Trip.Biz Launches Agent ONE, an AI Suite Transforming Business Travel -- Cutting Booking Time by 90% for Travellers and Simplifying Oversight for Travel Managers

- Trip.Biz launches Agent ONE, at Transform 2026 - Agent ONE is four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle - Improves OBT adoption and reduces travel program leakage worldwide

SINGAPORE, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group, welcomed 200 senior leaders from travel, procurement, finance, and HR to Transform 2026, held at the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore.

The half-day summit set out to challenge one of the most persistent assumptions in global travel management - that Asia Pacific is intrinsically too complex to manage consistently - while unveiling its new Agent ONE AI tool.

Transform 2026 opened with an address from Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song, titled "A New Day One for Business Travel". Song set the tone for the afternoon by framing Trip.Biz's next chapter around simplicity and trust, describing a company built on local depth across Asia Pacific and continuing to grow in Europe and around the world.

"Trip.Biz aims to become a leading global AI-powered travel management company (TMC) rooted in APAC and built for the complexity of global business travel", said Tao Song. "We are building for the new world, in which digital adoption pushes the boundaries of what's possible, and gives way to innovative tech solutions that help fix real-world challenges", he added.

Complexity Isn't the Region, It's the Model

For multinational travel, procurement and finance teams, APAC has long been treated as the exception that breaks the global travel program - a patchwork of markets with different regulations, payment standards, languages and supplier ecosystems.

Trip.Biz's position, delivered in the event's keynote by General Manager, Southeast Asia Eugene Tan, is that this diagnosis is wrong. "The complexity isn't the APAC region, it's the model", Tan explained during his "Rethinking APAC as ONE" keynote. "Every model on the market today breaks somewhere, because none of them delivers consistency and depth at the same time."

The company points to three structural gaps that persist:

Legacy TMCs offer deep local expertise, but execution depends on the local office involved, resulting in different standards in every market.

Digital-only platforms are fast and familiar for routine bookings, but go silent the moment something isn't routine.

In-house, self-managed programs offer full policy control, but no system to catch it when that control breaks down.

Each model delivers one piece of the puzzle, but gaps remain, costing global travel programs time, money, and control.

Trip.Biz's answer is a single, digital-first, full-service platform, designed to give global programs consistency across markets while absorbing the complexities of APAC - from contracting and settlement to entities and supplier ecosystems - rather than passing them on to the traveller or the program owner.

In practice, this means a single enforced service standard across every market, one consolidated view spanning booking, approvals, and reporting, and a consistent end-to-end experience. This consistency has delivered a 90% SLA compliance rate and an 80%+ satisfaction score across the region Trip.Biz serves.

Product Director Terence Eng built on this during his "Closing Leakage with One Platform" keynote, stating that the model alone doesn't fully solve the problem, a challenge that extends across global travel programs. "Even with one platform, leakage doesn't disappear automatically," Eng said. "To actually reduce it, that platform needs the right content and genuinely good usability. Without both, travellers will still book off platform, even with the right model in place." Getting this right, Eng noted, is what ultimately increases adoption.

Launching Agent One: Built to Improve OBT Adoption and Fix Leakage

Trip.Biz CEO Tao Song took the stage to launch Agent ONE during his "Building Trust through Simplicity with Agent ONE" keynote, positioning it as the next step in closing the leakage gap. "A platform with the right content and usability gets you most of the way there", Song said. "AI is how we go further; by continuing to improve the user experience itself, we can drive an even higher adoption rate."

Agent ONE is a team of four connected, specialised agents supporting the end-to-end business travel lifecycle:

Planning Agent: ends the multi-site search struggle. Drawing on a broader, multi-source range of content, it converts natural-language requests into personalised, policy-compliant recommendations, understanding traveller preferences, trip purpose, and itinerary logic to simplify search and boost online adoption.

Booking Agent: replaces friction-heavy TMC booking flows with guided, conversational booking, keeping more trips inside the OBT. Early performance targets show average booking time dropping from around 45 minutes to 2 minutes, a +90% efficiency improvement, while keeping bookings natively connected to Trip.Biz inventory, pricing, approval, and payment.

Approval Agent: auto-approves low-risk requests and routes only exceptions to human review, cutting approval wait times from over an hour to under 3 seconds.

Insight Agent: goes beyond static dashboards to proactively surface hidden data patterns and actionable cost-saving opportunities, often missed due to rigid, fixed-view reporting. Insight Agent generates a full travel analysis report, complete with leakage patterns and savings opportunities, in under 7 minutes, a process that previously took analysts up to a week using legacy tools.

The real opportunity for AI is to remove the complexity travellers experience. When AI can understand what a traveller needs, find the right content, and automatically apply company policy, the managed program becomes simpler and more trusted. This helps drive greater adoption and reduce leakage, removing the complexity that has stood in the way of managed travel's original promise: one place for every trip. "Unlike generic AI assistants, Trip.Biz positions Agent ONE as a purpose-built AI solution", Song said. "We drive greater business efficiency across each stage of the business travel lifecycle, and help solve the practical challenge faced by our industry."

