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Comments (44)

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  mchusma
  I was more skeptical of openrouter a year ago. Not hard to implement multiple models, but after getting burned multiple times (eg Google in particular) I see openrouter as serving a few key functions: (1) aggregating demand across neoclouds for performance etc (2) providing a great developer experience (3) easily switching models and normalizing the idiosyncratic nature of each. There are so many (good) model providers today this is more compelling now with 10+ solid model companies than a year ago when I thought it might be just 3.So I have shifted load away from calling some models to openrouter.
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  Hasz
  I would not be suprised to see Cloudflare launch a competitor in the next 6 mo. They've done similar before, and it fits their "middle man/service provider" vibe well.OpenRouter is good because of the market ecosystem play. I see this fragmenting similar to game distribution -- a handful of 3rd-party disti, 1 first-party disti, and some exclusivity/lockup/limited support outside of first party.I am very interested to see how Stripe develops this. I would be happy to see a less-clunky top-up solution, for example, perhaps with micropayments. Not sure what else they are planning.
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  Taikhoom10
  Basically if you look at OpenRouter in a isolation this could be confusing, but when bundled with Stripe's integrated product solutions for the lower end, developer centric market, this makes infitite sense. https://s-1.vercel.app/posts/what-stripe-can-become-broader-...
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  m1ck
  The harness is the router. I don't understand this.
• root-parent
  Where is the guy who marks all the dupes? Day off? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49323381
• x-n2o
  https://archive.is/A2Yw4
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  minraws
  I both think OpenRouter is not worth 7B$ and Stripe might have made a brilliant move in making this purchase, honestly just troubling thoughts around model inference and model token as the new traded currency go through my head.Imagine if Stripe's end game is to control which producers of tokens become visible for a price aka middleman tax for tokens. If AI is as big a change as people claim honestly AWS should have bought openrouter instead.But either way though 7B$ is just too rich no matter what, because the middleman tax is only worth it if you have a moat which OpenRouter doesn't.All it takes is one of the bigger players to get serious and they will have a similar platform up and working in months if not weeks. (like Vercel & Cloudflare are already doing but even they are small compared to the true behemoths)If hyperscalers start their own open routing service and cut off openrouter completely and become price competitive, I feel like they could wipe them out.7B$ is just too much. Without enough of a big defensible moat. Especially since you can use a router in-front of openrouter and move users piece meal.Can anyone explain what makes OpenRouter specifically worth 7B$ over everyone else? I say that as someone who has used a lot of similar services with similar results. Openrouter is better but only marginally.
• stillpointlab
  Not exactly related, but I've seen people suggesting a new path for opens source funding that would be around tokens instead of cash. One might be able to pledge tokens towards a feature or fix instead of cash.Even the suggestion of this absent an implementation hints at a future for tokens as a commodity. But it is interesting to think of it as some kind of new asset class, between commodity and currency.I mean, we already think of tokens in the form of currency in crypto (e.g. NFT). There may be more than just similarity in the name choice when it comes to AI tokens. One could even think of things like "exchange rates", etc.
• Taikhoom10
  makes sense - https://s-1.vercel.app/posts/why-openrouter-can-be-the-next-...
• zarp
  positioning for commoditization of intelligence
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  baron3dl
  OpenRouter is a two-sided inference market with an established network and spinning flywheel. If Stripe can manage not killing it, it is going to print them money for a long time.edit: Fixed the poor AM English.
• anon
  undefined
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  merqurio
  If LLM providers continue grow and become such a standard part of the tech stack of any deployment, this acquisition makes a lot of sense. It's just another payment management system for stripe.It's fun to see someone being able to exit so well without owning any model.
• cute_boi
  Another bottomless money pit.
• fintuner
  [flagged]
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  orangedog
  7B for a wrapper.