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OpenRouter is joining Stripe

openrouter.ai

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Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#111
post #71
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious on what OpenRouter's true moat is? It's just an LLM API routing framework, right?

Yeah, and Stripe is "just" a payments platform. Openrouter is easy, reliable and performant (like Stripe).

There are already other providers that can say the same, some with very small teams and better rates.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#112
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious on what OpenRouter's true moat is? It's just an LLM API routing framework, right?

OpenRouter’s “moat” is currently “why would I use anything else?”. Stripe has presumably only purchased them because they think there’s consumer-surplus to monetize here, which presumably will soon be giving me lots of reasons to use something else.

OpenCode Go is too good to be true, and I suspect it won't last, like GitHub Copilot.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#113
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious on what OpenRouter's true moat is? It's just an LLM API routing framework, right?

OpenRouter’s “moat” is currently “why would I use anything else?”. Stripe has presumably only purchased them because they think there’s consumer-surplus to monetize here, which presumably will soon be giving me lots of reasons to use something else.

Because the others are cheaper

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#115
post #65

It is amazing how we watch from the sidelines these aquisitions and think .... why such big bill ? But it takes a good team to sell and everytime someone is successful it is because probably they have great sellers who believe in their value and demand a price. It is certainly not an easy task to get to the finish line for a startup and pay back their investors.

Curious on what OpenRouter's true moat is? It's just an LLM API routing framework, right?

I presume they are sitting on a lot of usage data and will be able to roll out efficient auto-routing based on it. There is a huge demand for this as most users are overwhelmed by provider options and just want to route to the best/cheapest model based on the task.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#116
post #3

Could someone explain why these routers are so valuable and pulling acquisitions in the billions?

You can save money and get higher uptime. Without it using a cheap provider for open models would be risky because they might go down a lot, but routers can detect that and instantly switch to a different provider. They basically take away all your exposure.

The other thing is convenience and centralized security from using one gateway to access everything. It's a lot better than having to deal with N accounts with separate limits and monitoring. And giving your payment details to one company instead of 20 is obviously safer.

Investors like them because the pricing is inherently usage based so there's zero risk of clients using more tokens than what they paid for. Guaranteed profit as long as they can keep a modest amount of customers.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#118
post #96

It is amazing how we watch from the sidelines these aquisitions and think .... why such big bill ? But it takes a good team to sell and everytime someone is successful it is because probably they have great sellers who believe in their value and demand a price. It is certainly not an easy task to get to the finish line for a startup and pay back their investors.

If you meant that generally: because productivity is increasing; the world is getting richer. Not all of it flows down, but some does; top SV salaries are up too. By a lot. edit: Inflation does not account for the observed growth.

We are certainly seeing higher monetary velocity in certain sectors. That usually follows from real economic expansion but could also be due in part to inflation.

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#119
post #65

It is amazing how we watch from the sidelines these aquisitions and think .... why such big bill ? But it takes a good team to sell and everytime someone is successful it is because probably they have great sellers who believe in their value and demand a price. It is certainly not an easy task to get to the finish line for a startup and pay back their investors.

Curious on what OpenRouter's true moat is? It's just an LLM API routing framework, right?

I dont know exactly but dont you think 90% of Vertical AI Companies are doing same?

Re: OpenRouter is joining Stripe

#120
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's good about their DevEx?

You create an account. Pay money. Get API key. Use APIs.

But if you use any decent amount of tokens, it's probably worth saving the 15% by moving to the provider they're proxying.

And if it's not worth it, then are you spending enough where it even effects Openrouter's bottom line?

With enough devs playing with hobby projects I'm not doubting it's profitable, only that $7 billion seems way too high.

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