Trip.Biz positions the Agent ONE launch not as an incremental product update, but as a marker of how it intends to compete globally: combining the local depth required in complex markets with the consistency, simplicity and intelligence multinational travel programs increasingly expect worldwide. Agent ONE is now available globally across all Trip.Biz-supported markets.

END

About Trip.Biz

Trip.Biz, a digital-first full-service travel management company (TMC) powered by Trip.comGroup, provides an all-in-one solution that streamlines business travel with human-centric technology and a people-first approach, offering extensive global content, exceptional service, and ESG solutions. As the fastest-growing TMC in the last few years, we have been trusted by over 15,000 multinational corporations and more than 1,000,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally.

At Trip.Biz, we are dedicated to providing cost-effective and time-efficient travel solutions, empowering businesses to focus on what truly matters – growth and success. By saving on travel costs and time, our clients can invest more in their core operations and achieve their business outcomes.

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A major airline company, United Airlines, Inc., allegedly failed to provide employees with required meal and rest breaks. This resulted in an alleged loss of wages for the employees affected.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Francisco employment law attorneys, at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that United Airlines, Inc. violated the California Labor Code. The United Airlines, Inc. class action lawsuit, Case No. CGC-26-638760, is currently pending in the San Francisco County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit filed, United Airlines, Inc. allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse for required expenses, and (f) failed to pay sick wages, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections 201-203, 226, 226.7, 233, 246, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct.

The Complaint further alleges United Airlines, Inc. failed to provide employees with legally required meals and rest breaks. Specifically, employees were allegedly required from time to time to work in excess of four (4) hours without being provided ten (10) minute rest periods. The applicable California Wage Order requires employers to provide employees with off-duty rest periods, which the California Supreme Court defined as time during which an employee is relieved from all work related duties and free from employer control.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against United Airlines, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

**THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT**

Media Contact

Nicholas De Blouw

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP

(800) 568-8020

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https://www.bamlawca.com/ 

SOURCE Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP

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PLEASANT GROVE, Utah, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Accordia Bank today announced the nationwide launch of Accordia HSA+, a full-service consumer-directed healthcare platform offering Health Savings Accounts and related benefit accounts to consumers and employers throughout the United States including distribution through benefits brokers and advisors.

The launch arrives as the health savings account market undergoes its most significant eligibility expansion since HSAs were created in 2003. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Bronze and Catastrophic health plans are treated as HSA-compatible beginning January 1, 2026. 35 percent of plans offered on HealthCare.gov qualify as HSA-eligible for the 2026 plan year, compared with 4 percent a year earlier.

"Eligibility just expanded to millions of people who have never had access to a Health Savings Account, and Accordia is in the market to serve these customers with best of breed products" said Matt Field, President of Accordia Bank. " We built Accordia HSA+ because employers and their advisors tell us two things about the incumbents: the fees are hard to justify, and nobody answers the phone. We are a bank, not an administrator that partners with a bank, so we can price the account differently and we have a long legacy of personalized customer service."

Accordia HSA+ provides the complete consumer-directed benefits suite: health savings accounts, health FSAs, limited purpose FSAs, dependent care FSAs, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, commuter benefits, lifestyle spending accounts, and COBRA administration. Participants receive a benefits debit card, mobile and web account access, and access to an investment platform once their account reaches the investment threshold of $1,000. Employers receive a single implementation, consolidated administration across all account types, and high service standards.

One major benefit for consumers and employers is that Accordia Bank's Health Savings Account carries no monthly administration fee.

"An advisor's reputation is on the line every time they recommend a vendor, and the thing that damages it is not price; it is a transition that goes badly," said Heidi Maestas, Senior Vice President of Client Experience and Growth at Accordia Bank. "So, we built HSA+ around the handoff. One implementation across every account type, published service standards an advisor can hold us to, and a U.S.-based team that knows the group."

"Our product suite has grown over the past several years by finding places where a well-run bank can compete with much larger institutions," said Mike Watson, Chief Executive Officer of Accordia Bank. "Health Savings Accounts are exactly that kind of place. The product is a deposit product at its core, and deposits are what banks are built to do. What HSA+ adds is access to a one-stop shop for the full suite of consumer-directed benefits and administration that brokers and employers need"

Accordia HSA+ is available now for employer groups nationwide, including January 1, 2027, effective dates. Benefits brokers and consultants interested in the Accordia HSA+ advisor program can contact Wendy Dampier, HSA Solutions Advisor, at [email protected]; or Reggie Harwell, HSA Solutions Advisor at [email protected], or visit https://accordia.bank/banking/business-banking/business-hsa.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Lee Lamb, SVP Marketing & Brand | [email protected]

About Accordia Bank -

Founded in 1993, Accordia Bank is a financial institution headquartered in Pleasant Grove, Utah, with approximately $1.6 billion in assets. Through Accordia HSA+, the bank serves consumers, employers and benefits advisors nationwide as a Health Savings Account custodian and administrator of consumer-directed benefit accounts. Accordia Bank also provides commercial, agricultural, small business, and construction lending. Accordia Bank is a division of Quill Bank. Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender. Online: https://accordia.bank.

