Perplexity AI just submitted an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer to buy Google’s Chrome browser, backed by unnamed venture capital funds. Dubbed "Project Solomon," the bid attempts to pounce on Google's antitrust troubles as courts weigh forcing a browser spinoff. Perplexity itself is valued at only $18B, making it an audacious power play.
Perplexity just added AI video generation across its web, iOS, and Android platforms. Pro subscribers can create 5 videos per month, while Max users get 15 generations with enhanced visual quality. Why it matters: The AI search engine is moving fast from pulling text answers to generating full multimedia content.
Coinbase just partnered with Perplexity to feed real-time crypto market data, including its COIN50 index, directly into the AI search engine and its new Comet browser. Phase one lets users drill into price moves inside market analysis, with full conversational trading screeners coming next. Why it matters: Perplexity revealed crypto queries now match equities, signaling how quickly everyday financial research is turning conversational.
Perplexity just added real-time video generation to its @AskPerplexity bot on X. Users can tweet a prompt to the account to receive an 8-second clip with synchronized dialogue and audio. Why it matters: Bringing video generation directly inside social feeds makes multimodal creation effortless, even if huge launch-day demand caused queue delays.
Perplexity AI just submitted an official bid to ByteDance to merge its AI search engine with TikTok's U.S. operations and new capital partners. The proposed deal would let ByteDance's existing investors keep their stakes while funneling short-form video into Perplexity's engine. Sources value the potential deal well north of $50 billion.
Perplexity just rolled out custom web sources for Spaces, letting you lock searches down to specific domains and uploaded files. You can plug in target URLs via a new interface menu to cut through generic web noise. It essentially turns Perplexity into a focused research engine tuned strictly to your trusted sources.
Perplexity just rolled out Pages, a feature that transforms prompts and search threads into well-formatted, shareable web articles complete with sections and media. Users can customize tone for beginners or pros, and finished pages are indexed by Google. Why it matters: Perplexity is framing this as human-led research curation, turning everyday AI searches into reusable knowledge.
Meta is now testing its Meta AI assistant directly inside Instagram's search bar. Queries can kick off a private DM conversation for questions or surface specific Reels using pre-loaded prompts, mimicking Perplexity's clean interface. It looks like Meta's latest push to fix Instagram's notoriously clunky search and better take on TikTok.
Perplexity is finalizing a new funding round that will push the AI search startup to a $1 billion valuation, according to The Wall Street Journal. That nearly doubles its $520 million valuation from just two months ago, alongside topping $10 million in annual revenue. Investors are clearly eager to back a challenger to Google's search empire.
