Stripe announced on 19 August that it had agreed to acquire OpenRouter, an AI model gateway and routing platform, confirming a deal first reported earlier in the month.
Why Stripe is buying OpenRouter
Stripe said combining with OpenRouter would help businesses maximise profitability by routing requests intelligently and spending tokens efficiently, as part of its push to build economic infrastructure for AI.
Deal terms and financing
No price was disclosed. The New York Times reported about $7.5bn, including $1.5bn for the founders, while Axios put the figure above $8bn, mostly in stock.
Market context
Founded in 2023, OpenRouter gives developers one interface to more than 400 models from over 80 providers. Its backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Nvidia and CapitalG.