SOURCE Accordia Bank

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As a merchant epitaxy foundry, Lawrence manufactures the engineered layers that customers use as starting material for advanced microelectronic, photonic and sensing devices. Its portfolio includes specialized silicon, germanium, silicon-germanium (SiGe), germanium-tin (GeSn) and isotopically enriched silicon-28 epitaxial materials for photonics, sensing, quantum computing, defense and other advanced semiconductor applications. Lawrence is the only merchant source in the United States for production GeSn and silicon-28 epitaxy and one of very few in the world.

"Lawrence makes advanced materials that very few companies in the world can produce, and our customers build their most demanding devices on them," said Ali Torabi, chief executive officer. "Don has run semiconductor manufacturing at far larger scale, and he has run epitaxy, which is rare. With him leading operations, we can invest in capacity with confidence and scale to meet the industry's rapidly growing need for specialty foundry services."

Garrison brings more than 25 years of semiconductor manufacturing leadership. He most recently served as Vice President of Global Operations for the Semiconductor Business Unit at Littelfuse, directing manufacturing, engineering and supply chain across eight fabrication, assembly and test sites and an organization of more than 2,500 people.

Previously he was Director of Fab Operations at NXP Semiconductors in Chandler, Arizona, and led manufacturing excellence initiatives at GlobalFoundries during a high-growth factory startup. Earlier he spent more than a decade at Intel Corporation in technical and manufacturing roles. He has led epitaxial deposition operations directly at multiple companies and lives in the Phoenix area.

"I have run epitaxy before, and it is one of the most unforgiving processes in semiconductor manufacturing. Lawrence has been doing it well for more than 30 years," said Garrison. "My job is to scale the operation to meet demand without compromising the quality and reliability our customers depend on."

Lawrence operates a Class 100 cleanroom in Tempe with 14 epitaxial reactors running around the clock. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified, is certified under the Department of Defense Joint Certification Program and is implementing IATF 16949 to support automotive and high-reliability production programs.

A high-resolution photo of Don Garrison is available on request.

About Lawrence Semiconductor

Lawrence Semiconductor Research Laboratory, Inc. is a privately held, U.S.-owned specialty semiconductor materials manufacturer headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. Founded in 1992, the company supplies custom silicon and germanium epitaxial materials to customers from early research through high-volume production. Its customers span silicon photonics, infrared sensing, power electronics, optical interconnect, quantum computing and defense. For more information, visit lawrencesemi.com.

SOURCE Lawrence Semiconductor

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New Glassnode x Bybit research highlights structural shift toward options, with Bybit leading tracked Ether options for 143 consecutive days and tokenized gold perpetuals for 476 days

DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Crypto derivatives markets are becoming more sophisticated as options take on a larger role in how traders manage and price risk, according to a new report from digital assets data provider Glassnode, produced in partnership with Bybit.

The State of Crypto Derivatives identifies a structural shift in the crypto-native Bitcoin derivatives market, with options increasing their share of notional open interest from roughly 25% to nearly 50% over the period studied. At the same time, dated futures have increasingly given way to perpetuals, reshaping how market participants gain and manage exposure.

The report draws on Glassnode's venue-resolved derivatives and market data across the crypto-native market, individual venues and Bybit's own derivatives book.

"Ether makes up about a third of Bybit's Options Volume over the past 90 days, the highest Ether share of the four venues in the panel. The Ether options market has found a second venue of size," said Frederik Theissen, Head of Research at Glassnode.

Options become a core part of crypto derivatives

Options have gained market share across four of the five market regimes examined since 2019, with their fastest growth occurring during the prolonged bear market.

The trend is significant because it suggests the growth of options is not simply a product of rising prices or speculative activity. Instead, market participants increasingly appear to be using options to manage downside, express views on volatility, and price specific market events.

Meanwhile, dated futures have increasingly given way to perpetual contracts, reinforcing the broader evolution of crypto derivatives toward instruments that offer more flexible and continuous exposure.

"Dated futures have all but left the crypto-native market: their volume sits about 97% below where it was in 2021. Leverage moved into perpetuals and risk pricing moved into options, whose volume runs more than three times higher than it did then," added Frederik.

Bybit's Bitcoin options share nearly triples

As the options market has expanded, Bybit has significantly increased its share of trading activity.

Glassnode's data shows that Bybit's share of the four-venue Bitcoin options volume pool rose from less than 10% to 28%, nearly tripling over the reporting period.

The growth has been driven by active turnover rather than simply the accumulation of open positions. Bybit's options book turns over in days, compared with weeks for the largest book in the tracked panel.

This distinction highlights an important feature of a mature derivatives market: liquidity is not only about the amount of open interest held on a venue, but also how actively that liquidity is traded and recycled.

