A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation about who actually built it. The free model was released on OpenRouter on Thursday, where it was described as “a reasoning model designed for coding, sustained agentic work, and production workload.” On X, Stripe CEO
A mysterious new AI model is making the rounds among developers — and nobody is saying who built it. Ox Alpha appeared on OpenRouter on Thursday as a “stealth model” from an anonymous third-party provider. OpenRouter describes it as a “reasoning model designed for coding, sustained agentic work, and production workloads. It is suited for
Stripe confirmed on Wednesday that it was buying OpenRouter. While the company didn’t disclose the deal price, sources told the New York Times that it paid $7.5 billion. That’s a huge step up from OpenRouter’s $1.3 billion valuation in May. To put that price in context, the founders alone will reportedly receive $1.5 billion from the
Stripe’s multi-billion-dollar pursuit of AI model marketplace startup OpenRouter isn’t just creating one of the biggest AI acquisitions of the year; it’s minting venture capital firms’ speedy wins. Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures are poised to turn investments made less than two years ago into payouts worth nearly $2 billion combined if Stripe acquires the
Stripe has finalized a deal to acquire OpenRouter, according to a new report in Bloomberg. OpenRouter helps customers to select different AI models to perform different tasks, depending on their specific needs and budget. The company announced in May that it had raised a $113 million Series B, at a reported $1.3 billion valuation. (Investors
