Nvidia in Talks to Invest in Perplexity at Valuation Above $30 Billion

Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity as part of a funding round that would value the AI search startup at more than $30 billion. The information was published by The Information on Sunday, citing people familiar with the negotiations, and reported by Reuters via ET Tech.

According to the report, the round would raise Perplexity's valuation by more than 50% compared to the previous funding, closed about a year ago. When contacted, Perplexity declined to comment and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters' request.

The valuation escalation

The jump is fast. The Information had reported in September of last year that Perplexity had closed a $20 billion valuation. Going from $20 billion to more than $30 billion in about a year puts the company among the most highly valued names in the generative AI sector, even though it remains well below OpenAI and Anthropic in size.

The list of heavyweight investors helps explain the market's appetite: besides Nvidia, Perplexity counts among its backers Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Japan's SoftBank Group.

What's driving revenue

The most concrete data point in the report is revenue growth. Perplexity's annualized revenue rose to more than $750 million, up from less than $250 million at the start of the year, according to The Information. That's roughly a threefold increase in a few months.

Part of this growth, according to people familiar with the matter cited in the report, comes from Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent used by professionals to automate computer tasks. It's a sign that the company is trying to go beyond pure conversational search and move into the territory of agents that execute actions, the same field where OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have been betting.

Cloud and IPO plans

Infrastructure is also on the radar. Earlier this year, Perplexity signed a $750 million deal with Microsoft for use of the Azure cloud service, according to a Bloomberg report cited by ET Tech. In other words, even while negotiating an investment from Nvidia (the maker of the GPUs that underpin model training and inference), the company relies on part of its cloud operation from a third party.

On the corporate side, CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC in June that Perplexity plans to go public in 2028, regardless of how the market receives the eventual listings of Anthropic and OpenAI.

Why this matters for Brazilian developers

For those building software in Brazil, the move has a few practical implications worth following. The first is competitive: Perplexity positions itself as an alternative for AI-powered search and answers, a space dominated by Google and, increasingly, by OpenAI's and Anthropic's assistants. A better-capitalized global competitor tends to accelerate the release of APIs, models and agent tools available for integration.

The second point is Perplexity Computer itself. Agents that automate computer tasks are exactly the kind of feature developers have been evaluating for automation, testing and productivity workflows. This product's commercial traction indicates there is real demand for agents that execute actions, not just answer questions, which reinforces a trend already appearing among other market players.

The third is the Nvidia angle. The chipmaker has been investing in a network of startups that consume its hardware, and an investment in Perplexity reinforces this strategy of locking in GPU demand. For those planning AI infrastructure costs, tracking where Nvidia puts capital helps anticipate shifts in GPU availability and pricing, a scarce input that directly affects those who train or serve models here.

What's still open

The talks are still just talks. Neither party has confirmed the deal, the final terms and the exact amount of Nvidia's investment have not been disclosed, and the valuation of more than $30 billion comes from anonymous sources cited by The Information. There is also no public detail on how much of the round would go to Nvidia or on the closing date. The IPO planned for 2028 is a signal from the CEO, not a firm timeline.

As the generative AI market continues raising billions, it's worth watching whether the $750 million annualized revenue holds up and whether Perplexity Computer remains the growth engine pointed to in the report.