Company Behind Character.AI Chat App Files for Bankruptcy

The company behind Character.AI, Character Technologies, filed a voluntary court request for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 12, 2026, saying it had $50 million to $100 million in what it owns and owes. Started in late 2021 by ex-Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, its chat companion app had 20 million monthly users and a value above $1 billion.