The company described modern markets as a high-speed “sorting machine,” with profits and capital clustering among top performers. In U.S. retail, inflation-adjusted brick-and-mortar sales rose just 5% over three years, while ecommerce climbed 30%. Software, computers and data centers accounted for nearly half of U.S. GDP growth in 2025.
Startup formation is also accelerating. Stripe explained that more companies joined its platform in 2025 than in any prior year, and 57% were based outside the U.S. The number of firms reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue within three months of launch doubled compared with 2024.
Its incorporation product, Stripe Atlas, recorded a 41% increase in formations. Twenty percent of Atlas startups charged their first customer within 30 days, up from 8% in 2020. Developers are also leaning into AI-native workflows, with more than 100,000 claimable “sandboxes” created to move projects from prototype to live deployment.
The letter emphasizes that new internet businesses now launch globally by default. Among Stripe companies with mostly international revenue, 30% of that revenue comes from countries outside their home market and outside the world’s ten largest economies. Localized checkouts in more than 100 countries and support for over 120 payment methods have reduced the friction of cross-border commerce.
Perhaps the most forward-looking section centers on “agentic commerce,” or AI systems that can initiate and complete purchases. Stripe outlined five levels, from simple form-filling to fully autonomous buying. It partnered with OpenAI to create an Agentic Commerce Protocol and introduced shared payment tokens that let AI agents transact without exposing sensitive credentials.
“We’re reminded of those few years in the mid-90s when the structure of the internet we use today was hashed out,” the Stripe letter concludes. “Netscape developed graphical web browsers. HTTP and HTML became the shared application layer. URLs and DNS gained prominence. At the time, no one knew exactly which protocols or players would win out. There was an Altavista for every Google.”
The Stripe executives added:
“We’re in a similarly rare moment now with agentic commerce, which has the potential to be generationally impactful. As with the early internet, the future success of agentic commerce is contingent on universal interoperability. Our ascent through the five levels depends on our ability to work together.”
The letter closes with a cautionary note that regulation and institutional bottlenecks could slow adoption even as AI expands what is possible. Stripe’s founders argue that while 2026 may feel familiar, the next decade could look radically different for entrepreneurs, payments infrastructure and global commerce.
FAQ What was Stripe’s total payment volume in 2025?Stripe said businesses processed $1.9 trillion in payments, up 34% year over year. How are startups changing on Stripe’s platform?More companies joined in 2025 than ever before, and 57% were based outside the U.S. What is happening with stablecoin payments? Stablecoin volume doubled to roughly $400 billion, with most activity tied to B2B transactions. What is agentic commerce?It refers to AI systems that can initiate and complete purchases on a user’s behalf, moving from assisted checkout to autonomous buying.
