Stripe Acquires AI Gateway Startup OpenRouter for Over $7 Billion

Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+

Stripe has finalized a deal to acquire OpenRouter, according to a new report in Bloomberg. OpenRouter helps customers to select different AI models to perform different tasks, depending on their specific needs and budget. The company announced in May that it had raised a $113 million Series B, at a reported $1.3 billion valuation. (Investors include Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, and Alphabet's Capital G.) At the time, OpenRouter CEO Alex Atallah described the company as the equivalent of Stripe for AI, because it provides customers with a single access point for different systems and prevents lock-in. The startup also claimed to have 8 million global users and to provide access to more than 400 models. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Stripe and OpenRouter were in acquisition talks. Now, Bloomberg said those discussions have led to a deal price of more than $7 billion. A Stripe spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.

Stripe clinches over $7 billion deal to buy AI firm OpenRouter | Fortune

Stripe Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire OpenRouter Inc., a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models, for more than $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported $1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand from businesses to find the most cost-friendly AI solutions. It could also give Stripe, a payments processing firm, a stronger footing in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. The final price for the acquisition could change. The discussions were described by people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. A spokesperson for Stripe said the firm doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. OpenRouter declined to comment. Founded in 2023, OpenRouter provides access to hundreds of AI models, with the goal of matching developers with the most efficient and affordable options for the job at hand. The New York-based company has attracted some of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, including CapitalG -- one of Alphabet Inc.'s venture arms -- as well as Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. OpenRouter has raised more than $150 million in capital to date. The startup's rise coincides with greater scrutiny on AI costs. While firms like Anthropic PBC and OpenAI are still widely viewed as offering the most capable AI models, a long list of Chinese firms provide cheaper alternatives that are often viewed as good enough for many tasks. In May, OpenRouter said it serves 8 million developers who rely on it to access more than 400 different AI models. The startup's main growth is coming from developers who experiment with different models when building agentic capabilities into their software, a process that requires a mix of infrastructure that can work across different providers and data sources. OpenRouter also offers services that help companies access backups in case the model they use fails and understand which options are most popular across the broader tech ecosystem. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Stripe was in talks to buy OpenRouter for about $10 billion. OpenRouter Chief Executive Officer Alex Atallah previously co-founded OpenSea, a nonfungible token marketplace, which raised more than $400 million in capital but saw usage crater. Atallah stepped down from OpenSea in July 2022, and less than a year later started OpenRouter. Earlier this year, Atallah described OpenRouter as the AI equivalent of Stripe.

Stripe reportedly finalizes deal to buy AI model router OpenRouter for more than $7B

OpenRouter Inc., which sells developers a single door into more than 400 artificial intelligence models, has agreed to terms to sell itself to Stripe Inc. for north of $7 billion, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company's pitch is that one integration outlives any single model. A customer writes to OpenRouter once, then swaps between OpenAI Group PBC, Anthropic PBC or a cheaper open-weight alternative without touching the code, with the router picking on cost, speed or which provider happens to be up. It takes a cut of about 5% of the inference spend passing through it and says it has roughly 8 million users. Stripe has neither confirmed nor denied the report, telling TechCrunch only that it does not comment on "rumors or speculation." OpenRouter was founded in 2023 by Alex Atallah and Louis Vichy. Atallah has described the company as "Stripe for AI," on the argument that a single access point across model providers removes integration work and blocks lock-in. Weekly throughput hit 25 trillion tokens by May, five times the figure six months earlier, and OpenRouter reckoned that pace would carry it past a quadrillion tokens before the year is out. Revenue is a much smaller number: about $50 million annualized as of March, against roughly $19 million when 2025 closed. Alphabet Inc.'s growth fund CapitalG LP led the $113 million Series B that OpenRouter announced on May 26, with Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures alongside. The round was raised on a $1.3 billion valuation, more than double the figure a year earlier. Stripe co-authored the Agentic Commerce Protocol with OpenAI and has been OpenRouter's payments provider since at least January, when the two announced a token-billing integration that meters model usage and prices it automatically. Inference is sold in metered units and reconciled across dozens of suppliers. The routing layer also sits on data about which models developers choose and at what price, spanning closed and open-weight providers. OpenRouter competes with open-source routing projects such as LiteLLM and with routing features the major cloud providers have folded into their own model services. Stripe has made a run of infrastructure acquisitions over the past two years. It paid about $1.1 billion for stablecoin infrastructure startup Bridge Network Inc. in a deal that closed in February 2025 and bought crypto wallet provider Privy Inc. that June. In July it joined private equity firm Advent International L.P. in a bid of more than $53 billion to take PayPal Holdings Inc. private. A February tender offer valued Stripe at $159 billion.

Stripe acquisition: Stripe clinches over $7 billion deal to buy AI firm OpenRouter

The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported $1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand from businesses to find the most cost-friendly AI solutions. It could also give Stripe, a payments processing firm, a stronger footing in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. Stripe Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire OpenRouter Inc., a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models, for more than $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported $1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand from businesses to find the most cost-friendly AI solutions. It could also give Stripe, a payments processing firm, a stronger footing in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. The final price for the acquisition could change. The discussions were described by people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. A spokesperson for Stripe said the firm doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. OpenRouter declined to comment. Founded in 2023, OpenRouter provides access to hundreds of AI models, with the goal of matching developers with the most efficient and affordable options for the job at hand. The New York-based company has attracted some of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley, including CapitalG -- one of Alphabet Inc.'s venture arms -- as well as Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. OpenRouter has raised more than $150 million in capital to date. The startup's rise coincides with greater scrutiny on AI costs. While firms like Anthropic PBC and OpenAI are still widely viewed as offering the most capable AI models, a long list of Chinese firms provide cheaper alternatives that are often viewed as good enough for many tasks. In May, OpenRouter said it serves 8 million developers who rely on it to access more than 400 different AI models. The startup's main growth is coming from developers who experiment with different models when building agentic capabilities into their software, a process that requires a mix of infrastructure that can work across different providers and data sources. OpenRouter also offers services that help companies access backups in case the model they use fails and understand which options are most popular across the broader tech ecosystem. The Wall Street Journal previously reported Stripe was in talks to buy OpenRouter for about $10 billion. OpenRouter Chief Executive Officer Alex Atallah previously co-founded OpenSea, a nonfungible token marketplace, which raised more than $400 million in capital but saw usage crater. Atallah stepped down from OpenSea in July 2022, and less than a year later started OpenRouter. Earlier this year, Atallah described OpenRouter as the AI equivalent of Stripe.