AI Search Engine Perplexity Seeks $500M Funding at $8B Valuation

- AI search engine **Perplexity** is reportedly in talks to raise around **$500 million** at an **$8 billion** valuation. - This would more than double its previous valuation of $3 billion from a fundraising round with **SoftBank**. - Perplexity currently handles about **15 million queries** daily and generates approximately **$50 million** in annualized revenue. - Despite accusations of unauthorized web scraping and plagiarism, CEO **Aravind Srinivas** insists on working with publishers. - The fundraising talks follow **OpenAI's** recent $6.6 billion round at a $157 billion valuation. Source: [Techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/20/perplexity-is-reportedly-looking-to-fundraise-at-an-8b-valuation/)