Stripe says 'the singularity' began eight months ago, and is accelerating its business

Global financial technology company Stripe said in a recent investor letter that it has been operating on the basis that the world has passed the singularity in January 2026.

The singularity is often referred to as a technological inflection point where AI begins self-improvement beyond human control or prediction.

"The singularity is often invoked alongside millenarian forecasts, but, in our case, we simply saw a large inflection in long-run trends (for example, a huge increase in the rate of new firm creation), and we decided that we ought to take the phase change seriously," Stripe executives wrote in the leaked investor letter, first reported by Axios.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, president John Collison, and president for technology and business, William Gaybrick wrote in the letter that Stripe intends to "accelerate the diffusion of AI across the economy" by supporting new products and services enabled by AI.

Furthermore, the company said it aims to play a role in protecting economic autonomy against AI-led unemployment or centralization, as it supports new and growing businesses enhanced by AI today.

Stripe said the singularity is already accelerating its business, reporting that its H1 net revenue has grown 41% year-over-year and free cash flow grew 43% over the same period.

Stablecoin and AI agents

In Stripe's post-singularity phase, the company said it is focusing its products and services on two core elements of AI transformation: native stablecoin support and agentic accessibility. This includes Bridge's stablecoin orchestration capabilities and Tempo's position as the blockchain network for AI agents.

"Agents are on the cusp of becoming economic actors in their own right," the letter said. "Stablecoins are gaining rapid adoption and will likely be further boosted as they become the native currency of the AI economy."

Stripe said it expects a "composition shift" over time, in which the AI economy stack gains a larger share relative to the pre-AI economy stack. Around 88% of the Forbes AI 50 firms and 100% of Brex's list of fastest-growing startups are building on Stripe, the firm added.

Meanwhile, Stripe's leaked letter also announced that it had purchased OpenRouter in its "largest-ever" acquisition. While Stripe did not disclose the amount of the transaction, the New York Times reported that the firm bought the AI startup for $7.5 billion. Stripe declined to comment on the exact terms of the deal.

OpenRouter operates a unified API gateway that allows developers to access hundreds of AI large language models from a single endpoint.

"OpenRouter is exceptionally useful for any developer, and Stripe is one of the world's largest developer platforms," the letter said. "As such, we think that there will be many benefits and efficiencies in bringing these two core needs together."

Stripe added that it remains a private company as it navigates the post-singularity era, and said its current corporate structure allows it to "steer the right long-term course."