Perplexity AI Eyes $8 Bn Valuation With New Fundraising Push

AI startup Perplexity backed by Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, has entered fundraising discussions with the aim of more than doubling its valuation to over USD 8 billion, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The company is reportedly looking to secure approximately USD 500 million in this new round of funding, as it seeks to expand its capabilities and market presence.

Despite impressive growth, with annualised revenue estimated at around USD 50 million based on recent sales, Perplexity has faced several legal hurdles. In October, the company received a "cease and desist" notice from The New York Times, demanding that it stop using the newspaper’s content for its generative AI tools. Perplexity has also been accused of plagiarising content from media outlets including Forbes and Wired. In response to these concerns, the startup introduced a revenue-sharing program to address issues raised by publishers and mitigate potential conflicts.

Perplexity's AI-powered search tools allow users to receive instant answers to queries, complete with sources and citations. The company relies on a range of large language models (LLMs) to generate and summarize information, including models from OpenAI and Meta’s open-source Llama.