On June 27th, Caixin News Agency reported that SoftBank Group is further expanding its artificial intelligence business. According to insiders, the group's Vision Fund 2 will invest $10-20 million in the US search startup Perplexity AI, with an overall valuation of $3 billion.
This round of financing may triple the valuation of Perplexity, making it one of the most highly valued companies in the industry. But it is said that the final details of this investment have not been finalized yet, and the terms may still change.
Perplexity is attempting to use artificial intelligence to compete with Alphabet's flagship search engine, Google. The company has been established for less than two years, and although its business is essentially a search engine, Perplexity insists that its service is an "answer engine" because it replies to users in text format rather than links.
This product has also sparked controversy due to excerpts from news reports, with some pointing out that the product may be suspected of improperly citing media content and other issues.
SoftBank's AI Dream
Perplexity raised $73.6 million in January this year from Nvidia and Amazon founder Bezos, with a valuation of $520 million at the time.
SoftBank's equity investment this time has strengthened its business partnership with Perplexity, after the two companies announced that they will jointly provide SoftBank's wireless customers in Japan with a one-year free subscription service.
This transaction also highlights SoftBank's investment ambition in the field of artificial intelligence. Previously, SoftBank founder Sun Zhengyi stated that he would realize his dream of "super artificial intelligence" and develop artificial intelligence that is thousands of times smarter than humans.
In February, SoftBank announced plans to invest $100 billion in the development of artificial intelligence related chips and named the project "Izanagi", using the name of a traditional Japanese deity. However, as of now, SoftBank has not yet disclosed in detail the development process of Ezanagi.
In addition to Perplexity and SoftBank's own Izanagi, the group has also invested $200 million in medical data analytics startup Tempus AI this year and is attempting to establish a joint venture in Japan.
Last Friday, Sun Zhengyi emphasized at the SoftBank shareholder meeting that the group has made a lot of efforts to realize its dream of super artificial intelligence, which is his innate mission.