Nvidia reportedly eyes another investment in Perplexity AI at a $30B valuation

Nvidia Corp. is reportedly considering making another investment in the artificial intelligence search startup Perplexity AI Inc. A report by The Information says the chipmaker is holding talks with Perplexity over an investment that could push the startup’s valuation to more than $30 billion. That would represent a jump of more than 50% from the $20 billion valuation Perplexity finalized about a year ago, when it last raised money.

The size of Nvidia’s potential investment was not disclosed, and there’s no guarantee that any deal would be reached, The Information said, citing anonymous sources who are familiar with the discussions. Neither Nvidia nor Perplexity would comment on the reported discussions.

Perplexity is an attractive target for investors for its business has continued to grow at a rapid rate. According to The Information, the startup has grown its annualized revenue run rate to an impressive $750 million, up from less than $250 million at the start of the year. If true, that would mean it has managed to triple its revenue run rate in just eight months.

One of the main reasons for that impressive growth is Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent that was first released in April for Mac computers and later expanded to Windows devices. Perplexity Computer is designed to automate computer tasks for professional users. It acts as a general-purpose digital worker that can access authorized files and applications on a user’s computer. Users can ask it to create or edit Word documents, update Excel spreadsheets, organize files, conduct online research and complete workflows involving multiple applications.

The proposed investment would deepen an existing relationship between Nvidia and Perplexity. The chipmaker is already one of its main financial backers, alongside Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and SoftBank Group Corp. Nvidia has become an increasingly important partner for AI startups like Perplexity, and sees its bet on the startup as an investment in its future. As the world’s top supplier of silicon for high-frequency AI inference, it has a vested interest in making sure that the search layer – which is a massive compute ecosystem – remains aligned with its chip ecosystem. What Nvidia doesn’t want is for the likes of Perplexity and others to go sniffing around rival chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Cerebras Systems Inc., which both offer alternative chips for AI inference. In that way, Nvidia is investing in Perplexity as a kind of insurance policy to safeguard its future revenue stream against possible shifts in AI search architecture.

Perplexity’s strategic importance to Nvidia is amplified by its distribution efforts, such as its integration with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Bixby assistant, which brings its search capabilities to around 800 million devices globally. The AI search firm is also believed to be fixed on a 2028 initial public offering, which means Nvidia has a clear timeline to realize a return on its investment.

Nvidia’s broader portfolio includes many of its major compute customers, including OpenAI Group PBC, Anthropic PBC, SpaceX Corp.’s xAI, Poolside Inc. and Safe Superintelligence Inc. It shows how the chipmaker has taken a systematic approach to ensuring its market dominance. By supplying the critical infrastructure and acting as a key investor at the application layer, Nvidia has effectively built a self-reinforcing cycle of demand for its chips.

Nvidia is also trying to provide direct funding to customers that need to invest in its AI compute hardware. It recently struck a deal with six of Wall Street’s biggest financial institutions to provide more than $500 billion in financing for AI infrastructure projects, including its own and those of its customers.

Meanwhile, Perplexity has been racing to build out the infrastructure foundation it needs to support its own growth. Earlier this year, it struck a $750 million deal with Microsoft Corp. that will see it adopt that company’s Azure cloud services to help run its AI workloads.

Image: Perplexity AI