Stripe Nears $140B Valuation Amid Ongoing IPO Delay
What Does the Latest Tender Offer Reveal?
Stripe has arranged a new tender offer that would value the payments company at no less than USD 140 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter. The terms are not final and could still change, the source said. Stripe declined to comment.
The proposed valuation exceeds the USD 107 billion level implied by a secondary transaction completed in 2025. While tender offers do not carry the identical price discovery as public markets, they provide a reference point for how institutional investors currently view Stripe’s scale, earnings profile, and long-term growth prospects.
Stripe has relied on tender offers since 2024 to give employees liquidity without pursuing a stock market listing. The latest transaction adds to a pattern that suggests private-market access remains the preferred route for managing shareholder needs.
Investor Takeaway
Why an IPO Still Appears Distant
Stripe’s leadership has repeatedly said there is no urgency to pursue an . In January 2026, co-founder and president John Collison reiterated that the company is comfortable operating as a private business, reinforcing expectations that an IPO is not imminent.
That stance is supported by Stripe’s financial footing. The company last raised external capital in 2023, securing USD 6.5 billion in a Series I round led by Thrive Capital. It reached full-year profitability in 2024, reducing pressure to access public equity markets for funding.
Tender offers have effectively replaced an IPO as the primary liquidity mechanism. For employees and ahead investors, these transactions provide partial exits while allowing the company to avoid the reporting burdens and market scrutiny associated with being publicly listed.
Operational Changes and Strategic Expansion
In 2025, Stripe cut around 300 roles, roughly 3.5% of its workforce, as part of an internal reorganisation. At the time, the company said it would continue recruiting and grow overall headcount, framing the reductions as targeted rather than a retreat from expansion.
Alongside those internal changes, Stripe has moved deeper into . The company recently acquired Bridge, a , and Privy, a cryptocurrency wallet company. While financial terms were not disclosed, the deals add stablecoin-related capabilities to Stripe’s payments stack.
Stablecoins offer quicker settlement and, in some cases, lower costs than traditional card networks or bank transfers. Integrating those rails gives Stripe additional flexibility in serving global merchants, particularly in cross-border or .
Investor Takeaway
How the Valuation Fits Into the Broader Market
At USD 140 billion, Stripe would rank among the most valuable private technology companies worldwide. In payments, valuations tend to reflect a mix of , revenue capture per transaction, profit margins, and reach across key merchant segments.
Stripe processes payments for ecommerce platforms, subscription services, and marketplaces in more than 50 countries. That global footprint, combined with a broad product suite, underpins investor interest despite the absence of public-market benchmarks.
Because tender offers rely on negotiated prices between purchaviewrs and tradeers, they can diverge from what public markets might assign in volatile conditions. Still, repeated transactions at higher levels suggest continued confidence in Stripe’s earnings power and long-term relevance in digital payments.
For now, the tender route allows Stripe to control timing, disclosure, and governance while still rewarding employees and long-term backers. Unless market conditions or internal priorities change, private valuations may remain the clearest window into how investors assess the company’s worth.
