According to The Wall Street Journal, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI is in talks to raise $500 million, aiming for an $8 billion valuation. Currently valued at $3 billion, the company seeks to more than double its valuation with this new funding round.
Based in Silicon Valley, Perplexity AI is entering its fourth funding round this year. In January 2024, the company raised $62.7 million, followed by $73.6 million in April. Most recently, in June, Perplexity secured additional investment from SoftBank, pushing its valuation to $3 billion.
This news comes shortly after Perplexity’s competitor, OpenAI, raised $6.6 billion in funding, boosting its valuation to a staggering $157 billion—highlighting the intense competition within the AI industry.
Perplexity AI operates as an AI-powered search engine with a chatbot-like interface, handling 15 million queries daily and providing users with ChatGPT-style responses. The company currently generates approximately $50 million in annual revenue. In addition to offering premium subscriptions for individual users, Perplexity recently launched an enterprise version designed to search internal files for corporate clients. The platform is also preparing to expand its revenue streams by introducing advertisements.
However, Perplexity AI faces accusations of content scraping and plagiarism from major media outlets such as The New York Times. Recently, The New York Times issued a “Cease and Desist” letter to the startup. In response, Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas stated that he aims to work collaboratively with publishers and does not wish to engage in hostile relations with them.
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