Stripe acquires AI model marketplace OpenRouter; a16z may net ~$1.5B

This is a payments-infrastructure company buying model-routing plumbing, which says more about where Stripe sees transaction flow heading than about crypto rails. The a16z return is the signal worth noting: AI middleware, not tokenization, is where that capital found its exit. For RWA watchers the read-through is indirect — the same aggregator logic that makes model marketplaces acquirable could eventually apply to tokenized asset venues, but nothing here confirms that. Whether Stripe extends this into settlement or asset infrastructure is the open question.