Perplexity AI is gearing up for a funding round that could put the company at a whopping $20 billion valuation. This fresh capital could help them fund their recent $34.5 billion bid to snatch up the one-and-only Google Chrome browser. Talk about ambition, right?
A Rapid Surge in Value
This valuation is $2 billion higher than their last round in July 2025, when they raised funds at an $18 billion mark, according to Business Insider. And to think, in January 2024, Perplexity was sitting pretty at just $520 million. Yeah, you read that right, an eye-popping 3,746% increase in value since then. Some serious growth, folks!
The audacious $34.5 billion offer to buy Google Chrome came just this Tuesday. Now, Chrome has been in the crosshairs of a Google antitrust case, and a ruling could be coming soon that might force Google to sell the browser in a bid to curb its web dominance. The drama here is getting thick.
Big Names in the Running
Perplexity isn't flying solo in this quest, though. OpenAI, the masterminds behind ChatGPT, have also been eyeing the browser. Apollo Global Management and Yahoo might throw their hats in the ring too. As much as I want to see who comes out on top, I can’t help but feel that this is going to be a wild ride.
On top of all this, Perplexity has been quietly stacking up some serious numbers. DemandSage reports that they’ve hit an annual recurring revenue of $80 million, with 22 million monthly active users. Not bad, eh?
The AI Race
The AI race isn’t just about bots. It's spilling over into the web search market, and it’s getting spicy. AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini rely on internet sources to pull in data, and their responses often have citations that make them look a lot more credible than your typical search engine result.
OpenAI, keeping it interesting as always, revealed in July 2025 that it plans to launch its own browser to go toe-to-toe with Google Chrome. Perplexity isn’t waiting around either, already out with their own AI-powered browser, Comet.
Hacker Threats
Meanwhile, web browsers like Chrome aren’t just being targeted by AI companies. Hackers have been circling, looking for weaknesses. In October 2024, the Lazarus Group exploited a Chrome vulnerability via an NFT game. Just a few months before that, in June, a Chrome plugin was hijacked to steal from Binance accounts. It’s a wild world out there for browser security.
But with all these moves happening in the AI and browser space, one thing's for sure: the future of web search is anything but predictable.
Anastasiia G
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