Nvidia is in talks to invest in AI search startup Perplexity as part of an equity funding round that would value the company at more than $30 billion, according to a report by The Information.
The financing would push Perplexity’s valuation up by more than 50% compared to its last funding round a year ago, reflecting the company’s rapid revenue growth in the AI-powered search market. The round is expected to raise several billion dollars.
If completed, the deal would represent a significant expansion of Nvidia’s strategy of investing in companies that build on top of its GPU infrastructure. The chipmaker has been aggressively deploying capital across the AI ecosystem, from its $7 billion deal for Poolside AI’s model-development software to a broader partnership with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone and others to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party AI infrastructure capital.
AI Search Market Heats Up
Perplexity has emerged as a leading challenger in the AI search space, offering an alternative to Google’s traditional search and competing directly with ChatGPT’s browsing capabilities. The startup has been growing rapidly, with revenue reportedly surging as more users adopt its AI-powered answer engine for research and information queries.
Nvidia’s interest underscores the chipmaker’s bet that the value in AI extends beyond hardware into the application layer. By investing in companies like Perplexity, Nvidia deepens its relationships with major AI compute consumers while positioning itself to benefit from the growing demand for inference workloads that power AI search.
Nvidia’s Expanding Investment Portfolio
The Perplexity discussions come amid a broader wave of Nvidia investments. The company recently announced a $6 billion non-exclusive license for Poolside’s Model Factory platform plus a $1 billion equity injection at a $12 billion pre-money valuation. Nvidia also made job offers to 109 Poolside employees as part of that arrangement.
Earlier this year, Nvidia invested in Groq, the AI inference chip startup, in a deal that drew criticism from lawmakers who said the structure circumvented merger review. The Perplexity investment would follow a similar pattern of Nvidia backing companies that consume its chips and expand the overall AI compute market.
Nvidia’s market capitalization stands at approximately $5.2 trillion, giving the company significant firepower for strategic investments across the AI landscape.
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