It’s not just OpenAI that’s breathing down Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) neck. AI search startup Perplexity is close to sealing a $500 million funding round, led by Accel, that would value the company at $14 billion—a sharp jump from the $9 billion valuation it posted just five months ago.
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That’s not just small change or a show of investor enthusiasm for generative AI. It’s a bet on a different way to search the web, one that doesn’t depend on blue links, SEO spam, or clicking your way through ads. Instead, Perplexity offers straightforward, sourced answers, pulling directly from the web and giving users what they want, and fast.
A Big Shift Is Upon Us
If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s the same dynamic now hitting Google where it hurts most: its ad-driven search business. As we noted in an earlier piece, Google’s search model—worth $50.7 billion in Q1 ad revenue alone—is built on getting people to click. But if users start asking AI-powered tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT instead of Googling, those clicks disappear—and with them, a sizable chunk of Alphabet’s cash machine.
chatbots for answers.
The shift is already happening. Apple’s (AAPL) Eddie Cue recently revealed that Google searches on Safari had declined for the first time in two decades, citing rising usage of tools like ChatGPT and, yes, Perplexity. Apple is reportedly in talks to embed Perplexity’s AI into Safari itself—an ominous sign for Google, given how much of its mobile search traffic flows through Apple devices.
Perplexity isn’t stopping at search, either. It’s working on a new Comet browser aimed at taking on Chrome and Safari head-on. Built on Chromium and loaded with “agentic” AI features, Comet could become a native home for AI-driven browsing and task execution—a level up from simple Q&A.
To be fair, Google isn’t sitting idly by, with Gemini and AI Overviews now appearing in search results. However, Perplexity’s funding and product roadmap suggest that the race is on, and the search box—once Google’s unshakeable domain—is now a battleground.
Using Tipranks’ Comparison Tool, we’ve compared all the publicly traded companies that employ an AI chatbot, similar to Perplexity and ChatGPT.
