Payment giant Stripe has finalized the acquisition of AI model routing platform OpenRouter for around $7.5 billion, a value more than five times higher than OpenRouter’s prior valuation of $1.3 billion following its Series B funding in May. OpenRouter provides developers with a unified interface to route requests to hundreds of AI models based on user needs, handling over 10 trillion tokens daily and serving 10 million global users with integrated models from 400 to 500 mainstream providers. The merged entity will operate independently under OpenRouter’s existing name and mission, keeping its product roadmap unchanged while prioritizing user interests. Industry analysts say Stripe aims to integrate these routing capabilities into its payment system to manage token consumption in the growing agent economy and gain control over core elements of AI-driven economic operations, with the deal expected to close within weeks.