Amsterdam-based AI infrastructure company Orq.ai has introduced its AI Router as a standalone product, signalling a shift in how enterprises are thinking about large language model (LLM) orchestration, cost control and sovereignty.

More models, more problems

As organisations move from pilot projects to production-grade AI systems, the complexity of managing multiple models is increasing. New LLMs are released at a rapid pace, prompting frequent upgrades and experimentation. In practice, most enterprises now run several models simultaneously to balance cost, latency and performance.

But that flexibility comes with trade-offs such as fragmentation, unpredictable costs and infrastructure decisions that are difficult to reverse.

Orq.ai argues that the routing layer, the gateway determining how requests are distributed across models, has become a strategic control point rather than a background technical component.

“As soon as AI systems move beyond a single model, routing turns from plumbing into a production bottleneck. Making the router standalone lets teams regain control early, with a single line of code,”

Sohrab Hosseini, Co-founder of Orq.ai

The decision to unbundle the Router from Orq.ai’s broader agent lifecycle platform reflects growing demand for modular AI infrastructure. Instead of adopting a full-stack platform from day one, teams can now deploy the Router independently to manage and optimise model traffic through a single gateway.

A real-world example from fintech

The shift is already playing out in regulated sectors. Dutch fintech bunq recently replaced its internally developed LLM routing infrastructure with Orq.ai’s solution. According to Benjamin Kleppe, GenAI Lead at bunq, maintaining a custom-built routing stack became increasingly resource-intensive while leaving gaps in observability and performance oversight.

“We built our own LLM routing infrastructure, but maintaining it became increasingly expensive and time-consuming, while still leaving gaps in observability and performance. We chose to work with Orq.ai to replace that internal setup with a production-ready AI Router that meets our governance, scalability, and cost-monitoring requirements.”

Benjamin Kleppe, GenAI Lead at bunq

AI sovereignty and the case for modular infrastructure

Beyond cost management, sovereignty is emerging as a defining theme in Europe’s AI infrastructure decisions. Questions around where inference runs, which providers are used and how quickly infrastructure can be adapted in response to geopolitical or regulatory shifts are increasingly relevant for enterprise buyers. Orq.ai’s Router allows organisations to define routing policies based on geography, latency, cost or other constraints, without rewriting applications.

“In Europe, AI sovereignty is no longer an abstract policy debate; it’s a direct consequence of today’s geopolitical reality. Enterprises need to know where AI inference runs, who controls the infrastructure, and how quickly they can adapt as conditions change. Those decisions are enforced at the routing layer, which is why we made it available as a standalone product.”

Sohrab Hosseini, Co-founder of Orq.ai

The Router can be deployed entirely within a customer’s own infrastructure, supporting both public and private models. This architecture is designed to meet the requirements of industries such as financial services and healthcare, where compliance and data control are central considerations. Pricing also reflects a departure from common gateway models.

Rather than applying a percentage-based markup on every model request, Orq.ai separates routing from usage-based services. Routing itself carries no platform fee, while tracing and logging are billed based on data volume.

Why the routing layer matters now

By positioning routing as a standalone entry point into AI infrastructure, Orq.ai is aligning with a broader enterprise trend: treating orchestration, governance and cost visibility as foundational capabilities, not afterthoughts.

As multi-model strategies become standard, the routing layer may prove to be one of the most consequential components in the production AI stack. The Router is available now as a standalone product.

Origianl Creator: Genaro Palma
Original Link: https://justainews.com/industries/orq-ai-makes-routing-a-first-class-layer-in-enterprise-ai/
Originally Posted: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 04:39:01 +0000