Stripe's three top executives have sent their latest investor letter with a bold claim: January 1 marked "the start of the singularity." That's not to say AI has already surpassed humans. Rather, they argue that multiple long-term trends have hit a clear inflection point — like the pace of new company formation, which has jumped significantly. And they think staying private is now an advantage, not a drawback.
Stripe is also feasting on this growth. In the first half of the year, net revenue rose 41% year over year, and free cash flow grew 43%. On this year's Forbes AI 50 list, 88% of the companies use Stripe, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The remaining 12% mostly haven't even started commercializing. AI…