Nvidia is discussing an equity investment in Perplexity as part of a funding round that would value the AI search company at more than $30 billion, The Information reported Monday. The round under discussion could total several billion dollars, and the valuation would mark a jump of more than 50% from the roughly $20 billion Perplexity fetched about a year ago.
The detail worth pausing on isn’t the number — it’s how Nvidia got here. Before the equity talks, the chipmaker reportedly explored paying billions to license Perplexity’s technology and bring over specific talent, then pivoted toward a straight ownership stake. If that sequence sounds familiar, it should: Nvidia struck a $6 billion licensing-and-hiring deal with Poolside earlier this month, and put money into Groq — a company founded to compete with it — back in December. Rent the technology, hire the people, or buy the equity: the tool changes, the strategy doesn’t.
Perplexity is giving investors something real to price. Annualized revenue has passed $750 million, up from less than $250 million at the start of 2026 — roughly tripling in eight months. A meaningful share of that growth is attributed to Perplexity Computer, the company’s cloud-based agent that automates desktop work for professionals, a product that conveniently consumes far more compute per user than a search box ever did.
Our take: Nvidia keeps converting its balance sheet into future demand. Every stake in a compute-hungry AI company is simultaneously an investment, a customer-retention program, and a seat near the product roadmap. Skeptics call this circular — the world’s biggest chip seller funding the companies that buy its chips — and that question lands at an awkward time, days before Nvidia reports earnings this week with Wall Street already rotating out of semiconductors. None of this makes the Perplexity bet irrational. It makes it legible: Nvidia would rather own the demand than merely supply it.
For Perplexity, the calculus is simpler. An Nvidia round at $30 billion buys validation, priority access to scarce compute, and a deeper war chest for a fight against Google and OpenAI in AI search that it cannot win on brand alone. Nothing is signed — the talks could still shrink, restructure, or die — but a 3x revenue run and the industry’s most strategic investor circling is a stronger position than most $30 billion stories.
What to watch
- Whether the round closes — and at what final size and valuation. Talks at $30 billion are not a term sheet.
- The structure. Does a licensing or talent component survive alongside the equity, Poolside-style, or is this a clean investment?
- Nvidia earnings this week. Expect analysts to press on how much of the AI boom Nvidia is financing itself.
- Perplexity Computer traction — the agent product is now the revenue engine, and the compute appetite behind Nvidia’s interest.