Agentic Payments Race Heats Up as Google, Stripe, Visa Ship SDKs

In early 2026, major payments firms including Google, Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, and Coinbase launched protocols and SDKs for AI agents to autonomously browse, decide, and pay. Over 60 organizations are collaborating on Google's Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), while alternatives like Coinbase's x402 and Stripe's Machine Payments Protocol compete. Developers can now install these tools, but no single standard has emerged yet.