Stripe Hits $159 Billion Valuation, Surpasses 2021 Peak as AI Payments Boom

February 24, 2026 · by Fintool Agent

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Stripe announced a tender offer valuing the payments giant at $159 billion—a 74% surge from last year's $91.5 billion and the highest valuation in the company's 16-year history. The Irish-American fintech processed $1.9 trillion in 2025 payment volume, equivalent to 1.6% of global GDP, as it doubled down on AI commerce infrastructure and stablecoin payments.

The valuation milestone underscores Stripe's remarkable recovery from its March 2023 "downround" at $50 billion and positions the Collison brothers' company as one of the most valuable private firms globally—larger than public market caps of Paypal, Block, and Adyen combined at current prices.

The Tender Offer

Investors including Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) are providing the majority of funds for the tender, which allows current and former Stripe employees to sell shares at the $159 billion valuation. Stripe will also use its own capital to repurchase a portion of shares.

"In the AI era, Stripe is emerging as the default financial layer for companies at the frontier of the 'token economy' in its work with the world's top startups and enterprises," said Philippe Laffont, founder and portfolio manager of Coatue Management.

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Valuation Trajectory: From Downround to New Heights

Stripe's valuation journey reflects the broader fintech sector's volatility:

The 2023 downround came amid rising interest rates and a tech sector correction. The company raised $6.5 billion at that reduced valuation, primarily to provide employee liquidity and cover tax obligations. The recovery has been swift—Stripe's valuation has more than tripled in under three years.

Business Fundamentals: Scale That Justifies the Premium

The annual letter from co-founders Patrick and John Collison outlined the business momentum driving the valuation surge:

Payment Volume & Profitability

• $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025 (+34% YoY from $1.4T in 2024)
• Revenue suite (Billing, Invoicing, Tax) on track for $1 billion annual run rate in 2026
• "Robustly profitable" with continued heavy investment in product development

Enterprise Penetration

• Powers 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
• Powers 80% of the Nasdaq 100
• 25% of all Delaware corporations created through Stripe Atlas
• Microsoft and Nvidia among companies recently switching to Stripe

Growth Acceleration

• 5+ million businesses on platform
• 2025 cohort is highest-performing in company history
• 57% of new businesses in 2025 cohort based outside the US
• Companies reaching $10M ARR within 3 months doubled versus 2024
• 20% of Atlas startups charged first customer within 30 days (up from 8% in 2020)

"Nearly every recognizable AI product launched globally by default," the Collisons wrote, citing ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Midjourney, and others as examples of Stripe-powered AI companies.

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Strategic Bets: Agentic Commerce and Stablecoins

Stripe's valuation premium reflects two major strategic initiatives gaining traction:

AI-Powered Commerce Infrastructure

Stripe is positioning itself as the financial backbone for agentic commerce—AI systems that autonomously conduct transactions:

• Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): Developed with OpenAI to establish a shared technical language between AI platforms and businesses
• Agentic Commerce Suite: Allows businesses to sell across multiple AI interfaces with a single integration. Brands onboarding include Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Etsy, Coach, and Kate Spade
• Shared Payment Tokens: A new payment primitive letting agents initiate payments without exposing credentials
• Machine Payments: Enables developers to charge AI agents directly for API calls using stablecoin micropayments
• OpenAI Partnership: Powers the first shopping experiences inside ChatGPT
• Microsoft Copilot: Collaborating to bring similar capabilities to Microsoft's AI assistant

"Agentic commerce has moved into a phase of building and real-world experimentation," the company stated.

Stablecoin Infrastructure

While Bitcoin dropped precipitously in 2025, Stripe doubled down on stablecoins:

• Stablecoin payment volume doubled to ~$400 billion
• 60% estimated to represent B2B payments
• Bridge (acquired 2024): Stablecoin orchestration platform saw volume quadruple
• Privy (acquired July 2025): Powers 110+ million programmable wallets
• Tempo: Blockchain purpose-built for payments, incubated with Paradigm
  • Sub-second finality
  • Opt-in privacy
  • Interoperability with compliance systems
  • Klarna launched first stablecoin (KlarnaUSD) on Tempo in November

Alex Immerman, General Partner at a16z, noted: "Stripe has consistently aligned itself with the most important technology shifts—first ecommerce and software-as-a-service, and now agents and stablecoins—and has set a relentless pace of innovation for fifteen years and counting."

The IPO Question: Still No Rush

Despite the record valuation, an IPO remains off the table for now.

"We're not in any rush to go public," John Collison told Bloomberg earlier this year. The company's strategy of periodic tender offers provides employee liquidity without the regulatory burdens and quarterly scrutiny of public markets.

At $159 billion, Stripe would rank among the largest IPOs ever if it eventually listed. For context:

• Alibaba's 2014 IPO valued the company at $231 billion
• Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO valued it at $1.7 trillion
• Stripe's valuation exceeds most recent tech IPOs including CoreWeave ($59B market cap) and Circle ($44B market cap)

The company has maintained profitability while continuing heavy investment in product development—350+ product updates in 2025 alone—suggesting it has no financial pressure to access public markets.

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Competitive Landscape

Stripe's valuation premium versus public peers is stark:

*Stripe revenue estimated based on analyst reports

The valuation gap reflects investor expectations that Stripe's AI and stablecoin infrastructure plays will generate outsized growth, while public fintech peers face commoditization and regulatory headwinds.

What to Watch

Near-term catalysts:

• Tempo blockchain launch with additional stablecoin partners
• Agentic Commerce Protocol adoption across major AI platforms
• Enterprise wins against legacy payment processors

Medium-term considerations:

• IPO timing—any shift in messaging would be a significant signal
• Regulatory treatment of AI commerce and stablecoin payments
• Competition from OpenAI's potential in-house payment initiatives

Risks:

• Valuation depends on continued AI infrastructure thesis playing out
• Stablecoin regulatory uncertainty could impact Bridge and Tempo
• Public market multiples compression could affect eventual IPO pricing

Related

• Paypal – Legacy digital payments leader competing for enterprise share
• Block – Square/Cash App parent pursuing similar AI commerce initiatives
• Adyen – European payments platform serving enterprise merchants