Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter as it pushes beyond payments into the infrastructure behind AI applications. According to The New York Times, the deal is reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion, with $1.5 billion allocated to OpenRouter's founders. Less than three months ago the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. CNBC reports: OpenRouter has become popular with developers seeking to use AI models, particularly those considered non-proprietary and available for free. Many of these so-called open-weight AI models stem from Chinese labs like DeepSeek and Z.ai, which have gained steam among developers for generally being more cost-efficient relative to proprietary AI models from U.S. companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

In a blog post about the deal, Stripe noted that it's been working with companies to "optimize their token costs and route tokens efficiently," referring to a kind of metric used to measure AI model usage. Stripe said it's difficult to manage AI costs relative to performance because of the rapid "pace at which models are released and repriced." [...]

OpenRouter said in a blog post that combining with Stripe will help with its overall vision of "a healthy AI ecosystem where many models thrive, where AI neurodiversity is a strength, where a lab or an inference provider with a breakthrough can reach millions of developers, and where no single model becomes the default by inertia." "Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI, and together with OpenRouter we'll help businesses maximize profitability by routing their requests intelligently and spending their tokens efficiently," Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said in a statement.

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Amazon says its Prime Air drone delivery service will expand sixfold to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, including metro areas around Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise. According to Amazon Prime Air vice president David Carbon, the service has already delivered "hundreds of thousands of packages to customers" this year, typically within about an hour. The Verge reports: These will join 11 locations across the US where Amazon already offers drone deliveries, with each Prime Air site serving an area of approximately 175 square miles. The service aims to quickly deliver packages of up to 5 pounds or less [...]. Amazon reiterated its drone safety features alongside these expansion plans, including Prime Air's "industry-leading Detect-and-Avoid system." That's likely an attempt to minimize any concerns raised by the communities where the service is expanding, given these drones have already been scrutinized for crashing into cranes, internet cables, gardens, and an apartment building.

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Independent music publisher Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI systems. The company says potential damages could exceed $1 billion, arguing there is "nothing fair" about building multibillion-dollar AI businesses on copyrighted material while rights holders receive nothing. From The Hollywood Reporter: Round Hill is a prominent music publisher whose copyrights include the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris," Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the Kinks' "Lola" and Dio's "Holy Diver." The company provided a list of 500 songs that the defendants had infringed upon. Round Hill said in the suits that the company plans to "amend to list potentially ten thousand or more of their musical compositions," with those damages potentially exceeding $1 billion. "While in other cases for copyright infringement, Defendant has waxed poetic about the necessity of progress and AI's value to society, there is simply no reason -- other than rote expediency -- to have that progress come at the cost of copyrights holders," prominent music attorney Richard Busch, representing Round Hill, wrote in the suits.

Round Hill further argued that the latter "'expediency' arguments completely falter" when taking into account Suno and Anthropic's significant cash valuations they've earned while "exploiting illicit copies of copyrighted works, including the Round Hill Works." "There is simply nothing fair about a company using theft to build for purely commercial purposes a multi-billion dollar business while those from which they steal receive nothing," Round Hill said.
Suno also faces a lawsuit from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group.

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CISA says the Medusa ransomware operation has breached more than 500 U.S. critical infrastructure organizations since 2021, up from more than 300 reported last year. The group has targeted healthcare, government, defense, manufacturing, IT and financial organizations, evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service operation that recruits initial-access brokers and uses stolen data to pressure victims into paying. BleepingComputer reports: The three federal agencies recommended that network defenders secure their networks against the ransomware group's attacks by mitigating security vulnerabilities to protect operating systems, software, and firmware from exploitation attempts. Security teams are also advised to segment networks to block lateral movement after compromise and to block access from untrusted origins to remote services on internal systems.

[...] "Medusa developers typically recruit initial access brokers (IABs) in cybercriminal forums and marketplaces to obtain initial access to potential victims," the advisory says. "Potential payments between $100 USD and $1 million USD are offered to these affiliates with the opportunity to work exclusively for Medusa."

