OpenRouter, the startup that built a single marketplace for AI models, is joining Stripe in a deal that Bloomberg pegs at more than $7 billion.
The acquisition caps a rapid run for the company, whose chief executive Alex Atallah once described it as the Stripe for AI. OpenRouter gives developers one access point to choose among models from different labs, with routing and pricing handled behind a single API. It counted about 8 million users and access to more than 400 models when it raised a $113M Series B in May at a reported $1.3B valuation.
Bloomberg reported Sunday that the two sides had finalized an agreement, after the Wall Street Journal said last month that Stripe and OpenRouter were in acquisition talks. A Stripe spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company does not respond to rumors or speculation.
For Stripe, the prize is a fast-growing layer of the AI economy where startups pay to route traffic to models from labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Model gateways have become a battleground as companies try to avoid lock-in and control costs across a rapidly expanding field of AI providers.
The reported price, roughly five times the valuation OpenRouter set three months ago, signals how quickly investors are repricing AI infrastructure. It also gives Stripe a direct on-ramp to the developers building AI features on top of its payments network.
Neither company has publicly confirmed the terms of the deal.
