ant International unveils the industry’s first Full-Stack AI-Native Solutions for global businesses in September 2026

Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, introduced a full stack of AI-native solutions for payment, account, FX, treasury and growth for global businesses at Ant International's 2026 global merchant event.

Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, introduced the company’s payment foundation model at Ant International's 2026 global merchant event

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The deadly collapse of a multistory building in Gaza has drawn new attention to the hardships facing Palestinians there nearly a year after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas promised to kickstart reconstruction.

But as talks faltered, plans for rebuilding stalled. Many residents have since moved back into some of the hundreds of thousands of homes damaged by the war despite the risk of weakened foundations and unstable walls suddenly giving way.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 21 people were killed in the collapse in Gaza City on Wednesday. Um Mohammad Adas, whose relatives were among the dead, said the fallen building had become a shelter of last resort.

“Now, they are lying in the street homeless and with absolutely nothing,” she said of her family members who survived the collapse. “Even the clothes they are wearing were borrowed.”

Families living in similar structures said they couldn’t afford any other shelter.

“We don’t have money to go somewhere else,” Ahmad Arafat said on a street full of rubble near his home. “And we can’t afford to buy tents like other people.”

Other people who have moved back into debris-filled buildings with sloping floors and cracked ceilings in Gaza City said they don't have options.

“What forces people to live in these places is that there is no shelter other than this shelter. I mean, there are no tents, no basic necessities,” Alam Zakout said outside the damaged building where he and his family live. “Come on, you tell me, where am I supposed to go? I have nothing other than this house.”

The collapse this week wasn't the first involving unsafe dwellings in Gaza, but the high death toll underscored the dangers in a territory where the vast majority of the population lacks adequate shelter.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that during the first week of September there were collapses at five shelters, a category that can include standalone homes or units in larger buildings.

More than 2,000 additional buildings were at risk of collapse, the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works said in a statement Wednesday.

Israel has said it will not permit any rebuilding in Gaza until Hamas disarms, leaving more than 1 million people to live in unsafe displacement sites, according to a joint damage assessment released in April by the World Bank and United Nations. Many are crowded into sprawling tent camps lacking basic sanitation.

The assessment said 76% of residential units had been damaged or destroyed, calling the loss of the enclave's housing stock “catastrophic.”

“People are choosing to stay in dangerous buildings because the idea of living in a tent is worse, and there are very few tent supplies available if they want to leave those buildings,” said Shaina Low, a Norwegian Refugee Council spokesperson. “No tent supplies are getting into Gaza. People are willing to risk it because there isn’t a suitable alternative.”

The council is among the aid groups that have long warned about Gaza's shelter crisis. Nearly three years of war have damaged more than 320,000 homes, affecting 1.7 million of the territory’s 2.1 million people, according to a report published last month.

The council's surveys found 72% are staying in buildings that have sustained some damage. In one Gaza City neighborhood sampled, 22% of buildings were at risk of imminent collapse.

The buildings can be dangerous at any time, but engineers and humanitarian groups warn they are especially at risk of collapse during bouts of bad weather, when rain can flood through cracked concrete and exposed rebar, further weakening already damaged structures. The report found 71% of those surveyed had experienced flooding since the start of the previous winter, both in tents and buildings.

Norwegian Refugee Council and other aid groups recently reiterated calls for Israel to allow more shelter and reconstruction materials into Gaza, noting Israel had twice rejected the entry of timber and emergency shelter kits in late August and early September for security reasons.

They have called for timber, emergency shelter kits, excavators and other equipment needed to clear dangerous debris. Israel has long restricted the entry of materials it considers “dual use,” saying they could be commandeered and used by militants.

COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing aid distribution in Gaza, said in a statement that it “regularly facilitates and encourages the entry of shelter supplies into the Gaza Strip in coordination with international organizations.”

“At the same time, there is a genuine security concern that Hamas may use some of the components intended for the construction of shelters to strengthen its capabilities and rebuild its terrorist infrastructure,” COGAT said.

The war was sparked after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage. An October 2025 ceasefire reduced the intensity of the fighting, but Israel has continued to carry out strikes, killing at least 1,375 people since the agreement went into effect, according to local health officials.

The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,821 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half the toll.

Metz reported from Jerusalem.

Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians and a market surround a building heavily damaged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians shelter inside a building heavily damaged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians shelter inside a building heavily damaged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)