Stripe, a private company used by 50% of the Fortune 500 to enable payments and more, is offering early shareholders the opportunity to sell some or all of their shares at a valuation of $159 billion.
Stripe was founded in 2010 and has avoided the public markets, generating sufficient revenue to be self-funded. The cost of becoming a public firm in the US has risen dramatically in the past decades, diminishing the number of public firms. While the current leadership at the SEC aims to make “IPOs great again,” Stripe is in no hurry to shoulder the onerous reporting and compliance requirements to trade shares on an exchange.
Stripe shared that investors, including Thrive Capital, Coatue, a16z, and others, will provide the majority of the money to purchase the shares. Stripe said it will also use internet funds to repurchase equity, but did not outline the amount it will dedicate.
Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison reported in their annual letter that they now power over 5 million businesses, “including all of the top AI companies.” Stripe is used by the largest blue-chip firms as well as many startups.
“Stripe remained robustly profitable, allowing us to continue investing heavily in product development (with more than 350 product updates last year) as well as acquisitions. […] All in all, 2025 was a strong year for the internet economy, and we’re delighted to see so many of Stripe’s customers do so well.”
Stripe said more new companies joined in 2025 than ever before, with 57% based outside the US.
Businesses in the 2025 cohort grew about 50% faster than those in the 2024 cohort. The number of companies reaching $10 million ARR within 3 months of launch was double the 2024 count.
Companies using Stripe are also said to be monetizing sooner:
“In 2025, 20% of Atlas startups charged their first customer within 30 days, up from 8% in 2020.”
Stripe touted its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, calling it a “generational shift.”
Stripe shared various partners as they build out their AI services:
- With OpenAI, Stripe developed the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to establish a shared technical language between AI platforms and businesses, open by design.
- Stripe launched an Agentic Commerce Suite that provides tooling for businesses to sell across multiple AI interfaces and protocols (including ACP and the Universal Commerce Protocol unveiled by Google last month) with a single integration. Brands already onboarding include Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Etsy, Coach, and Kate Spade.
- Stripe introduced Shared Payment Tokens, a new payment primitive that lets agents initiate payments without exposing credentials, usable even by businesses that don’t process payments with Stripe.
- Stripe launched machine payments, a way for developers to charge agents directly for API calls, MCP usage, and HTTP requests using stablecoin micropayments.
- Stripe partnered with OpenAI to power the first shopping experiences inside ChatGPT. Stripe is also collaborating with Microsoft to bring similar capabilities to Copilot.
While Bitcoin has declined in value, Stripe noted that stablecoin usage has doubled to around $400 billion – 60% of which are B2B payments.
Stablecoin platform Bridge, which Stripe acquired last year, reportedly saw volume more than quadruple.
Stripe is on track to hit an annual run rate of $1 billion. It garners over 33% of the payments sector and is available in over 47 countries, supporting more than 135 currencies.
While the founders are from Ireland, they established the company in the United States. It maintains dual headquarters in the US and in Dublin, Ireland.