Stripe agrees to acquire AI model routing platform OpenRouter

Stripe has agreed to acquire OpenRouter, an AI model gateway and routing platform, according to a statement from the company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

OpenRouter's platform routes requests across more than 400 AI models from over 80 providers, dynamically evaluating each request based on task complexity, price, speed, and reliability. Current users of the platform include Nvidia, Zoom, and Lovable.

Stripe said the acquisition builds on its existing work in token optimization, including its Token Billing product launched last year. The company said managing cost-versus-performance tradeoffs in real time is made difficult by the volume of variables involved and the pace at which AI models are released and repriced.

Patrick Collison, cofounder and CEO of Stripe, said in the statement: "Tokens are the central currency for companies building with AI, and it's clear that the real-world economic potential will depend on making good use of scarce compute resources."

Alex Atallah, cofounder and CEO of OpenRouter, said: "We believe intelligence will be multi-model: no single model will be optimal for every task, and developers need a neutral layer to orchestrate and manage them all."

Stripe describes itself as a financial services infrastructure provider serving a broad range of businesses, including companies developing AI products.

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