Nvidia is in discussions to invest in Perplexity as part of an equity funding round that would value the artificial intelligence (AI) search startup at more than $30 billion, according to a report by *The Information* published on August 24, 2026, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. <cite index="6-1">Reuters confirmed the report, noting that the round would value the AI startup at more than $30 billion.</cite> <cite index="6-6">Perplexity declined to comment on the report, while Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</cite>
Valuation Trajectory
<cite index="16-8,16-9">The proposed round would value Perplexity at more than $30 billion, up from its $20 billion valuation last September — an increase of more than 50% in about a year.</cite> <cite index="1-8">The company closed a $23 billion round in January 2026 and a $20 billion round in September 2025, having climbed from roughly $1 billion to over $30 billion in about two years.</cite> <cite index="1-3">The round would 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.</cite>
Revenue Surge Driven by Perplexity Computer
<cite index="2-5">Perplexity's annualized revenue has climbed above $750 million, compared with less than $250 million at the beginning of the year.</cite> <cite index="15-5">That means the company's revenue run rate has more than tripled in less than a year.</cite> <cite index="6-5">Part of the revenue growth has been driven by Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent (artificial intelligence agent) used by professionals to automate computer-based tasks.</cite> <cite index="10-3">Growth has also been aided by a usage-based pricing layer on top of existing subscriptions, introduced alongside the February 2026 launch of the Computer product.</cite>
<cite index="17-5,17-6">At a $30 billion valuation and a $750 million annualized revenue run rate, investors would be valuing the company at roughly 40 times current annualized revenue.</cite> <cite index="4-12">Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas has said the company plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in 2028, regardless of how the planned listings of OpenAI and Anthropic perform.</cite>
Hardware Ties Precede the Investment Talks
The equity discussions follow a deepening operational relationship between the two companies. <cite index="19-1">On July 7, 2026, Perplexity announced its intention to utilize Nvidia's newly launched Vera central processing unit (CPU) to enhance its AI agent workloads.</cite> <cite index="19-8">According to Nate Kupp, Vice President of Enterprise Infrastructure at Perplexity, the Vera CPU processes AI agent coding tasks at approximately 1.5 times the speed of traditional CPUs.</cite> <cite index="27-4">Nvidia launched the Vera CPU on March 16, 2026, describing it as "the world's first processor purpose-built for the age of agentic AI."</cite>
Nvidia's Broader Investment Pattern
<cite index="8-4,8-5">The reported investment follows a series of Nvidia-backed companies that also rely heavily on Nvidia's hardware. Earlier this year, Nvidia expanded its relationship with AI cloud provider CoreWeave by investing another $2 billion in the company while simultaneously deepening their infrastructure partnership.</cite> <cite index="8-9">The company has continued backing AI startups including Fireworks, Sarvam, Safe Superintelligence Inc., and Firmus, adding to a growing portfolio that spans foundation models, AI infrastructure, and enterprise AI applications.</cite>
<cite index="4-9">Perplexity has attracted other prominent investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Japan's SoftBank Group.</cite> <cite index="11-4">Perplexity committed $750 million to Microsoft Azure infrastructure in January 2026, signaling aggressive scaling of its AI search capabilities.</cite> <cite index="10-4">The company serves more than 100 million monthly active users from its search and agent tools, including tens of thousands of enterprise clients.</cite>
As of publication, no formal closing of the round has been announced, and terms remain subject to change.