Bybit leads Ether options and tokenized gold

Bybit's options activity extends beyond Bitcoin. The report finds that Bybit recorded the highest Ether options trading volume among the four tracked venues for 143 consecutive days. Glassnode confirmed the leadership using coin-denominated volumes as well as dollar values, reducing the impact of Ether price movements on the comparison.

Ether now accounts for approximately one-third of Bybit's total options volume.

Bybit has also established a leading position in tokenized commodity derivatives. Measured in ounces, its tokenized-gold perpetual book has remained the largest among the crypto venues tracked by Glassnode for 476 consecutive days.

In gold options, Bybit accounted for 97.1% of open interest across the tracked venues.

Together, the figures point to a derivatives platform with growing depth across crypto-native assets and tokenized commodities, as traders increasingly use a broader range of instruments to manage risk and express market views.

Bybit's options book grows more than fourfold

Bybit's own options market has expanded substantially alongside the wider market.

According to the report, Bybit's options book reached $2.33 billion, up from $529 million during its first month.

The growth has not been linear. Options initially represented a smaller share of Bybit's derivatives activity during the rapid expansion of perpetual contracts, before rebuilding as demand for more sophisticated risk-management instruments increased.

The resulting U-shaped pattern broadly mirrors the wider market's rotation back toward options.

"The derivatives market is becoming more sophisticated. Traders are increasingly using options not simply to take directional positions, but to express views on volatility, manage downside, and price specific events," said Sean Ballard, Head of Derivatives and Institutional Business at Bybit. "The data shows this is becoming a structural part of the market, and Bybit is building the liquidity, breadth, and infrastructure needed for the next stage of growth."

"Bybit is leading the way in market evolution by aligning options with where price discovery and volume really live. By introducing options on perpetual contracts, we are bringing an industry-first innovation to the market, and we believe this should be a game changer for the growth and development of market structure," added Sean.

Building the next generation of derivatives markets

The findings highlight a broader evolution in crypto trading. As options become a larger part of the market, competitive differentiation will increasingly depend on liquidity, breadth of instruments, and the infrastructure required to serve both professional and individual traders.

Bybit's growing options market reflects this convergence, with expanding activity across Bitcoin and Ether and established depth in tokenized-gold derivatives.

Methodology: The State of Crypto Derivatives is based on Glassnode's venue-resolved derivatives and market data, current as of the settled close of August 23, 2026. Venue coverage varies by metric and reflects the venues tracked by Glassnode. The options analysis covers four crypto-native venues. The futures analysis covers the offshore venues tracked by Glassnode and excludes CME, and the tokenized-gold analysis covers the crypto venues tracked by Glassnode.

The full report is available here.

#Bybit / #NewFinancialPlatform

About Bybit

Bybit is The New Financial Platform.

We believe every person should have access to every financial opportunity on earth. That's why we're building the first intelligent platform that connects anyone, anywhere to the world's finance.

Trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, Bybit brings together investing, trading, payments, and wealth-building in a single secure and intelligent ecosystem. Through the combination of AI-powered technology, deep global liquidity, robust security, and transparent operations, Bybit makes global finance more accessible, efficient, and empowering for everyone.

Built for everyone. Powered by intelligence. Open to the world.

Learn more at Bybit.com.

For more details about Bybit, please visit Bybit Press

For media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]

For updates, please follow: Bybit's Communities and Social Media

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SOURCE Bybit

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Colorado homeowners gain a new resource for finding roofing contractors that have been independently rated Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise®.

PETALUMA, Calif., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- American Ratings Corporation, the creator of Diamond Certified Resource, the source for consumers who love quality local companies, is bringing its researched-based rating system from the San Francisco Bay Area to quality-seeking homeowners in Denver, Arapahoe, Boulder and Jefferson Counties in Colorado. The expansion will begin with roofing contractors that pass Diamond Certified's 12-step rating process and score "Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise."

Colorado roofing companies can apply for Diamond Certified until September 23. A limited number of Founder positions are available in each county on a first-applied basis, giving qualifying companies the opportunity to establish an early presence in the new market. Founders get five years of free top placement, a rate lock and a money-back guarantee.

"We're excited to focus on roofing contractors with this Colorado expansion because it's a region where homeowners have to deal with a lot of hail and storm damage," says CEO Greg Louie. "We look forward to connecting the residents of Denver, Arapahoe, Boulder, and Jefferson Counties with roofers that have a proven track record of high-quality work and customer satisfaction."

"This is a great opportunity for Colorado roofers that believe in competing on quality rather than price alone," adds Director of Ratings David Pak. "If they're able to earn Diamond Certified, they'll get found more often in AI and Google Search, win more local competitor matchups, and make more sales with pricing power."

