Investing.com -- Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter, a fast-growing marketplace that enables developers to route traffic across various artificial intelligence models, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. While exact terms remain unconfirmed, people familiar with the matter indicated the transaction could value the startup near $10 billion, representing a significant surge from its $1.3 billion valuation recorded during a funding round in May.
A final agreement could be announced shortly, though negotiations remain fluid and could still dissolve or attract competing suitors, the report noted. Several major technology firms have also reportedly evaluated potential bids for the San Francisco-based platform amid intensifying competition for AI infrastructure assets.
Founded in 2023, OpenRouter operates as an intermediary layer between model developers and enterprise users, allowing companies to compare, access, and switch between hundreds of proprietary and open-weight AI models. The platform has capitalized on enterprise efforts to control operational costs and reduce dependence on dominant providers like OpenAI and Anthropic by diversifying their model usage.
For Stripe, the proposed acquisition would mark a substantial expansion beyond its core payments processing business into specialized infrastructure for the artificial intelligence ecosystem. The fintech giant, which reached a $159 billion valuation earlier this year, already maintains an operational relationship with OpenRouter, which utilizes Stripe's platform to handle customer transactions.
The potential takeover underlines Stripe's aggressive dealmaking appetite as it seeks new growth vectors across advanced technology and digital finance. Against that backdrop, the company has also been pursuing a joint acquisition of PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) alongside private equity firm Advent International, though their recent $53 billion unsolicited offer was rebuffed as inadequate, leaving the partners evaluating their next strategic move.
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