The x402 Foundation, a Linux Foundation-affiliated initiative stewarding an open payment standard for AI agents, announces organizational progress: AWS's Alin Dragos as board chair, a technical steering committee, and an active executive director search. Premier members including Stellar, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Google aim to enable seamless micropayments between AI agents, users, and machines without subscriptions or manual payment entry.
The x402 Foundation, backed by the Linux Foundation, is establishing itself as an open standards body for internet-based payments between AI agents, machines, and users. The standard revives a dormant HTTP response code (402 Payment Required) designed by early web architects. Steering members AWS, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, Cloudflare, Circle, and Stellar Development Foundation are working to enable micropayments without the subscription and advertising models that dominated the early web. SDF CEO Denelle Dixon noted in an interview that avoiding walled gardens in AI commerce mirrors lessons from the first internet era, when a few companies consolidated control over content distribution.