SoftBank to invest in search startup Perplexity AI at $3 billion valuation, Bloomberg reports

(Reuters) – Japanese expertise investor SoftBank Group Corp’s Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 is investing between $10 million and $20 million in U.S. search startup Perplexity AI at a valuation of $3 billion, Bloomberg Information reported on Thursday.

SoftBank will make this funding as half of a bigger $250 million funding spherical, the report, stated, citing folks aware of the matter.

The deal hasn’t been finalized and its phrases may nonetheless change, it stated.

SoftBank and Perplexity didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.

Perplexity’s search instruments allow customers to get on the spot solutions to questions with sources and citations. It’s powered by quite a lot of massive language fashions that may sum up and generate info, from OpenAI to Meta’s open-source mannequin Llama.

San Francisco, California-based Perplexity AI in January raised $73.6 million from a bunch of buyers together with Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a valuation of $520 million.

The corporate had earlier stated it served greater than 500 million queries in 2023 whereas spending few advertising and marketing {dollars}.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Enhancing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)