AI
Perplexity Open-Sources Its On-Device AI Engine
Perplexity shipped hybrid compute for its Mac app and open-sourced Lily, a local inference engine, plus Privacy Gate, an on-device classifier that screens data before it reaches the cloud.
DEEP DIVE
Perplexity at a glance
As of- [1] Latest valuation: TechCrunch, September 10, 2025
- [2] ARR: Tech Startups — Nvidia in talks to invest at $30B as revenue tops $750M (Aug 2026), August 2026
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Company Snapshot
Perplexity is an AI infra company, based in San Francisco, California, USA, founded 2022.
Recent changes
- Aug 24, 2026Aug 24, 2026Nvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal Pulse story
- Aug 24, 2026Aug 24, 2026Nvidia Weighs Perplexity Investment Above $30B Pulse story
- Aug 2026Aug 2026First reported run rate: ~$750M annualized (Aug 2026, up from ~$232M end of 2025)Estimated Value Add Pulse enrichment
- Jul 29, 2026Jul 29, 2026Ex-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser Pulse story
- Mar 2026Mar 2026First reported arr: $450M+ entity-registry reconciliation
Earlier changes (2)
- Sep 10, 2025Sep 10, 2025Raised $200M at a $20B valuation TechCrunch
- Sep 10, 2025Sep 10, 2025First reported valuation: $20B TechCrunch
Funding history
1 equity event · newest first · sources dated per row| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2025 | Funding round | $200M | $20Bpost-money | — | TechCrunch |
Equity only. “Equity raised” above sums the rounds with a dated, linked source; rumored rounds, tender offers and secondary sales are listed but not counted, and debt financing is listed separately.
Investors
Latest Pulse
- Nov 10, 2026CoreWeave Revenue Jumps 168% To $3.66B | Backlog Hits $132.5BCoreWeave's third-quarter revenue rose 168% to $3.66 billion, beating estimates, as its revenue backlog grew to about $132.5 billion and it raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $13 billion-$13.3 billion.→
- Oct 29, 2026Serval Triples To $3B Valuation With $150M Series CServal, the AI startup challenging ServiceNow's IT service management business, raised a $150 million Series C led by Sequoia at a $3 billion valuation — its second Sequoia-led round in under a year.→
- Oct 12, 2026Loops Raises $3.5M, Already Powers 70+ Online RetailersLoops Smart AI raised a $3.5 million seed led by Andreessen Horowitz's a16z Speedrun to expand an AI shopping layer already live with more than 70 retailers, including A101 and Tchibo.→
- Oct 6, 2026Sigil Wen's Underdog Challenges Instinct On PrivacySigil Wen, a Thiel Fellow who once worked alongside Perplexity's Aravind Srinivas and OpenAI's Noam Brown, launched Underdog, a privacy-focused AI assistant that runs entirely on-device.→
- Oct 5, 2026Researchers Spot A Chinese AI 'Agent Fleet' At WorkIndependent researchers tracked a fleet of AI agents running on Tencent's cloud that spent a week querying Alibaba's Amap for building-entrance data at 213 places across China.→
- Sep 23, 2026Bessemer Raises $5.75B Across Two New AI FundsBessemer Venture Partners closed $5.75 billion across two new funds -- $1.75 billion for seed and early stage, $4 billion for growth -- to back AI-native founders from first check through late-stage rounds.→
- Sep 22, 2026Nvidia Chips Turn Armenia Into A Surprise AI HubFirebird's Nvidia-powered AI data center in Armenia is set to reach 300 megawatts and more than 70,000 chips by the end of 2027, backed by a $500 million public-private partnership tied to US export approvals.→
- Sep 16, 2026OpenAI Starts Testing Ads-As-Agents Inside ChatGPTOpenAI began piloting 'Sponsored Agents' in ChatGPT, letting users click an ad and continue chatting with a business-run agent inside the same conversation, with Angi among the first advertisers testing it.→
- Sep 15, 2026AEO Startup Profound Hits $1.8B In Just 7 MonthsProfound, which helps brands track how they appear inside ChatGPT and Gemini answers, raised a $180 million Series D co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins at a $1.8 billion valuation, less than seven months after its last round.→
- Sep 10, 2026Instinct Eyes $1B Raise As Compute Costs BitePersonal AI assistant Instinct is in talks to raise as much as $1 billion at a valuation up to $10 billion, weeks after its last round, as compute costs strain its free-to-use product.→
Coverage Timeline
newest first- Sep 2, 2026AIPerplexity Open-Sources Its On-Device AI Engine→
- Sep 1, 2026AIPerplexity Splits AI Tasks Between Cloud and Your Mac→
- Aug 25, 2026AIPerplexity, Nvidia Launch Local AI Agent, Zero Tokens→
- Aug 24, 2026AINvidia Weighs Perplexity Investment Above $30B$30B+ valuation→
- Aug 24, 2026FUNDINGNvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal→
- Aug 4, 2026REGULATIONPerplexity Beats Amazon in Court Over AI Shopping Agent→
- Jul 29, 2026FUNDINGEx-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser$5.7M Seed→
All Coverage
Perplexity Open-Sources Its On-Device AI Engine
Perplexity Splits AI Tasks Between Cloud and Your Mac
AI
Perplexity Splits AI Tasks Between Cloud and Your Mac
Perplexity's Computer platform now dynamically hands off the confidential parts of an agentic task to a smaller model running locally on Apple silicon, so sensitive files never leave the device even mid-task.
