According to a report on October 20th by The Wall Street Journal, artificial intelligence search company Perplexity is seeking approximately $500 million in a new round of funding, which would bring the company's valuation to $8 billion. Insiders reveal that the company has mentioned these figures in discussions with investors, but the specific terms may change, and the funding may not ultimately be secured.
Should this round of funding be successful, it would mark the fourth round of financing for Perplexity within a year, with the company's valuation doubling. It is reported that the company was valued at $520 million in January of this year and had grown to $3 billion by the summer. Insiders say that Perplexity's annualized revenue is currently about $50 million, a significant increase from the $10 million in March of this year.
For comparison, OpenAI recently completed a $6.6 billion financing round, reaching a valuation of $157 billion, almost doubling its earlier valuation of $86 billion. Additionally, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI startup founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, secured $1 billion in funding in September, with investors including several prominent tech investment firms.
Perplexity has garnered attention in the search engine market with its innovative search tools. The company integrates multiple large language models, including OpenAI and Meta's Llama, to provide users with instant answers, information sources, and citations. In 2023, the company handled over 500 million query requests with minimal marketing expenditure.
Reports in August indicated that Perplexity planned to monetize its platform through advertising. However, the company also faces controversies, with some major media accusing it of plagiarism, sparking discussions on content ownership and fair use in the age of AI. In response, Perplexity has adjusted its citation guidelines and introduced a revenue-sharing model for publishers.