Stripe’s Reported $53B PayPal Bet Would Dwarf Its Recent M&A Run

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly teamed up on an offer to buy PayPal in a deal valued at more than $53 billion, according to Reuters as cited by Crunchbase News. The proposed deal has reportedly been rumored for months and would be one of the largest technology acquisitions in recent years. It also stands out because privately held startups typically do not have the cash, publicly traded shares or debt capacity to acquire public companies. That makes the reported PayPal pursuit a defining test of Stripe’s scale and financing power.

Stripe is not a typical privately held company. Crunchbase News notes it was once the highest-valued U.S.-based startup before being surpassed on that metric by Anthropic and OpenAI. In February, Stripe announced liquidity deals for current and former employees through a tender offer at a $159 billion valuation. Crunchbase News says that valuation still ranks Stripe as the fourth most valuable startup in the world.

Stripe has raised about $10.4 billion since inception and has long been one of the most acquisitive venture-backed startups, according to Crunchbase data cited in the report. The company has made 21 known acquisitions since its 2010 founding, with 13 of those announced since 2020. Only three known acquisitions have disclosed prices: Bridge at $1.1 billion in 2025, Metronome at $1 billion in 2026, and Paystack at $200 million in 2020. Against that history, a more than $53 billion PayPal deal would be in a different category entirely.

Stripe’s recent acquisitions suggest a focus on stablecoins and crypto infrastructure, including Bridge, Privy, Valora and PartyDAO. The company has also targeted billing and money movement through Metronome, Lemon Squeezy and Orum. If a PayPal acquisition goes through, Crunchbase News says it would make Stripe an even more formidable player in the crowded payments space. The reported deal would also rank among the largest U.S. technology acquisitions of the past five years, trailing only a handful of larger deals cited in the report.