Stripe's Reported $7 Billion OpenRouter Deal and IREN's $9.7 Billion Microsoft AI Cloud Deal Mark New AI Infrastructure Spending
Stripe has reportedly agreed to a $7 billion deal to acquire OpenRouter, according to The Defiant and Decrypt. OpenRouter meters AI usage against prepaid deposits, charging 5% on crypto top-ups versus 5.5% on card purchases processed through Stripe, according to The Defiant.
Decrypt reported that the acquisition gives Stripe control over the layer that routes AI prompts to specific models, a business it was already collecting payment for.
Stripe also co-incubated Tempo, a blockchain built to settle machine-to-machine payments onchain, though the network is currently processing about one transaction per second, according to The Defiant.
Separately, IREN delivered the first of four planned AI cloud deployments to Microsoft under a $9.7 billion agreement, The Block reported. IREN is targeting 480 MW of AI cloud capacity in 2026 and 1.2 gigawatts by 2027 as the company continues shifting away from bitcoin mining, according to The Block.
Sources: The Defiant, Decrypt, The Block
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
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Story so far 2 updates
- digestStripe acquires OpenRouter for $7 billion to handle AI micropayments via prepaid accountsupdate
- storyStripe's Reported $7 Billion OpenRouter Deal and IREN's $9.7 Billion Microsoft AI Cloud Deal Mark New AI Infrastructure Spendingupdate
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