AI Summary
5 min readWhen a company valued at $159 billion starts shopping for a $10 billion AI startup while simultaneously pursuing a $50 billion bid for one of its biggest rivals, the payments industry is clearly in the middle of something. Stripe is reportedly doing both, and the rest of this week's tech news — from Midjourney buying an astrology app to Meta rolling out facial recognition for identity verification — suggests companies are scrambling to reposition themselves for whatever comes next.
Stripe's Two-Front Offensive
According to sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter, a startup that helps developers access and switch between various AI models — including cheaper open-weight alternatives. The deal could value OpenRouter at around $10 billion, a staggering leap from its $1.3 billion valuation in May. Backed by Menlo Ventures and Alphabet's Capital G, OpenRouter was founded in 2023 and already uses Stripe for payment processing. The acquisition would let Stripe capture a fast-growing niche: as companies look to diversify away from OpenAI and Anthropic, they need middleware that lets them easily compare and switch models to control costs. Stripe's own valuation hit $159 billion earlier this year.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:34) **Welcome & Top Stories** - Brian McCullough introduces the episode covering Stripe's potential acquisitions, Midjourney's purchase of CoStar, Meta's new verification and seller app, and an open-weight AI defense letter.
- 2 (01:55) **Stripe in Talks to Buy OpenRouter for ~$10B** - Sources say Stripe is negotiating to acquire the AI model aggregator OpenRouter, which helps developers access and switch between cheaper AI models.
- 3 (03:25) **Stripe Also Pursuing a Deal for PayPal** - Stripe, along with private equity firm Advent International, has submitted a ~$50 billion offer to acquire PayPal.
- 4 (04:35) **Midjourney Buys Astrology App CoStar** - The AI lab has acquired the popular astrology app CoStar, which has ~4.3 million monthly active users, as part of an eclectic expansion plan.
- 5 (07:19) **Meta Launches Free "Facebook Verified" Using Facial Recognition** - Meta introduces a free verification program that uses a facial recognition selfie to confirm a user is human, combating AI-generated fake profiles.
- 6 (10:14) **Meta Launches "Seller," a Standalone Marketplace App** - Meta spins off Facebook Marketplace into a free, dedicated app called Seller, targeting power users who sell items.
- 7 (12:27) **Nvidia, Microsoft, and Others Defend Open-Weight AI** - A coalition of tech firms, including Meta, Palantir, and a16z, signs a letter arguing that open-weight AI models are critical for U.S. competitiveness and innovation.
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Show Notes
Stripe was in talks to buy OpenRouter for as much as $10B while still chasing PayPal. Midjourney bought astrology app Co-Star, Meta launched Facebook Verified and a standalone Seller app, and Nvidia and Microsoft defended open-weight AI.
- Sources: Stripe is in talks to acquire OpenRouter, which helps developers use AI models and could fetch ~$10B; PitchBook: OpenRouter was valued at $1.3B in May (WSJ)
- Sources: Stripe and Advent's unsolicited $53B PayPal offer, backed by ~$50B in committed bank financing, would create a payments giant processing ~$3.7T annually; PayPal has not responded (Reuters)
- Midjourney bought astrology app Co-Star, which uses AI to offer personalized advice, in the spring and is building its first standalone image-generation app (Bloomberg)
- Meta launches Facebook Verified, a free program it says will verify that users are real humans by analyzing a facial recognition selfie and assigning badges (Engadget)
- Meta launches Seller, a free standalone app version of Facebook Marketplace; Seller includes AI features that scan photos to fill out listings automatically (NYT)
- Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, a16z, and others sign a letter defending open-source AI; Jensen Huang, in his first X post, says open models strengthen cybersecurity (The Information)
- Signatories including Palantir avoid naming China or Moonshot in the open-weight letter, framing it instead around US AI leadership being judged by a strong open ecosystem, not one frontier model (Bloomberg)
Longreads
- Meet All The Middle Aged Women Who Don't Exist: AI-generated wellness influencers, all gorgeous and all "57", are selling NMN supplements to women over 40 (Charlotte's Book)
- Big US pizza delivery chains are struggling as DoorDash and Uber Eats give independent pizzerias greater market access, erasing the tech moat chains once had (FT)