Stripe Harnesses AI Billing Deals to Diversify Payments Empire

Stripe is positioning itself to play an even greater role in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector that already propelled its revenue to increase by a third to $6.8 billion last year, The Information reported Wednesday (July 22).

The company processes payments for AI labs and developers, and it already takes a small cut of the surging sales of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, as it processes their subscription and usage-based payments, according to the report.

Stripe has also been working to diversify its revenue beyond payments processing and into billing, invoicing, tax and other offerings, per the report.

The company reportedly made a bid for PayPal, and it acquired usage-based startup Metronome, added an AI Gateway service that allows developers to access different models and track usage, acquired stablecoin company Bridge, and became a founding member of the consortium behind the Open USD stablecoin, the report said.

Together, these moves could enable Stripe to expand into other areas such as enabling machine-to-machine payments and other micropayments involving AI agents, per the report.

PYMNTS reported July 15 that a Stripe/PayPal deal would combine Stripe’s software that merchants deploy with PayPal’s payment credentials that consumers already use.

It was reported July 15 that Stripe and Advent International submitted a joint offer that valued PayPal at more than $53 billion.

Two days later, on Friday (July 17), it was reported that the PayPal board’s preliminary assessment was that the offer undervalues the company and does not fully reflect the value management could create by completing its turnaround.

Stripe completed its purchase of Metronome in January, saying that metering and billing will play important roles in the shift toward usage-based models.

When announcing a month earlier, in December 2025, that it had signed an agreement to acquire Metronome, Stripe said it planned to integrate Metronome’s usage-based billing capabilities for software companies into its own billing platform.

It was reported in February that Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a tender offer designed to provide liquidity to current and former employees.

That figure was up from the $106.7 billion valuation the company achieved in September and the $95 billion valuation in had in 2021.