After months of takeover talk, reports say Stripe has agreed to buy AI inference routing service OpenRouter for more than $8 billion. OpenRouter connects developers and companies to multiple AI models through a single API and interface. Bankless writer David Christopher said the deal can be viewed through the lens of growing payment demand from AI agents. OpenRouter charges a 5.5 percent fee when users top up credits and had annualised revenue of about $140 million as of late July.

Arthur Hayes says bitcoin could rise to $1 million if an AI infrastructure investment boom falters on debt problems and authorities restart large-scale liquidity support. He argues AI absorbed new liquidity first, and a later credit shock could redirect policy funds into crypto. Others cite narrowing market breadth, high valuations in top S&P 500 companies and rising private credit exposure to AI. Critics say risk-off selloffs can drag bitcoin down first.