DEEP DIVE
Perplexity, Nvidia Launch Local AI Agent, Zero Tokens
AI
Perplexity, Nvidia Launch Local AI Agent, Zero Tokens
Perplexity and Nvidia launched Portable Computer, a fully local version of Perplexity's agent platform running on RTX GPUs or Nvidia's DGX Spark, eliminating per-token API costs for users who can supply their own hardware.
DEEP DIVE
Nvidia Weighs Perplexity Investment Above $30B
AI$30B+ valuation
Nvidia Weighs Perplexity Investment Above $30B
Nvidia has discussed investing in Perplexity at a valuation above $30 billion and separately considered a technology licensing arrangement with the AI search company.
DEEP DIVE
Nvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal
FUNDING
Nvidia Invests in Power Firm, Preps Perplexity Deal
Nvidia has invested in a data-center power development firm while preparing a separate multibillion-dollar deal with Perplexity, layering equity, credit and licensing across its ecosystem.
DEEP DIVE
Perplexity Beats Amazon in Court Over AI Shopping Agent
REGULATION
Perplexity Beats Amazon in Court Over AI Shopping Agent
The Ninth Circuit vacated Amazon's injunction against Perplexity's Comet shopping agent, ruling that users -- not Perplexity -- 'access' Amazon's servers under federal computer-hacking law.
Ex-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser
FUNDING$5.7M Seed
Ex-Perplexity Engineer's Polar Raises $5.7M for AI Browser
Polar, an AI browser startup founded by a former Perplexity engineer who worked on Comet, raised $5.7 million in seed funding led by Madrona to automate hours of repetitive browser-based knowledge work.
Value Add Research
- VC & Investing · Jul 15, 2026Perplexity AI IPO — Valuation & Google Rival
- AI & Technology · Jun 30, 2026Perplexity Valuation: Still $20B, $750M Run Rate (Nov 1, 2026)
- AI & Technology · Jun 21, 2026Perplexity AI: $20B, $200M ARR, Business Model
- VC & Investing · Oct 17, 2026Bessemer Venture Partners AUM 2026: $20.2B, $5.75B Fund
- Market & Trends · Oct 16, 2026AI Search Optimization Startups 2026: Who Raised $619M
- Growth & Marketing · Oct 16, 2026AI Search Traffic Data 2026: 1.91M AI Impressions, 537 Visits
- Growth & Marketing · Oct 16, 2026Google AI Optimization Guide 2026: What Matters, 5 Myths
- Growth & Marketing · Oct 16, 2026How to Track AEO and GEO in 2026: 4 Free Ways to Measure
Related Companies
The VC Read
Perplexity is the boldest bet on the list — attacking search, the best business model in tech history, against an incumbent that can copy any feature overnight. ARR more than tripling to ~$750M in eight months, largely on the back of the Computer agent product, is why Nvidia is reportedly circling a $30B+ round. The bear case writes itself (Google bundles it into Chrome for free); the bull case is that 'sourced answers' plus an agentic layer is a genuinely better product and brand loyalty in AI is realer than people think.
How Perplexity makes money
Perplexity runs a freemium model: a free tier, Pro at $20/month, a Max tier at $200/month, enterprise plans, and a publisher revenue-share program (Comet Plus). The pitch is an 'answer engine' that cites its sources — positioned directly against Google's link-based search.
Its October 2025 move to make the Comet AI browser free worldwide was a distribution land-grab, and the February 2026 launch of Perplexity Computer — a cloud-based AI agent that automates computer tasks — plus usage-based pricing on top of subscriptions pushed ARR from roughly $232M at the end of 2025 to about $750M by August 2026.
Competitors
- Google / Gemini — The primary target — and the incumbent with all the distribution.
- OpenAI / ChatGPT Search — The largest consumer AI rival.
- Microsoft Copilot / Bing — Distribution through Windows and Edge.
- You.com — Direct AI-search competitor.
Profile sources (verified 2026-09-01): TechCrunch — Perplexity $200M at $20B (Sept 2025) · TechCrunch — Comet browser free (Oct 2025) · Tech Startups — Nvidia in talks to invest at $30B as revenue tops $750M (Aug 2026) · 24/7 Wall St — Perplexity wants a $30B valuation before its 2028 IPO (Aug 2026)
Perplexity FAQ
How does Perplexity make money?
Through subscriptions — Pro ($20/month) and Max ($200/month) — plus enterprise plans and a publisher revenue-share program. Its Comet AI browser became free worldwide in October 2025, and its February 2026 Computer agent product added usage-based revenue on top of subscriptions.
What is Perplexity's revenue in 2026?
Perplexity's annualized revenue reached roughly $750 million as of August 2026, up from about $232 million at the end of 2025 — driven largely by the February 2026 launch of Perplexity Computer, an AI agent for automating computer tasks.
Who competes with Perplexity?
Its main rivals are Google/Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT Search, Microsoft Copilot/Bing, and You.com — making it one of the most directly-challenged companies in AI.
What is Perplexity's valuation?
Perplexity was last valued at $20B in its September 2025 funding round, according to TechCrunch (September 10, 2025).
What is Perplexity's revenue?
Perplexity's most recent arr figure is ~$750M (as of Aug. 2026, up from ~$232M end of 2025), an estimate by Tech Startups, August 2026.
Sources & methodologyshow
Where these figures come from
- TechCrunchmajor outlet2 facts
- Tech Startups — Nvidia in talks to invest at $30B as revenue tops $750M (Aug 2026)Value Add VC data1 fact
Figures are labelled Reported (a source states it), Estimated, Derived (computed from other facts) or Rumored (in talks / unconfirmed). Rumors never replace a confirmed figure. Each figure keeps its own as-of date; history is preserved rather than overwritten.