Perplexity is the AI company where the numbers point in two directions at once. Its revenue has roughly tripled since March. It now handles over a billion searches a month. And Nvidia is reportedly lining up to invest at a valuation of more than $30 billion. Yet on almost every measure of market share — web traffic, chatbot referrals, mobile usage — it keeps sliding as Gemini and Claude pull away. The question for the next round isn't whether Perplexity is growing. It's what kind of company it's growing into.
The financing news first. Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity through a new equity funding round that could value the company at more than $30 billion, according to The Information as cited by Reuters. The round would increase Perplexity's valuation by more than 50% from its previous $20 billion financing round, reported in September 2025. The discussions remain preliminary, and neither Nvidia nor Perplexity has confirmed them. But the shape of the deal is familiar: Nvidia, already an existing investor, deepening its financial exposure to a company building AI applications on top of the computing infrastructure it supplies. CEO Jensen Huang has said in interviews that Perplexity is his go-to chatbot.
The revenue story is genuinely impressive. Perplexity's annualized revenue has climbed to more than $750 million, from less than $250 million at the beginning of the year, according to The Information via Reuters. Part of the increase has been driven by Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent that helps professionals automate computer-based tasks — conducting research, browsing the web, creating content, and automating multistep professional workflows. The product has been expanded across consumer and enterprise subscription plans during 2026. This is the bet the $30 billion valuation rests on: not search as a destination, but Perplexity as a revenue-per-user machine, monetizing professionals who pay for agents rather than consumers who ask free questions.
The distribution story is where the tension lives. Perplexity processes more than 1 billion search queries a month and has around 45 million monthly active users on its core answer engine — more than 100 million across all products. But its share of global AI web traffic is down to 0.9% (Similarweb, August 2026), and its share of AI chatbot referral traffic fell to 4.31% in August from 7.73% in April (Statcounter). The company is holding up on revenue while losing the reach war. That's a viable strategy — enterprise software companies have always preferred dollars to eyeballs — but it changes what Perplexity is: less a challenger to Google, more a premium productivity layer.
The partnerships tell the same story. Perplexity Computer now runs inside Microsoft 365. Perplexity powers Bixby on Samsung's Galaxy S26. Earlier this year, the company signed a $750 million agreement with Microsoft to use its Azure cloud service, according to Bloomberg. Its backers include Jeff Bezos and SoftBank alongside Nvidia. The startup is embedding itself inside other companies' distribution — Microsoft's productivity suite, Samsung's phones — rather than winning the direct consumer relationship outright. It's a smart hedge against the traffic-share slide, and it's where the revenue is coming from.
CEO Aravind Srinivas says Perplexity will IPO in 2028. Between now and then, the Nvidia round — if it closes — sets the terms of the conversation: a $30 billion-plus valuation on $750 million in annualized revenue, or roughly 40 times revenue, for a company losing traffic share but tripling sales. That's the premium the market currently pays for AI-native revenue growth with enterprise distribution. Whether it's justified depends on whether Perplexity Computer and the enterprise push can keep compounding after the easy growth is captured. The traffic numbers say the consumer window is narrowing. The revenue numbers say the enterprise window is wide open. Nvidia, apparently, is betting on the window that's open.
Reported with AI assistance from public sources. Align Newsroom's standard: every factual claim above carries its evidence link in the article metadata.
Sources & evidence
- Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity through a new equity funding round that could value the AI startup at more than $30 billion, according to The Information as cited by Reuters; the round would lift Perplexity's valuation more than 50% from its previous $20 billion financing. corroborated
- Perplexity's annualized revenue has risen to more than $750 million in 2026, up from less than $250 million at the start of the year, partly driven by Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent for professionals. corroborated
- Perplexity processes more than 1 billion search queries a month, has around 45 million monthly active users on its core answer engine and more than 100 million across all products, while its share of global AI web traffic fell to 0.9% in August 2026 and its share of AI chatbot referral traffic fell to 4.31% from 7.73% in April. corroborated
- Perplexity Computer now runs inside Microsoft 365, Perplexity powers Bixby on Samsung's Galaxy S26, and CEO Aravind Srinivas says Perplexity will IPO in 2028. corroborated
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