The news: AI search startup Perplexity AI is close to securing a $500 million funding round at a $9 billion valuation. It was valued at $3 billion just a few months ago.
Perplexity’s timing for investments and growth coincides with news that Meta and OpenAI are both racing to develop AI-powered search to challenge longtime search leader Google.
Perplexity has firm plans to include ads on its platform in Q4, potentially capturing a slice of search ad spending, which we forecast to grow by almost $60 billion between 2024 and 2028.