Business & Markets — August 18, 2026

U.S., Canada hold last-minute tariff talks. Washington and Ottawa raced through eleventh-hour negotiations to avert 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods, with cross-border tensions already elevated.

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Stripe nears $8 billion OpenRouter deal. The payments company is finalizing an acquisition of AI startup OpenRouter to become a gateway for AI model usage — a deal that could hand Andreessen Horowitz nearly $1.5 billion.

According to The Register, the acquisition has not yet closed and is described as being in its final stages. The outlet frames the purchase as a wager that payment processing for AI token sales will become a significant business line, positioning Stripe as an intermediary in how customers pay to use AI models. Andreessen Horowitz, an OpenRouter investor, stands to be a major financial beneficiary if the transaction is completed.

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Reddit enters the S&P 500. The social platform joins the index before Tuesday's open. Still, its shares fell alongside broader index futures.

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