Nvidia in talks to back Perplexity at $30B
What's the deal? Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity as part of an equity round that would value the AI search startup at more than $30 billion, The Information reported, citing people with knowledge of the discussion. The round would be worth billions of dollars and mark Nvidia's first move to a straight equity stake after it earlier weighed a technology licensing deal and hiring some of Perplexity's staff.
Why now? The proposed deal follows deepening ties between the two companies and a sharp jump in Perplexity's revenue. Annualised revenue has climbed past $750 million from less than $250 million at the start of the year, driven largely by Perplexity ComputerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an AI agent that automates multi-step professional tasks.
By the numbers: A $30 billion valuation would lift Perplexity more than 50% from its previous financing a year ago. It closed a $23 billion round in January 2026 and a $20 billion round in September 2025, having gone from roughly $1 billion to over $30 billion in about two years.
What's the endgame? Nvidia has acted as a kind of central bank to the AI sector, backing dozens of companies that rent or buy its chips. A direct stake keeps it close to a product that both burns GPU compute and generates usage data shaping what chips get built next. CEO Jensen Huang has said he uses Perplexity as a go-to chatbot.
What could go wrong? At $750 million in annualised revenue, a $30 billion valuation prices Perplexity near 40 times sales — a multiple private markets tolerate more easily than public ones. That matters, as CEO Aravind Srinivas has floated an IPO within the next few years.
The signal: AI search is shifting from retrieving information for people to acting on it for other systems. Perplexity is squeezed between distribution-heavy rivals GoogleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and OpenAI and agent-native challengers like Exa, which raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.2 billion valuation in May 2026. Whether Perplexity is the layer or simply the best-funded contender in a category still being defined is a question the price tag doesn't answer.
Read more: The Information, Tech Funding News
Image credit: Perplexity