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Our expert betting writers have picked a four-leg early Bet Builder, including a podium finish, top-six finish and Virtual Safety Car.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

APELDOORN (ANP) - In de eerste zes maanden van dit jaar zijn 4,6 procent meer hypotheken afgesloten dan in dezelfde periode een jaar eerder, meldt het Kadaster. Van januari tot en met juni zijn bijna 217.000 nieuwe hypotheken afgesloten, tegenover ruim 207.000 een jaar eerder.

De totale waarde van alle hypotheken was 84,8 miljard euro. Dat is zo'n 8 procent hoger dan in de eerste zes maanden van 2025, maar minder dan het record van 95,2 miljard in de tweede helft van vorig jaar.

De meeste hypotheken worden gebruikt om een woning te kopen. Gemiddeld was de hypotheeksom voor een woning in het afgelopen halfjaar ruim 517.000 euro, zo'n 5 procent hoger dan in dezelfde periode een jaar eerder. Volgens het Kadaster hangt deze stijging samen met de gemiddelde woningprijs, die eveneens minder snel steeg.

Starterslening

Het Kadaster ziet ook dat steeds meer starters op de huizenmarkt een aansluitende starterslening afsluiten bij hun eerste woninghypotheek. Daarbij overbrugt een extra lening het verschil tussen de prijs van de koopwoning en het maximale leenbedrag voor starters. In de eerste zes maanden van 2026 sloot ruim 8 procent van de startende leners zo'n extra lening af. Een jaar eerder was dat nog ruim 6 procent. Deze lening had een gemiddelde waarde van zo'n 37.000 euro.

Koopwoningen worden volgens het Kadaster voor een steeds groter deel met eigen geld betaald. In het eerste halfjaar van dit jaar werden woningen voor 87 procent met een hypotheeklening betaald, tegenover 92 procent in de eerste helft van 2019. Het Kadaster stelt dat hoe duurder een woning is, hoe meer eigen geld eraan wordt besteed. Zo werden woningen met een prijs boven de 1 miljoen euro bijvoorbeeld voor net geen 70 procent met een hypotheek bekostigd.

NEW YORK (ANP) - De aandelenbeurzen in New York zijn woensdag met bescheiden winsten gesloten. Farmaceut Moderna verdubbelde ruimschoots in waarde na de bekendmaking van positieve onderzoeksresultaten rondom een mogelijk nieuw vaccin tegen huidkanker. Beleggers verwerkten verder een aankondiging van het Amerikaanse ministerie van Financiën die de rentes op langlopende staatsobligaties omlaagbracht.

De Dow-Jonesindex klom 0,2 procent tot 53.463,05 punten. De S&P 500 steeg 0,2 procent tot 7707,98 punten en techbeurs Nasdaq eindigde ook 0,2 procent hoger op 26.331 punten.

Moderna maakte een historische koerssprong van 178 procent, maar is nog steeds minder waard dan tijdens de coronapandemie. De farmaceut meldde samen met branchegenoot Merck & Co positieve resultaten van een onderzoek naar een mogelijk vaccin tegen huidkanker. Beleggers reageerden enthousiast op het nieuws, omdat het positieve vooruitzichten kan bieden voor kankerbehandelingen op basis van mRNA. Die technologie werd ook gebruikt voor coronavaccins, waar Moderna tijdens de pandemie groot mee werd.

Rentes

De afgelopen dagen verloren de belangrijkste beursgraadmeters nog terrein, onder andere door zorgen over oplopende rentes op de obligatiemarkten. Woensdag daalden de rentes na een opvallende mededeling. Het ministerie van Financiën wil het inkoopprogramma voor langer lopende staatsobligaties minstens in omvang verdubbelen.

Analisten en beleggers zien dit als signaal dat de regering zich zorgen maakt over oplopende rentes op langlopende obligaties. Die bereikten dinsdag het hoogste niveau in bijna twintig jaar door zorgen over de Amerikaanse staatsschuld, het effect van de Iranoorlog op inflatie en het vele geld dat techbedrijven lenen voor de ontwikkeling van AI.

