Nvidia Mulled Billions for Perplexity's Tech. Now It's Investing Instead.
According to The Information, Nvidia is in talks to join Perplexity's next funding round. Perplexity, which sells AI search and agent software, is reportedly raising billions at a valuation north of $30 billion. That's a 50% jump from the $20 billion valuation it commanded back in September 2025.
Perplexity's annualized revenue has climbed from under $250 million at the start of the year to more than $750 million now. Back in April, it was still at $500 million. Perplexity Computer has been a big part of that surge.
Nvidia previously weighed a different play: paying billions to license some of Perplexity's tech and poaching a chunk of its employees. At some point, the talks pivoted to a plain-vanilla equity investment instead. Why the change? Unclear.
Last week, Nvidia pulled the "license plus poach" move on Poolside: $6 billion for a license to model development software, plans to bring over 100 staffers, plus another $1 billion in investment. Perplexity was apparently close to a similar deal before Nvidia decided to simply become a shareholder.