Stripe has agreed to buy OpenRouter, the startup whose software helps companies route their spending across hundreds of AI models. The payments firm confirmed the deal on Wednesday, making official an acquisition the press first reported earlier this month.
Neither company put a figure on the deal. Outside reporting has, and the numbers do not quite agree. The New York Times said Stripe is paying $7.5 billion, citing a person with knowledge of the terms. Of that, $1.5 billion goes to OpenRouter’s founders and $6 billion to its investors, it said. Axios, citing its own sources, put the price higher, at more than $8 billion, mostly in stock.
Whatever the exact number, it is a sharp markup. Investors valued OpenRouter at about $1.3 billion in a funding round earlier this year, according to Bloomberg. Its backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Nvidia and CapitalG, one of Alphabet’s venture arms. If the New York Times figure is right, they are cashing out at several times that valuation. And it is only months later.
What OpenRouter does
OpenRouter runs a single gateway to the AI market. Through one interface, developers can reach more than 400 models from over 80 providers. They can compare them, and send each request to whichever model fits best on price, speed and reliability. The company says it now processes more than 10 trillion tokens a day. It serves over 10 million developers and businesses, it adds.