For the past 25 years, Diamond Certified Resource has been connecting local consumers with top rated companies in a wide range of service industries, from auto repair and dentistry to roofing and construction. Unlike open-access review websites where anyone can leave a review, Diamond Certified surveys a large, random sample of each company's real customers, which ensures the survey responses (reviews) are accurate, reliable and truly representative of each company's performance. Survey questions ask about the quality that each customer experienced, whether they received Helpful Expertise and whether they would use the company again.

Diamond Certified companies must also pass credential-based checks (business license, insurance, etc.) and be evaluated for customer-friendly business practices, their ability to perform to contract, and their commitment to standing behind their work. These additional requirements make the certification process much more comprehensive than typical review platforms.

These companies have recently earned Diamond Certified 

Agama Painting

Alcon Concrete

Better Electric

Brownstein Construction Inc.

Chase Electric

EBA Roofing Inc.

Keith Roofing Company

Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Sonoma County

Valiant Garage Door

It's easy to find top rated companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Other Areas on Diamond Certified Resource.

Alameda County

Contra Costa County

El Dorado County

Fresno County

Los Angeles County

Marin County

Milwaukee County

Monterey County

Napa County

Orange County

Placer County

Sacramento County

San Benito County

San Francisco

San Joaquin County

San Mateo County

Santa Clara County

Santa Cruz County

Solano County

Sonoma County

Yolo County

Yuba County

About American Ratings Corporation

American Ratings Corporation (ARC), the creator of Diamond Certified Resource, the source for consumers who love quality local companies, rates local companies by surveying only their verified real customers to produce the country's most accurate ratings of local companies. It also creates deeply researched company reports and consumer guides that give consumers the best companies plus the best advice for choosing a local Auto, Home, Health or Personal service type of company.

Only companies rated Highest in Quality and Helpful Expertise® earn Diamond Certified and are backed by their Performance Guarantee. All their deeply researched reports and guides are available for free at diamondcertified.org. They also produce an annual, full-color, printed Diamond Certified Directory with 840,000 copies published in 9 geographic zones in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Each April, these are mailed for free to their 182,000 Diamond Certified Preferred Members and selected homeowners and companies.

SOURCE American Ratings Corporation

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FORT WAYNE, Ind., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ/GS: STLD) today provided third quarter 2026 earnings guidance in the range of $5.34 to $5.38 per diluted share. Comparatively, the company's sequential second quarter 2026 earnings were $3.69 per diluted share, and prior year third quarter earnings were $2.74 per diluted share.

Third quarter 2026 profitability from the company's steel operations is expected to be significantly higher than sequential second quarter results, driven by metal margin expansion across the platform and record shipments. The company expects average realized steel selling values to increase in combination with lower scrap costs. Steel customer order activity remains strong, supported by solid underlying demand and persistently low customer inventories, which continue to support favorable pricing conditions. Steel demand across key end markets remains solid, led by non-residential construction, energy, automotive, and industrial sectors.

Third quarter 2026 earnings from the company's metals recycling operations are expected to be lower than sequential second quarter results, due to lower metal spreads and modestly lower shipments.

The company expects third quarter 2026 earnings from its steel fabrication operations to improve modestly from sequential second quarter results, supported by stronger shipments, which more than offset metal spread compression as higher pricing was offset by increased steel input material costs. Customer order activity remains strong, building on the momentum that began in late 2025, with the current backlog nearly 50 percent higher than prior-year third quarter levels and extending through the first quarter of 2027. Demand remains healthy across commercial construction, data center and warehouse development, manufacturing, and healthcare markets. Looking forward into 2027, the company anticipates further steel fabrication volume growth supported by continued domestic manufacturing investment, U.S. infrastructure spending and stimulus programs, and ongoing onshoring activity.

Third quarter 2026 earnings from the company's aluminum operations are expected to improve meaningfully compared to sequential second quarter results, driven by increased shipments. The aluminum team continues to make strong progress on the commissioning and startup of the company's aluminum flat rolled products mill in Columbus, Mississippi. All three cold mills are now operational, and the first of two Continuous Annealing and Solution Heat (CASH) lines is operating and is expected to ship commercial material in the fourth quarter. The second CASH line is expected to begin producing material for customer qualification before the end of the year.

The company has repurchased $261 million, or just under one percent, of its common stock so far during the third quarter of 2026.

The company currently plans to release its third quarter 2026 earnings after the market closes on October 19, 2026, and will hold a conference call the next day at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to discuss the company's performance.

About Steel Dynamics, Inc.