Zorgen over inflatie

Uit de notulen van de rentevergadering van de Federal Reserve werd duidelijk dat beleidsmakers zich zorgen maken over aanhoudend hoge inflatie. Veel van hen verwachten dat een renteverhoging nodig is als de prijsstijgingen niet in hevigheid afnemen, staat in de stukken.

Chipmaker Marvell won bijna 10 procent na de aankondiging van een grote deal met Google. Dat techbedrijf krijgt het recht om voor 12,2 miljard dollar aan aandelen van Marvell te kopen. De halfgeleiderfabrikant levert Google tegelijkertijd chips voor de ontwikkeling van AI. Google-moederbedrijf Alphabet steeg 0,2 procent op de beurs.

Reports say Duke and Duchess of Sussex intend to relocate from US, with children to start British school in September

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to live in Britain, six years after leaving for the US, it has been reported.

The couple and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to relocate later this month to a non-royal residence.

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Spaniard loses narrowly in fourth round of the Cincinnati Open yet the buzz around him will only get louder

As Rafael Jódar slowly trudged from the court, he could only bring himself to wave at his adoring crowd for no more than a millisecond. The 19-year-old was appropriately devastated after he had come within two points of victory on numerous occasions before losing 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the fourth round of the Cincinnati Open to an excellent Flavio Cobolli.

No matter, Jódar departs Ohio having further solidified himself as the subject of so much conversation on the ATP Tour. This has been a turbulent and unpredictable year in men’s tennis, largely thanks to Carlos Alcaraz’s extended injury layoff. The one certainty through it all has been the imperious rise of Jódar. After a short period competing at the University of Virginia, Jódar started to play regularly on the tour only in May last year. In August 2025, he was ranked No 540. He began the 2026 season at No 165.

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Lisa Hayden-Johnson was convicted of child cruelty, but she still insists that she didn’t do anything wrong – and barely gets a grilling about it. Her children, who speak for the first time in this documentary, deserve much more

There’s an increasingly common pattern emerging whereby documentary makers take a story that was run through the Outrage-A-Tron by the tabloids to produce headlines that warped public understanding (“Britain’s Worst/Most Evil/Most Deadly” and so on), then proceed to put back some of the lost nuance and present the more complicated original picture. Lucy Letby (“Britain’s Worst Child Killer”) has been the subject of at least two such films redressing the lost balance. Last week, the story of Rhianan Rudd (“Britain’s Youngest Terrorist”) was unpacked and its many sadder parts laid out for inspection in The Schoolgirl Terrorist?

In Love You to Death, it is the turn of Lisa Hayden-Johnson, who became known as “Britain’s Most Evil Mum” during her trial and conviction for child cruelty after years spent fabricating her son Matthew’s apparent illnesses. He was put through more than 300 medical encounters, nine general anaesthetics, four operations by the age of nine, and endured many unnecessary constraints on his life, including using a wheelchair, feeding tube and oxygen tank, until Lisa was arrested when he was nine.

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• France World Cup midfielder could cost £50m

• Tottenham discussing £150m double deal for forward pair

Manchester City have identified Roma’s Manu Koné as a potential target to further strengthen Enzo Maresca’s options in midfield.

While City have already bought Elliot Anderson for £116m and are closing in on the £85m signing of Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi, Maresca also admires Koné for his dynamic mode of play. He would be expected to cost around £50m.

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on the water photography has added a photo to the pool:

The Statue Specs: Measuring 41 meters long, 11 meters high, and weighing roughly 300 tons, it is often cited as one of the largest bronze statues in the world.

Purpose & History: Built in 1988, the statue serves as a repository for the sacred ashes of Buddha presented by the Buddhist Congress of Myanmar.

El Gran Silencio

Alice in Chains

Randy Newman

bpanneman has added a photo to the pool: