Perplexity AI: A Rising Challenger to Google’s Search Empire
San Francisco, June 2025 — Launched in December 2022 by former OpenAI and Google engineers, Perplexity AI has quickly emerged as a significant AI-powered contender to Google Search . 🚀 Rapid Growth & Impressive Metrics May 2025 usage reached 780 million queries , up more than 20% month-over-month and averaging 30 million/day. The company reports approximately 22 million active users. Growth stage aims include scaling to 1 billion queries weekly by year-end. 💰 Funding & Valuation Currently in late-stage fundraising, seeking $500 million at a $14 billion valuation , up from $9 billion in December 2024. Investors include Accel (leading), Nvidia, SoftBank, Bezos, NEA, IVP, and others 💡 Innovation & Product Strategy Offers GPT‑4.1, Claude, Gemini, Grok and its own models (Sonar, R1), delivering direct, cited conversational answers Developing its “Comet” browser as an AI-integrated experience; Android/iOS assistant launched Jan 20...