Stripe reportedly in talks to buy LLM marketplace OpenRouter
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that a sale could earn the three-year-old start-up roughly $10bn.
Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire OpenRouter, a New York-based start-up that lets users access several AI models through a unified platform.
According to The Wall Street Journal (TWSJ), a transaction could earn OpenRouter roughly $10bn. It was last valued, reportedly, at around $1.3bn following a $113m raise in May led by Alphabet’s venture arm CapitalG.
Sources told the TWSJ that a deal could be announced soon. SiliconRepublic.com has reached out to Stripe to confirm the validity of the report.
Founded in 2023, OpenRouter is a new type of marketplace that offers users access to more than 400 large language models (LLMs) from around 70 providers. It routes requests to the best available provider, letting users shop around based on price and other factors.
It is claimed to be the first marketplace set up for LLMs, reflecting a growing appetite for AI models and a fast diversifying market. The company more than doubled its valuation in a year, after reaching the $500m milestone last June.
A number of other companies have also considered buying OpenRouter, sources further told TWSJ. The Information also reported on the buzz around the start-up.
OpenRouter co-founder and CEO Alex Atallah has described his company as an AI equivalent of Stripe, a payments processing platform with an array of different tools for businesses. Prior to his current venture, Atallah founded OpenSea, a similar type of marketplace for non-fungible tokens.
OpenRouter already uses Stripe’s services for billing, payment collection and tax, among other needs, under a partnership announced early this year.
Stripe, meanwhile, is also reportedly considering a joint acquisition of PayPal along with US private equity firm Advent International. Sources told TWSJ that PayPal is unhappy with the low-ball reported offer of $53bn. Stripe and Advent are considering their next move.
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