Steel Dynamics is a leading industrial metals solutions company, with facilities located throughout the United States, and in Mexico. The company operates using a circular manufacturing model, producing lower-carbon-emission, quality products with recycled scrap as the primary input. Steel Dynamics is one of the largest domestic steel producers and metal recyclers in North America, combined with a meaningful downstream steel fabrication platform. The company also has aluminum operations, further diversifying its product offerings to supply aluminum flat rolled products with higher recycled content to the countercyclical sustainable beverage can industry, in addition to the automotive and industrial sectors. Steel Dynamics is committed to operating with the highest integrity and to being the safest, most efficient producer of high-quality, broadly diversified, value-added metal products.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains some predictive statements about future events, including statements related to conditions in domestic or global economies, conditions in steel, aluminum, and recycled metals marketplaces, Steel Dynamics' revenues, costs of purchased materials, future profitability and earnings, and the operation of new, existing or planned facilities. These statements, which we generally precede or accompany by such typical conditional words as "anticipate", "intend", "believe", "estimate", "plan", "seek", "project", or "expect", or by the words "may", "will", or "should", are intended to be made as "forward-looking", subject to many risks and uncertainties, within the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements speak only as of this date and are based upon information and assumptions, which we consider reasonable as of this date, concerning our businesses and the environments in which they operate. Such predictive statements are not guarantees of future performance, and we undertake no duty to update or revise any such statements. Some factors that could cause such forward-looking statements to turn out differently than anticipated include: (1) domestic and global economic factors; (2) global steelmaking overcapacity and imports of steel, together with increased scrap prices; (3) the cyclical nature of the metals industries and the industries we serve; (4) volatility and major fluctuations in prices and availability of scrap metal, scrap substitutes and supplies, and our potential inability to pass higher costs on to our customers; (5) cost and availability of electricity, natural gas, oil, and other energy resources are subject to volatile market conditions; (6) increased environmental, greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability considerations from our customers and investors or related regulations; (7) compliance with and changes in environmental and remediation requirements; (8) significant price and other forms of competition from other steel and aluminum producers, scrap processors and alternative materials; (9) availability of an adequate source of supply of scrap for our metals recycling operations; (10) cybersecurity threats and risks to the security of our sensitive data and information technology; (11) the implementation of our growth strategy; (12) our ability to retain, develop and attract key personnel; (13) litigation and legal compliance; (14) unexpected equipment downtime or shutdowns; (15) difficulties in the launch or production ramp-up of new products; (16) our aluminum operations depend on a core group of significant customers; (17) governmental agencies may refuse to grant or renew some of our licenses and permits; (18) our existing debt agreements contain, and any future financing agreements may contain, restrictive covenants that may limit our flexibility; and (19) the impacts of impairment charges.

More specifically, we refer you to our more detailed explanation of these and other factors and risks that may cause such predictive statements to turn out differently, as set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K under the headings Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors, in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, or in other reports which we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are available publicly on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, www.sec.gov, and on our website, www.steeldynamics.com under "Investors – SEC Filings."

SOURCE Steel Dynamics, Inc.

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The live music industry still largely runs on spreadsheets and email threads. ABOSS is the operating system.

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Let's be honest. The live music industry still runs its operations across email threads and spreadsheets at large. Booking agencies, artists, managers and crews coordinate deals, contracts, logistics, and money through systems that were never designed to connect.

ABOSS spent the past decade building an operating system for live music, to solve this problem from a place of deep industry experience. Booking agencies, artists, and crews can manage their shows in one structured environment; from the back-office to center-stage. However, while the hustle is real and the front-end often catches the spotlight, the adoption of new technology in the back-end can move like a slow jam on a Sunday afternoon.

"After all those years, deals are still made on relationships, and they're still being executed in chaos," said Arvid Silos, founder of ABOSS. "If your data lives in inboxes and spreadsheets, you're leaving margins on the table."

ABOSS is built with structured collaboration, dealmaking and business logistics in mind across two environments on the same record. The Agency Platform is where booking agencies run deals, contracts, financial tracking, planning, and pre-production. Artist Pro is where artists and their teams access, review, and work on the same data. A true single source of truth solution.

That split is also the platform's position on who owns the data. Operational information in live music has long sat with the agency, or been scattered across inboxes and spreadsheets. Agencies running on ABOSS are already offering artists a record they can own, access and control, while the agency continues to run the operation. The infrastructure has been there for a decade. However, hardly any artist or manager claims it: of the roughly $1 billion in deal value moving through ABOSS this year, artist-owned records cover about 4%.

A mobile application extends that record onto the road: schedules, travel, and ops, available offline, with summaries. Records are exposed through an open API to empower a new layer of specialized workflows and integrations to improve the live music stack.

SAPPS AI, offering platform-agnostic AI-native micro-apps for live music, is one of those layers that recognizes the power of ABOSS as a system of data supply. AI Models need data that is substantial, owned, structured, secure, and current, contextualized to specific business cases. AI does not replace architecture. That's where ABOSS turns admin into a commercial opportunity in the age of AI.

It's one thing to jump on the AI hypetrain, it's another thing to diligently navigate it, nurturing trust and strongholding this promise ABOSS built the operating system for live music on; to elevate the way we all work in music.

