Perplexity AI, developer of an AI-powered search engine, is reportedly preparing for another funding round at a $20 billion valuation. The capital could fund the company’s recent $34.5 billion bid to acquire the Google Chrome browser.
The target valuation is $2 billion higher than Perplexity’s previous $18 billion mark from its July 2025 fundraise, according to Business Insider. The company’s worth has surged 3,746% since January 2024, when it was valued at $520 million.
On Tuesday, Perplexity made an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer to purchase the Google Chrome browser, a product that has been the subject of an ongoing Google antitrust case. In a ruling expected to the coming days, a US district court judge could force Google to sell the browser to reduce the company’s dominance in web searching.
OpenAI, which is responsible for the AI model ChatGPT, is also reportedly interested in purchasing Google’s browser. Apollo Global Management and Yahoo may also be interested.
According to data platform DemandSage, Perplexity has reached an annual recurring revenue of $80 million, with 22 million monthly active users.
Cointelegraph reached out to Perplexity and Google for comments, but had not received responses at time of publication.
Related: Donut Labs raises $7M to launch first ‘agentic’ crypto browser
AI race spills over into web search market
The artificial intelligence race is beginning to spill over into web search. AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini often use sources gleaned directly from the internet, providing much-needed citations that can make the models’ responses seem more credible.
In July 2025, OpenAI revealed plans to release a web browser that would challenge Google Chrome. Perplexity has already released its own AI browser, called Comet.
Hackers have been targeting web browsers for some time, including Chrome.
In October 2024, the Lazarus Group exploited a Chrome vulnerability through an NFT game. A few months earlier, in June, hackers took advantage of a Chrome plugin to steal from Binance accounts.
Magazine: AI Eye: Training AI to secretly love owls… or Hitler. Meta + AI porn?