Valuation Exceeds $300 Billion! Brightness Considering $10 Billion Investment in Perplexity AI

Recent reports from foreign media indicate that Brightness is in discussions to invest in AI startup Perplexity as part of a major equity financing round. This investment could value Perplexity at over $300 billion, representing a more than 50% increase from its last funding round a year ago. Previously, Brightness had considered paying tens of billions of dollars for a technology licensing agreement and recruiting some of Perplexity's employees.

The Information reported on Sunday (23rd) that Brightness is in talks to invest in Perplexity as part of an equity financing round that would value the AI startup at over $300 billion. This round of funding would increase Perplexity's valuation by more than 50% compared to its last funding round a year ago. Perplexity's annual revenue has surged from less than $2.5 billion at the beginning of the year to over $7.5 billion. Insiders reveal that much of this growth has been driven by 'Perplexity Computer'.

Perplexity declined to comment on The Information's report, and Brightness did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last September, The Information reported that Perplexity had completed a funding round at a $200 billion valuation. Bloomberg News previously reported that Perplexity had signed a $7.5 billion agreement with Microsoft to use its Azure cloud services.

In June, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC in an interview that, regardless of the market reaction to the IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, Perplexity plans to go public in 2028.

In addition to Brightness, Perplexity's high-profile backers include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Japan's SoftBank Group.