About ABOSS: ABOSS is the operating system for live music. Booking agencies, artists, managers and crews use it to collaboratively manage deals, contracts, finances, logistics and more in a shared environment. https://abossmusic.com

About SAPPS: SAPPS is a platform-agnostic AI-native intelligence layer for the live music industry: specialized applications that connect across systems music businesses already run. https://sapps.ai

Representative: Arvid Silos

Contact: [email protected]

Address: Amsterdam, NH, The Netherlands

SOURCE ABOSS

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Arcjet Launches Agent Runtime Security for Production AI Agents

New product helps teams discover agent activity, apply controls before and after consequential actions, and preserve evidence for security reviews and compliance

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcjet, the security platform that ships in your AI code, today launched agent runtime security, a new product that helps engineering teams secure the AI agents they are building while giving security teams the governance and compliance evidence they need. Arcjet brings observability, enforcement, and audit capabilities across agent workflows so teams can discover which agents are running, control what they can do, and understand what happened and why.

AI agents are moving beyond chat interfaces and into production workflows, where they can read and write to databases, respond to support tickets, refund payments, call tools and APIs, and take other actions on behalf of users. Those workflows can start from a chat interface, an email, a text message, a code commit, or another event, and can continue autonomously across multiple systems.

As agents take on longer-running workflows, security teams need to answer three questions across the full sequence of activity, which agents are running, whether a particular action should be allowed, and what happened and why.

Arcjet's agent runtime security addresses those questions through observe, enforce, and audit capabilities. Teams can discover agent activity and connect actions across sessions, apply deterministic security policies before and after calls to LLMs, tools, databases, and APIs, and preserve the execution context needed for security reviews and compliance.

"Agents are now taking real actions inside production systems, which means security teams need to know which agents are operating and what they have done, and apply controls at machine speed," said David Mytton, CEO at Arcjet. "A risky outcome can develop across a series of steps that look perfectly reasonable on their own. Arcjet connects those steps and gives teams policy controls to detect them."

Arcjet's agent runtime security centers on three parts of securing agents in production, observe, enforce, and audit.

Observe: Discover all your agents

Arcjet supports ingesting agent activity without application code changes or deploying another agent. Platform and security teams can use existing OpenTelemetry observability tooling to send activity directly to Arcjet for real-time visualization and analysis. For teams using Claude, Arcjet can also pull activity from the Claude Compliance API.

Arcjet connects activity across sessions so teams can see an agent's sequence of actions as one workflow rather than a collection of unrelated events. Activity can include prompts, tool call parameters, session metadata, identity, security decisions, and other application context, giving teams a view of what each agent is doing across a run.

Agent identity and inventory are part of that visibility. Arcjet gives teams an inventory of the agents and applications operating inside their environment, with activity and individual runs associated with each agent so teams can inspect actions and security decisions step by step.

Enforce: Apply controls before and after every action

Once teams can see their agents and activity across sessions, Arcjet lets security teams define controls for prompt injection detection, PII and sensitive information leak prevention and redaction, automation and bot detection, rate limits, and quota controls. Arcjet guards apply deterministic policies to tools, APIs, database calls, and other inputs and outputs. Powered by Rego and Open Policy Agent, teams can create versioned, immutable policies through Arcjet's web UI, API, CLI, or MCP without redeploying application code.

Policies can define the actions an agent is allowed to take, such as restricting recipients or attachments in an email tool, setting acceptable bounds for refund values, or limiting web fetch tools to trusted API URLs. Arcjet returns a decision to the application before the action executes, allowing the application to stop the operation, request human approval, or return an explanation to the agent. Applied before and after calls to LLMs, tools, databases, and APIs, these controls can mitigate risk before consequential actions and verify results before the workflow continues.

For enforcement, Arcjet has native integrations with major agent frameworks, including Claude Agents SDK, Claude Managed Agents, OpenAI Agents SDK, LangChain, LangFuse, Strands, Mastra, and Microsoft's Agent Framework. This in-code context allows Arcjet to track recorded actions, their inputs, and policy decisions across the workflow.

Audit: Evidence and proof of compliance

Arcjet collects the context of each execution so teams can reconstruct what happened, understand why a policy decision was made, and provide evidence for security reviews and compliance audits. Correlated traces preserve actions, inputs, security decisions, and policy evaluations across the work

SOURCE Arcjet

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Graduates from 32 states and Washington, D.C., to gather in St. Paul for Rasmussen University's final 2026 commencement celebration

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rasmussen University part of American Public University System (Rasmussen) will celebrate the achievements of nearly 6,200 graduates during its 2026 Minnesota Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 11 a.m. at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, MN, as well as online. The graduates completed their programs during the past year, representing the Classes of 2025 and 2026.

The Minnesota ceremony marks the third and final commencement celebration for Rasmussen University in 2026, following ceremonies in Illinois in April and Florida in June. Graduates have completed programs across eight areas of study, including nursing, health sciences, business, education, human services, justice studies, design and technology, offered at 20 Rasmussen campuses and online.

"Rasmussen University has a proud tradition of preparing students for careers that strengthen our communities and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others," said Angela Selden, chancellor of American Public University System. "As part of American Public University System, Rasmussen University advances our shared mission to empower students through education to transform lives, advance careers, and serve their communities."

