Nvidia Is Not Investing in Perplexity Because It Believes in AI Search – Memeburn

What the Deal Actually Is

Jessica Lessin at The Information broke the story on August 23. Nvidia is discussing an investment in Perplexity, the AI search and agent startup, as part of a funding round that would push the company’s valuation past $30 billion. Valida Pau added the detail that matters: Nvidia had also considered paying billions to license some of Perplexity’s technology and hire staff, but those talks shifted to an equity deal.

This is not the first time Nvidia has invested in Perplexity. NVentures, Nvidia’s venture arm, has had money in the company since 2023. The relationship deepened in July 2026, when Perplexity committed to running its AI agent workloads on Nvidia’s Vera CPUs after finding that they significantly outperformed traditional server processors on some of its core tasks.

Meanwhile, Perplexity’s annualised revenue has grown from under $250 million at the start of 2026 to more than $750 million, driven partly by Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based AI agent for automating professional tasks.

So on paper this looks like Nvidia backing a winner. A fast-growing AI company, proven revenue trajectory, deepening product relationship. That is how the deal is being covered.

It is also not the full picture.

The Week That Tells You Everything

In the seven days ending August 24, Nvidia struck two deals:

Perplexity (in talks): equity investment, valuation above $30 billion. Nvidia gains a stake in a company that runs on Nvidia infrastructure.

Poolside…