Stripe reportedly buying OpenRouter for over $7B

Stripe is reportedly acquiring AI model routing startup OpenRouter for more than $7 billion, per Bloomberg, up sharply from its last $1.3 billion valuation. OpenRouter provides unified API access to over 400 AI models and has 8 million users.

Why it matters: The deal values a pure infrastructure and distribution layer for AI models far above typical model-access startups, underscoring how valuable being the neutral routing layer between developers and dozens of competing model providers has become. It also signals payments and infrastructure giants moving directly into AI tooling rather than just enabling it downstream.