Stripe To Buy AI Startup OpenRouter For More Than $7 Billion, Bloomberg Reports
The deal, first reported by Bloomberg, comes just months after OpenRouter was valued at $1.3 billion and weeks after reports pegged talks near $10 billion.
Stripe has struck a deal worth more than $7 billion to buy OpenRouter, a startup that helps businesses shop between different artificial intelligence models, according to a Bloomberg report cited by TechCrunch. Fortune reported the same figure, citing people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. Fortune noted the final price could still change.
A Stripe spokesperson told both outlets that the payments company does not comment on rumors or speculation. OpenRouter declined to comment, according to Fortune.
The price marks a massive jump for OpenRouter, which raised a $113 million funding round in May at a valuation of just $1.3 billion, TechCrunch reported. That round drew backing from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures and CapitalG, the venture arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc., according to TechCrunch. Fortune reported the New York-based startup has raised more than $150 million in total funding since it was founded in 2023.
A Single Gateway For Hundreds Of AI Models
OpenRouter's product lets developers tap more than 400 different AI models through one point of access, matching them with whichever option is cheapest or best suited to a given task, according to both outlets. The company also offers backup access in case a developer's chosen model goes down, and data on which models are gaining popularity across the industry, Fortune reported.
As of May, OpenRouter said it served eight million developers worldwide, according to TechCrunch. Much of that growth has come from developers building AI "agents," software that strings together multiple models and data sources to complete tasks on its own, Fortune reported.
OpenRouter Chief Executive Officer Alex Atallah has described his company as "the AI equivalent of Stripe," according to both Fortune and TechCrunch, because it gives customers one place to reach many providers without getting locked into a single one. Atallah previously co-founded the NFT marketplace OpenSea, which raised more than $400 million but later saw its usage decline sharply, Fortune reported. He left OpenSea in July 2022 and launched OpenRouter less than a year later.
Cheaper AI Options Are Gaining Ground
Fortune reported that OpenRouter's growth reflects rising pressure on businesses to control AI spending. Companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic PBC are still seen as offering the most capable models, Fortune reported, but a growing number of Chinese AI firms now sell cheaper alternatives that many businesses consider good enough for everyday tasks.
The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Stripe and OpenRouter were in acquisition talks, with Fortune noting an earlier reported price near $10 billion. Neither company has confirmed the terms of the finalized deal.
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