Financial Mindset

Stripe Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire OpenRouter Inc., a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models, for more than $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.  The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported $1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand from businesses to find the most cost-friendly AI solutions. It could also give Stripe, a payments processing firm, a stronger footing in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. The final price for the acquisition could change. The discussions were described by people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.  A spokesperson for Stripe said the firm doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation. OpenRouter declined to comment.  Founded in 2023, OpenRouter provides access to hundreds of AI models, with the goal of matching developers with the most efficient and affordable options for the job at hand....

President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea after the Republican president said South Korea declined to help denuclearize Iran. Trump said in a social media post that the exercises slated to begin this week are costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” while Trump has been in the White House. “Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. The 11 days of exercises  involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers  were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats. U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, an...

Anthropic cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei pushed back on the notion that he’s responsible for the public’s overall sense of doom around AI, but acknowledged there are trust issues. In a lengthy post on X on Saturday, which is unusual as he generally stays away from social media, he first addressed AI regulation, describing a false choice between those who argue it leads to regulatory capture and concentration of power versus those who think widely distributing AI, including via open models, is the best way to keep the technology in check. Amodei pointed out that institutions like the court system can decentralize power, while noting Anthropic has been in favor of policies that slow down frontier AI companies and also give smaller rivals an advantage. Still, he conceded that AI is structurally a technology that tends to concentrate power. But that’s not because of regulation. Instead, he attributed it to AI scaling laws, referring to how a model’s per...

Heading off to college is exciting, but it also involves new adult responsibilities. That makes it a great time to start getting comfortable with credit, building healthy  spending habits  and learning  how to manage money . It’s important for all students to build a solid foundation in managing their finances, said Sara Wilson, director of product innovation at Student Connections, an organization that helps students overcome financial barriers. “You have to consider the financial decisions you make in college because they impact what your financial security is going to be once you enter your first job,” Wilson said. If you’re starting college this fall or you’re currently a student, here are some expert recommendations: 1. Start building your credit College is the perfect time to start building your credit score, said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. A  credit score  is a mathematical formula that helps lenders d...

Harvard Management Co. disclosed a $2.2 billion stake in SpaceX, showing how the university’s endowment has profited from an early bet on Elon Musk’s giant rocket company. Harvard  reported it holds the position in its 13F filing on Friday, revealing it’s one of the largest endowment holders of the stock. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is the largest single stock disclosed in the filing, which shows Harvard held $4.3 billion of US equities. Harvard oversaw  $57 billion  as of June 2025, the latest publicly available figure.  SpaceX’s record-breaking initial public offering in June has  boosted returns  for college endowments that made investments through venture capital firms, sometimes more than a decade ago.  Others that have profited include the University of California’s investment arm, which reported in a filing this week a position worth about $1 billion, as well as the University of North Carolina and  Washington Universi...

The first U.S.-Japan joint intervention in three decades aimed at boosting the yen has come and gone without doing much to ease anxiety in currency markets. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s notepad  suggested the U.S. bought  $5 billion-$10 billion worth of yen, while Japan’s move topped $50 billion. The exchange rate initially strengthened to about 157 yen per dollar from nearly 164, but has since given back some gains and hovered around 159 on Friday. To be sure, efforts to prop up the yen were seen as short-term measures to address the symptoms rather than the root causes of the currency’s weakness. Those include Japan’s massive debt that exceeds 200% of GDP, fiscal stimulus that’s expected to worsen the deficit, and a central bank that’s been slow to raise rates in the face of high inflation. But given that the yen’s recent instability was enough to trigger the U.S.-Japan intervention, a key underpinning of global financial markets ...

Search “losing lottery tickets” on eBay and the site turns up something odd: stacks of worthless scratch-offs and instant tickets. Your choice if you want to pay by value or by weight: some listings offer a pound’s worth of losing lottery tickets from Pennsylvania for just $10, while others offer thousands of dollars’ worth of losing tickets, like Ohio lottery tickets worth $5,200 in losses, for $29.99. One listing even boasts $90,000 worth of losing Florida tickets for $575. Why would anyone drop more than five Benjamins for $90,000 worth of losing lottery tickets? Most of the listings you’ll see on eBay will be entitled along the lines of “collectibles” or for “arts and crafts” purposes. You’ll see the word “vintage” brandished about here and there, a “rare” or “no value” dropped in others. But search long enough and you’ll see the words “tax write offs” or “...