Stripe is acquiring OpenRouter, an artificial-intelligence startup that routes queries between different AI models, for $7.5 billion. The payments company said the deal unites its core business with OpenRouter's ability to help companies optimize spending across multiple AI services. Stripe did not publicly elaborate on strategic rationale beyond the operational synergy. Source
OpenAI announced it has slowed the pace of some AI development while it tightens security and safeguards, including a two-week pause on training. The move comes as the company faces an impending IPO, intense competition from Anthropic, and pressure from Chinese and open-weight rivals. OpenAI said the slowdown will allow it to improve safety measures before resuming full-speed development. Source
Relativity Networks, an infrastructure startup focused on data-center connectivity, raised $22 million in funding. The company deploys hollow-core fiber, a rarely deployed technology that allows data to be transmitted 30 percent faster than conventional fiber. The capital will support expansion as demand for high-speed data connections to power AI workloads grows. Source
OpenAI reaffirmed zero-data-retention policies for eligible API customers and previewed Private Safety Processing, a capability that conducts advanced AI safety checks without retaining or logging customer data. The privacy protections come as enterprises increasingly demand assurances that their proprietary information will not be used to train future models or stored longer than necessary. Source
Anthropic announced plans to embed invisible watermarks in AI-generated content to comply with new European Union rules. Within hours of the announcement, software developers began posting workarounds online that claim to override the watermarks. The rapid emergence of bypasses underscores the technical challenges of implementing compliance mechanisms that bad actors cannot easily circumvent. Source