Stripe executives told investors that the singularity already arrived more than eight months ago, according to a letter obtained by Axios. The company said that singularity arrived at the start of 2026 and that it’s been acting accordingly since then.
Stripe’s founders wrote in the letter:
“It’s a fuzzy and perhaps already overworked term, but we decided that January 1st marked the beginning of the singularity, and we have since been operating on that basis. The singularity is often invoked alongside millenarian forecasts, but, in our case, we simply saw a large inflection in long-run trends (for example, a huge increase in the rate of new firm creation), and we decided that we ought to take the phase change seriously.”
WTF is “singularity”?
Singularity is usually defined as a point in time in which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. It’s predicted to happen (or have happened) when AI becomes capable enough to improve itself, entering into a stage of progress that outpaces human ability to predict or control it. The term comes from math and physics, where a singularity is a point at which the existing rules stop producing meaningful answers.
Stripe is not the only company to declare singularity this year.
Sam Altman said on a podcast in July, “We are now, like, in the singularity,” adding, “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it’s going to be incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world.”
Elon Musk posted on X in January, “We have entered the Singularity.” And then posted again in July, “We are in the Singularity.”
Stripe’s letter went on to say:
“The singularity appears to be accelerating our core business… Stripe is, of course, a private company today. We view this as a growing advantage as we venture into the vicissitudes of the singularity. The world is becoming harder to predict and we expect that deft helmsmanship will be required of every company. We’re fortunate to have a corporate structure that helps us steer the right long-term course.”
Are you scared yet?