Graduates registered to attend the ceremony in person represent 32 states and Washington, D.C., reflecting the national reach of Rasmussen University and its commitment to accessible, career-focused education. Nearly 20% are earning their second or additional degree from Rasmussen, highlighting Rasmussen's commitment to lifelong learning and supporting students as they continue to advance their education and careers.

"Throughout our three commencement celebrations this year, we've had the privilege of hearing countless stories of resilience and purpose," said Dr. Carrie Daninhirsch, provost at Rasmussen University. "In Illinois, Nursing graduate Beatrice Agbayewa pursued a career she loves after being inspired by a friend, persevering through health challenges along the way. In Florida, Human Services graduate and Navy veteran Brian Lange turned his own challenges finding his path after military service into a passion for helping other veterans rebuild their lives. As we gather here in St. Paul, where Rasmussen was founded more than 125 years ago, it's especially meaningful to celebrate our final graduating class of 2026 and the next generation of graduates who will carry that legacy forward."

Commencement Speakers

The ceremony will feature remarks from distinguished leaders and members of the Rasmussen University community who will share messages of perseverance, purpose and lifelong learning with the graduating class.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Cyrus Batheja

Dr. Cyrus Batheja, president and chief executive officer of Ecumen, will deliver the keynote address. Ecumen is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing innovative housing, healthcare and community-based services for older adults.

Batheja's own educational journey was inspired by his mother, an immigrant who pursued nursing school while raising her family. Her determination shaped his path into nursing and healthcare leadership. In his keynote, he will reflect on the perseverance behind graduates' achievements and encourage them to stay rooted in purpose, create opportunities for others and define success by how they live and serve their communities.

Prior to joining Ecumen, Batheja held senior leadership positions with UnitedHealthcare and Optum, including serving as national vice president of nursing at OptumRx, where he led more than 1,500 nurses delivering critical therapies across the United States. He is also co-founder of Batheja Supportive Living Services, serves on the Board of Regents at Augsburg University and was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2022.

Graduate Speaker: Tykeishah Todd

Tykeishah Todd, a September 2026 Master of Healthcare Administration graduate, will represent the graduating class as its graduate speaker. A dedicated healthcare professional and mother of two, Todd is also a returning Rasmussen University graduate, having earned her Human Services degree from Rasmussen in 2022.

Throughout her Rasmussen journey, Todd has balanced her education, career and family responsibilities while continuing to pursue her professional goals. She currently serves as a supervisor in family medicine, where she leads with a passion for supporting her team and improving the patient experience. While pursuing her master's degree, she also earned two career promotions.

Todd's journey reflects the resilience and perseverance of Rasmussen graduates. In her Commencement message, she will encourage graduates to give themselves grace, embrace their individual journeys and remember that setbacks do not define their potential. She will share how earning her degree represents healing, growth and rewriting her story.

Alumni Speaker: Kimberley Wilde

Kimberley Wilde, a 2022 Rasmussen University graduate, will return to the Commencement stage as the alumni speaker and help lead Rasmussen's Alumni Pinning Ceremony.

Wilde earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management online from Rasmussen University after previously earning her Associate of Science degree from Rasmussen. She currently serves as a senior business analyst at Mayo Clinic.

As a first-generation college graduate, Wilde returned to school as an adult learner while balancing a full-time career and raising her two daughters. For Wilde, earning her degree represented not only a personal accomplishment, but also an opportunity to demonstrate to her daughters the importance of education and that it is never too late to pursue a goal.

During her own Commencement celebration in 2022, Wilde was selected to represent her class as the graduate speaker. She now returns as a proud alum to welcome the newest graduates into Rasmussen University's lifelong alumni community.

The Alumni Pinning Ceremony is a special Rasmussen University tradition symbolizing graduates' transition from students to alumni and their entry into a community that will remain connected long after Commencement.

To learn more about Rasmussen University's 2026 commencement ceremonies, visit:

Rasmussen University Commencement Information

About Rasmussen University:

Rasmussen University part of American Public University System (Rasmussen), combines a rich history of educational excellence with the strength of a system dedicated to preparing students for service-oriented careers. The System is committed to enriching communities by delivering innovative, career-focused education and maintaining a longstanding commitment to preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals. The System offers undergraduate and graduate programs online and across 20 Rasmussen campuses nationwide in eight areas of study, including nursing, health sciences, business, technology, and social services. Since 1900, Rasmussen has been creating opportunities, transforming lives, and strengthening communities through student-centered education that prepares graduates for in-demand careers. Learn more at www.Rasmussen.edu.

About American Public University System:

American Public University System (the System), provides postsecondary education that transforms lives, advances careers, and improves communities. With over 109,000 students and 250,000 alumni worldwide, the System includes American Military University (AMU), American Public University (APU), Rasmussen University, and Hondros College of Nursing. 

The System is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) (www.hlcommission.org), an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Public Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: APEI).

Contact: Molly Andersen

Mobile: 903.920.4366

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Rasmussen University

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