Perplexity Reportedly Seeking $1B Funding at $18B Valuation

AI-powered search startup Perplexity is reportedly in early talks to raise up to $1 billion in a new funding round that could value the company at $18 billion, according to Bloomberg. The round would double Perplexity’s valuation from its last raise in December 2024, when it reached $9 billion. Earlier, in April 2024, the company was valued at $1 billion, marking a sharp rise over the past year.

The report also notes that Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has climbed to $100 million, underscoring significant growth momentum.

Competitive Landscape Tightens

The rumored fundraising talks come as the AI search space becomes increasingly crowded:

• Anthropic just added web search capabilities to its Claude chatbot.

• Google has begun testing a chat-based AI search engine, AI Mode, with select users.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to dominate the space, particularly with its integration into Microsoft products.

To stay ahead, Perplexity has been expanding beyond traditional search:

• It recently teased Comet, an upcoming “agentic” browser designed to offer a more interactive, autonomous browsing experience.

• The company is also targeting enterprise clients with a new AI-powered internal search engine that helps businesses retrieve information from internal documents.

What This Means

If finalized, this funding round would mark another significant milestone in Perplexity's rapid rise, reflecting continued investor confidence in the AI search sector despite mounting competition. With competitors like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI vying for dominance, Perplexity’s fresh capital could fuel its ambitions to carve out a distinct niche—especially with products like its agentic browser and enterprise solutions.

For developers, an influx of funding may translate to faster innovation cycles, expanded APIs, and broader enterprise integrations. For users, it may signal more advanced and differentiated search experiences, as Perplexity seeks to distinguish itself from AI giants by offering unique, real-time, and interactive capabilities.

In the broader AI industry, this potential raise highlights how capital is still flowing aggressively into search and assistant technologies, even as regulatory scrutiny and infrastructure costs continue to loom.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.