Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have ditched their $53 billion pursuit of PayPal, ending a deal that would have been the largest fintech acquisition ever.[634979][507058] The OpenRouter and PayPal deals were operating on independent tracks, according to a source.[634979] Stripe last week agreed to pay $8 billion for AI model marketplace OpenRouter, but the pursuit of PayPal was a separate effort.[634979] PayPal was valued at around $200 billion before the proposed deal with Stripe and Advent.[507058] The move comes as Stripe continues to expand its reach in the fintech industry.[507058]