Stripe executives announced on Wednesday that the singularity—the long-hypothesized moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence—began on January 1, 2026, and the company has since operated under that assumption. In the same letter, Stripe said it is acquiring OpenRouter, a marketplace and switching service for AI models, in a deal reported to be worth roughly $7.5 billion. The company reported 41% year-over-year revenue growth and 43% free cash flow increase in the first half of its fiscal year, with 88% of the Forbes AI 50 using its platform. Stripe outlined goals to accelerate AI adoption across industries and ensure AI deployment gives people more control over their economic lives. It justified remaining private by citing the unpredictability of the singularity era and said there is no ceiling on the size of the global economy. The company already offers Token Billing for AI usage and did not mention the singularity claim in its public announcement about the OpenRouter acquisition.