Character.AI Maker Files for Chapter 11 Protection

Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on Oct. 12, 2026, reporting $50 million to $100 million in both assets and debts. Founded in late 2021 by former Google engineers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, the companion chatbot service had grown to 20 million monthly users and unicorn, or $1 billion-plus, valuation.