AI-powered search engine startup founded in 2022. Known for conversational search that cites sources. Valued at $20 billion as of September 2025.
In August 2025, Cloudflare published research finding Perplexity used undeclared 'stealth' web crawlers to bypass robots.txt files and web application firewalls across tens of thousands of domains and millions of requests daily. When blocked, Perplexity would obscure its crawling identity to circumvent website preferences. Cloudflare de-listed Perplexity as a verified bot. Perplexity accused Cloudflare of 'incompetence and publicity-seeking.'
In August 2025, Perplexity was contracted to produce Truth Search AI, a chatbot for Donald Trump's Truth Social platform. Perplexity spokesman Jesse Dwyer stated: 'This is their choice for their audience, and we are committed to developer and consumer choice.' Ironically, the chatbot contradicted Trump by stating tariffs are a tax on Americans and that the 2020 election wasn't stolen.
In October 2024, Dow Jones and New York Post filed a lawsuit against Perplexity alleging copyright infringement. News Corp CEO Robert Thomson stated Perplexity 'perpetrates an abuse of intellectual property that harms journalists.' Forbes had earlier publicly criticized Perplexity for publishing stories largely copied from their proprietary articles. Copyleaks analysis found one summary paraphrased 48% of a Forbes article, with 7% direct plagiarism.