The Wall Street Journal reported on October 20 that artificial intelligence search companyPerplexityis seeking a new round of approximately $500 million.FinancingThe round of financing would value the company at $8 billion. People familiar with the matter said the company has mentioned those figures in talks with investors, but the exact terms may change and the financing may not be finalized.
If the round is successful, it will be Perplexity's fourth round of funding in a year, doubling the company's valuation. The company was reportedly valued at $520 million in January and has grown to $3 billion this summer. Perplexity's annualized revenue is now about $50 million, up significantly from $10 million in March, people familiar with the matter said.
By way of comparison, OpenAI also recently closed a $6.6 billion round of financing at a valuation of $157 billion, nearly doubling its $86 billion valuation earlier this year. In addition, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI startup founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, received a $1 billion round of funding in September from a number of well-known tech investment organizations.
Perplexity is attracting attention in the search engine market with its innovative search tools. The company integrates several large language models, including OpenAI and Meta's Llama, to provide users with instant answers, sources, and citations. In 2023, the company processed over 500 million query requests with minimal marketing spend.
In August this year, it was reported that Perplexity planned to cash in on its platform through advertising. However, the company has also faced controversy, with some major media outlets accusing it of plagiarism, sparking a discussion about content ownership and fair use in the age of artificial intelligence. In response, Perplexity has adjusted its citation norms and introduced a revenue-sharing model for publishers.