SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund 2 is set to invest between $10 million and $20 million in U.S.-based search startup Perplexity AI, valuing the company at $3 billion.
The investment from SoftBank is part of a larger $250 million funding round for Perplexity AI, as cited by individuals familiar with the matter. The terms of the deal have not been finalized and could still change.
Perplexity AI, headquartered in San Francisco, provides search tools that deliver instant answers to user queries, complete with sources and citations. The company’s technology leverages a variety of large language models, including those from OpenAI and Meta’s open-source model Llama.
In January, Perplexity AI raised $73.6 million from investors, including Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, at a valuation of $520 million. The company reported serving over 500 million queries in 2023 with minimal marketing expenditure.
Both SoftBank and Perplexity AI declined to comment on the investment news.
