AI is moving straight into checkout. ChatGPT now shows a buy button for products, while Google has added Etsy and Wayfair listings to Search and Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot has launched its own shopping checkout flow. That has turned one question into a major battleground: when an AI agent spends money for a user, whose payment rails carry the transaction?
On September 16, 2025, Google and more than 60 companies introduced an “AI Agent payment protocol.” Later that month, on September 29, Stripe and OpenAI released the Agentic Commerce Protocol, or ACP. Stripe also said it was testing ACP-based agentic commerce with Microsoft Copilot, Anthropic, and Perplexity. The two ecosystems have little overlap, with Coinbase standing out as one of the few names connected to both sides.
Stripe moved from stablecoin access to wallets and its own chain
Stripe’s buildout started picking up speed in 2024. During a fintech roundtable at Stripe’s San Francisco headquarters in the summer of that year, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison met Zach Abrams, co-founder of Bridge. Bridge helps businesses integrate stablecoin payments, and its customers include Coinbase and SpaceX.
In October 2024, Stripe announced it would acquire Bridge for $1.1 billion. Just months earlier, Bridge had raised a $40 million Series A in March 2024 at a $200 million valuation. By February 2025, the deal had closed and Bridge’s 60-person team had joined Stripe in San Francisco.
Stripe then added pieces quickly. In May 2025, it launched stablecoin financial accounts, giving businesses in 101 countries the ability to hold stablecoin balances and send or receive payments globally. In June, it acquired wallet infrastructure firm Privy, which at the time supported more than 75 million accounts. In September, Stripe and Paradigm incubated Tempo, a new blockchain focused on payments.
Tempo targets high throughput while ACP plugs directly into ChatGPT
The group involved in Tempo’s design includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, Visa, Shopify, Standard Chartered, Nubank, DoorDash, Revolut, and Coupang. Patrick Collison said Tempo is built for tens of thousands of transactions per second, sub-second confirmation, and fees of less than $0.001 per transaction. Those fees are denominated in dollar stablecoins rather than a volatile native token.
Stripe and OpenAI also formally launched ACP in September 2025 and rolled out Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. Users can see recommended products in the chat interface and complete an order without leaving the conversation. Etsy sellers were supported first, with Shopify merchants following after that.
In October 2025, Tempo raised $500 million in its first funding round at a $5 billion valuation. In December, it opened public testing and added UBS, Mastercard, and Klarna to its partner list. Around the same time, Bridge applied for a U.S. national bank trust charter to align with the GENIUS Act, the stablecoin law that took effect in July 2025.
Google leans on an alliance, while Circle benefits at the settlement layer
Google’s path looks different. Instead of building the full stack from issuance capabilities to wallets and blockchain infrastructure, it has centered its effort on an open protocol and a broad alliance. Based on the source material, Google entered the race with AP2 but without its own chain, stablecoin, or wallet. That leaves the contest focused on the entry point: who controls the interface and protocol layer when AI makes a purchase.
At settlement, Circle holds a notable position. USDC appears across both camps: Stripe’s stablecoin financial accounts support USDC, OpenAI uses USDC through Stripe, and Coinbase in Google’s orbit also connects to USDC. The source says global stablecoin transfer volume reached $15.6 trillion in 2024, roughly in line with Visa’s annual payment volume. Edgar Dunn & Co. estimates that AI-driven transactions will reach $1.7 trillion by 2030.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a Senate hearing in June 2025 that a $2 trillion stablecoin market capitalization is “a very reasonable expectation.” From the facts now on the table, the fight over AI payment standards is not only about protocol control between Google and Stripe. It is also about who captures the flow of stablecoin settlement as AI commerce expands.