Today In Data: Money In, Money Out

Which big companies are making the biggest bucks this week? And who’s spending the most? From acquisitions to AI investments, from payments by phones to payments for phones, and of course, the world record that’s within Apple’s reach (but which may not be the low-hanging fruit that it seems), here are some of the dollars that are changing hands this week – by the numbers.

$750 million | Price First Data paid to acquire rival payment processor CardConnect, adding about $26 billion to the $2.2 trillion First Data already processes each year.

$10 million | Higher end of the investment range ($1 million to $10 million) that Google is hoping to secure from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to support its new artificial intelligence investment program. Investments, however, will be led by Google’s engineers rather than by professional VCs.

$5.5 trillion | Total mobile payments in China in 2016, comprising more than half the country’s gross domestic product.

$699 | Price point of the new Essential Phone, introduced this week by Andy Rubin, co-creator of the Android mobile operating system. The phone pairs with a dedicated home assistant gadget.

$1 trillion | Market cap that Apple could reach in the next 12 to 18 months, according to an RBC Capital Markets analyst, making it the first company to reach those heights.