Stripe has agreed to acquire AI model marketplace OpenRouter for more than $8 billion in cash and stock, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Stripe's stubborn refusal to IPO hasn't dimmed its acquisition ambitions, despite its lack of a public currency, as this deal comes amidst ongoing efforts to buy PayPal.
By the numbers: OpenRouter has raised $164 million, most recently this past May at a $1.3 billion valuation. Backers include CapitalG, a16z, Menlo Ventures, NVentures, ServiceNow Ventures, MongoDB, Snowflake, and Databricks. Catch up quick: Stripe's interest in OpenRouter first was reported last month by the WSJ, with Bloomberg reporting yesterday that the deal was signed. The bottom line: Stripe already processes payments for frontier labs. OpenRouter gives it a more direct role in how developers evaluate, select and move between their models.