Stripe is considering acquiring all or part of PayPal, according to CNBC. However, the discussions are still at an early stage, and there is no certainty that a deal will happen.
Stripe has expressed preliminary interest in buying the digital payments pioneer or some of its assets, but details remain limited.
Reached a $159 billion valuation
The announcement comes at a time when Stripe recently reached a $159 billion valuation following a new employee tender offer. Most of the capital for that transaction came from investors, including Thrive Capital, Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z. Stripe also used a portion of its own funds to repurchase shares.
The tender offer structure allows employees to sell shares while the company remains private. Stripe has used this approach before to provide liquidity without launching an IPO.
The new valuation represents a sharp increase from the $106.7 billion valuation it secured last year. Despite its scale, Collison said there are no immediate plans for a public listing.
In its 2025 annual letter, the company revealed that it processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume last year, up 34% from 2024. That figure equals roughly 1.6% of global GDP. Stripe also said it remained profitable in 2025 while continuing to invest heavily in products and acquisitions.
Its Revenue suite, which includes Billing, Invoicing and Tax, is on track to reach a $1 billion annual run rate this year. The company reported that more businesses joined Stripe in 2025 than in any prior year, with 57% of new customers based outside the United States.
Stripe is also expanding deeper into crypto and AI infrastructure. The company recently acquired stablecoin orchestration platform Bridge and crypto wallet provider Privy. According to its annual letter, the stablecoin payments market doubled to around $400 billion last year, with roughly 60% tied to business-to-business transactions.
To support this growth, Stripe introduced its blockchain network, Tempo, built in collaboration with Paradigm, designed to handle stablecoin payments efficiently during high traffic periods.
