I sat down with @natebjones to discuss how @Stripe is building economic infra for AI. We cover: -Trust in the agentic economy -Why @patrickc refers to 1/1/26 as day one of the singularity -Building with @cursor_ai to stop fraudsters from stealing tokens

I launched a Substack: Breaking Change! I’m going to write about what I’m learning as we build through the biggest breaking change to how we work, at @stripe and beyond. First post: Can models build fully functioning t-shirt shops? Sort of.

1/ Looking to launch a stablecoin card program? With Privy and @stripe, you can now do that in as little as a month. Today, Privy is launching prebuilt components for cards: one integration to embed the full cardholder experience in your app and launch across 25+ countries.

Connect Link’s wallet for agents to a new app from @Meta that lets you set up and interact with a personal agent. With Link, your agent can shop from businesses all over the internet. You approve the transaction total and your payment details stay private. Get started:

Payments with Instinct are now powered by @link. Use Instinct to buy from businesses on the internet: compare deals and purchase at the best price, arrange a ride to the airport, or order groceries. Approve what Instinct spends while your payment details are protected.

AI is driving a surge in business formation across the country, with smaller metro areas benefiting disproportionately. In 2026, 40% of Stripe sign-ups were in metro areas with fewer than one million people, up 10% from four years ago. Within metro areas, new business formation is shifting towards the outer suburbs and away from the city center. We saw a similar shift during the pandemic as work from home policies came into place and we’re seeing a reacceleration in the last few years, coinciding with the advent of AI. It seems AI may be unlocking entrepreneurial potential among people who were previously constrained by their location. AI work itself is the exception to this story. The labs and AI product companies cluster tightly in San Francisco and other major metro areas. Agglomeration continues to matter at the technological frontier where knowledge is more tacit and the spillovers that come from proximity are more valuable. Read the full piece at Stripe Economics:

Ever find yourself stitching together data from a bunch of different services and wish it was just all in @stripe automatically? If so, my experimental projects team would love to chat. dms are open or email me milesm@stripe.com

"We think of Stripe as having inverted its value proposition. We began as a payments company with add-ons. Today, we’re a multiproduct platform built around financial infrastructure. Everything we build is designed to help businesses grow by reducing friction and increasing their agency—to adapt their business models, operate in more countries, and move faster across everything that touches revenue and cash." @gaybrick @DavidGeorge83 @a16z

Breaking my 6 year X "fast" (I'm not sure what potato is either) for a look into how AI companies are reaching customers around the world faster than previous generations of internet businesses. Our new analysis of AI companies points to localization increasingly becoming a product advantage.