Nvidia in talks to invest in Perplexity at a $30B+ valuation

Nvidia is in talks to invest in AI search startup Perplexity as part of an equity round that would value the company at more than $30 billion, The Information reported on Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. Perplexity declined to comment, while Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

A valuation above $30 billion would mark a gain of more than 50% from a year ago, when Perplexity finalized a round at $20 billion in September 2025. Less than a year later, the market is pricing the company at nearly double that figure.

The money has followed growth: annualized revenue has risen to more than $750 million from under $250 million at the start of the year, according to The Information, with part of the increase driven by Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent that automates computer-based tasks such as research, coding and document work for professionals. The agent, launched in February 2026, costs $200 a month as part of Perplexity's Max subscription.

For Nvidia, a stake in Perplexity would take the chip maker one step downstream, into the applications built on top of the AI infrastructure it sells — the same logic as Nvidia's reported $5 billion bet on Safe Superintelligence. The Information also reported that Nvidia had considered a technology-licensing deal with the startup rather than an equity investment.

The talks land three days before Nvidia's own earnings, due on Wednesday. Perplexity's existing backers include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Japan's SoftBank, and the company signed a $750 million agreement with Microsoft to use Azure earlier this year. CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC in June that Perplexity plans to go public in 2028.

If completed, the deal would be another landmark case of AI infrastructure giants moving into the application layer, as companies that sell compute begin to bet directly on the companies that use it. Watch for whether the round closes as equity or a licensing deal, what Nvidia's Wednesday earnings reveal, and whether the new capital changes Perplexity's IPO timeline.