John Collison says Stripe considers January 1, 2026, the start of the singularity

Most companies mark New Year’s Day with a holiday schedule. Stripe has decided it was also the day the singularity began. Co-founder John Collison says the payments company now treats January 1, 2026, as the official start of the singularity. He points to two forces: fast-moving AI advances and a sharp rise in the number of new companies being formed. From investor letter to official timeline The designation first appeared in an investor letter Stripe sent in mid-August 2026. The letter framed the shift as a phase change, driven mostly by an AI-fueled jump in new firm creation. Patrick and John Collison signed it alongside CTO William Gaybrick. The three said they intend to speed up AI adoption while also expanding the economic control individuals have over their own work. The letter did not arrive alone. Stripe paired it with news that it is acquiring OpenRouter, a platform for routing between AI models and running a marketplace for them, for more than $8 billion. The deal is mostly paid in stock. In February 2026, Patrick Collison suggested that the first quarter of the year could end up being remembered as the beginning of the singularity. By August, the guess had become a date ...