What's behind Stripe's OpenRouter move

Payments company Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter for around $10 billion, Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Why it matters: It says a lot about Stripe's ambitions as it seeks to represent the "GDP of the internet."

Driving the news: OpenRouter allows companies to switch between different AI models, a high-demand product at a time when companies are looking to control spending.

It's not considered a fintech or payments company — but it is building a network, which is key for payments companies.

OpenRouter also has the potential to represent AI spending, given its role as a gateway to multiple AI models.

Between the lines: In some ways, it's revenue model is similar to a payments firm. It charges a percentage fee for on top of the underlying model's cost. CEO Alex Atallah has notably compared his company to Stripe in the past.

Ramp, the expense management company last valued at $44 billion, is also developing a routing product, as token costs become one of the biggest concerns for companies.

Increasingly, tokens are becoming the new currency.

What they're saying: "As tokens become increasingly fungible with money, streaming payments in real time is an important part of Stripe's economic infrastructure for AI," a Stripe announcement earlier this year read.

State of play: OpenRouter has a wealth of suitors, from what we hear and from media reports.

It was valued at $1.3 billion earlier this year, which could make a deal a rapid boon for investors include CapitalG and Menlo Ventures.

The bottom line: If token usage becomes much more spread out, these companies in the middle could be the ultimate (and less volatile) winners.

Cursor launched a routing product, too, earlier this week. Databricks also has such capabilities.