News & Updates

Maybe we were wrong about Perplexity

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company's weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I'm Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. Most Read from Fast Company Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at [email protected], and follow me on X @thesullivan. Perplexity's valuation is soaring. Its traffic tells a murkier story In a feature about the AI answer engine Perplexity in 2024, I suggested that the startup wasn't likely to last for the long haul against better-financed players like OpenAI and Anthropic, and that it was most likely an acquisition target. But here we are, well into 2026, and Perplexity is still alive and showing potential. Nvidia is reportedly in talks to invest in Perplexity in an equity round that would value the AI startup at more than $30 billion. That would mark a 50% increase from its estimated $20 billion valuation just a year ago. The Information reported that the company's annualized revenue is now more than $750 million, up from under $250 million at the start of 2026. At $750 million in annualized revenue, a $30 billion valuation is roughly 40 times sales. In February, Perplexity launched its Computer product, which deploys AI agents to do work on behalf of users. It also switched to a usage-based pricing plan in which users get a certain amount of credits for agentic work every month. The Financial Times reported that Perplexity's revenue increased 50% in a month after the launch of Computer. By March, Perplexity's annual recurring revenue had risen to $450 million, the report said, with some of that revenue coming from "tens of thousands" of enterprise customers. The picture of how many people are actually going to Perplexity for answers is somewhat muddled. Numbers from Similarweb suggest that traffic to the Perplexity.ai website peaked at 219 million visits per month in October 2025 and has been retreating ever since. App usage tells a different story. Similarweb numbers show that monthly active users of the Perplexity app on iOS and Android grew from 26.2 million in August 2025 to 37.9 million by February 2026, a roughly 45% increase in six months.