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Perplexity is in talks to raise again, as the battle for second in the AI chatbot race heats up

The latest funding round could peg Perplexity at a $14 billion valuation.

5/14/25 5:56AM

Like a lot of AI startups, Perplexity isn’t having a hard time finding new investors.

According to exclusive reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the company is in closing talks for a new $500 million funding round that would see it valued at a whopping $14 billion. For context on just how quickly valuations are still soaring in the AI sphere, Perplexity closed a funding round in November that saw its valuation reach $9 billion… which was already triple what the startup was worth just six months before that.

Though it’s certainly had its critics, the company’s eponymous AI search engine has proved popular since its release in late 2022, while plans to launch Comet — an AI-powered browser that could land as soon as this month — clearly have investors excited as well. In the ever-expanding universe of AI tools and chatbots, though, OpenAI’s star still shines brightest.

ChatGPT domination chart — Sherwood News

ChatGPT has been breaking its own traffic records every month of the year so far, hitting an almighty 780 million visits from American users in April, while web-based versions of other AI efforts have yet to build anywhere near as much steam. Indeed, discounting rivals from Big Tech giants like Meta’s new MetaAI platform or Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT really is a deus amid machinas, clocking over 8.5x more April site visits than the web versions of DeepSeek, Perplexity, Anthropic’s Claude, and Elon Musk’s Grok combined.

Among those chatbots and AI search engines not set up by Sam Altman or trillion-dollar tech companies, DeepSeek — the Chinese startup whose R1 model rocked AI stocks in January — leads the way, though it has lost momentum more recently.

AI platform visits chart — Sherwood News

Since DeepSeek burst onto the scene, causing a flurry of hurried explainers and inspiring a wave of online evangelists, tens of millions have flocked to sample the chatbot, reportedly built at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s flagship model. Still, monthly visit numbers are slipping from the February peak of 43 million.

Rani Molla12/31/25

Rather than fully cracking down on scam ads, Meta worked to make them harder to find

In its latest piece on Meta’s scam ads, Reuters found that the social media giant didn’t just remove fraudulent ads from its platforms — it also worked to make them harder for governments and journalists to find.

Fearing that Japanese regulators would require universal advertiser verification — a measure Meta estimated would cost roughly $2 billion to implement and potentially reduce its revenue by nearly 5% — the company took steps to make scam ads less “discoverable” to “regulators, investigators and journalists,” according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.

“So successful was the search-result cleanup that Meta, the documents show, added the tactic to a ‘general global playbook’ it has deployed against regulatory scrutiny in other markets, including the United States, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and Thailand,” Reuters wrote.

Previous Reuters reporting found Meta internally projected that about 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads tied to scams and banned goods, though the company later said that estimate was overly broad. Reuters also reported the rate was double in China.

Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

Rani Molla12/31/25

Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who called Tesla “ridiculously overvalued,” is not currently shorting Tesla

Earlier this month, “The Big Short” investor Michael Burry said Tesla has been “ridiculously overvalued” for “a good long time” — and reiterated that message in a post on X on Tuesday. But the once prominent Tesla short seller isn’t currently betting against the stock.

I am not short
— Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) December 31, 2025

Asked directly whether he would short Tesla now, Burry replied simply: “I am not short.”

Tesla is expected to report a double-digit decline in fourth-quarter deliveries this week.

Rani Molla12/30/25

SoftBank becomes OpenAI’s biggest backer after fully funding $40 billion investment

SoftBank has fully funded its $40 billion investment in OpenAI, overtaking Microsoft as the company’s largest financial backer, CNBC reports. The deal was contingent on OpenAI transitioning to a for-profit public benefit corporation, which it did in September.

However, longtime partner Microsoft retains substantial influence over OpenAI with its roughly $13 billion investment, which translates to a stake worth about 27% of the startup’s valuation — which has been cited as high as $830 billion — as well as exclusive cloud and commercial licensing rights tied to Azure.

Softbank has fully funded $40 billion investment in OpenAI, sources tell CNBC

Rani Molla12/30/25

Tesla-compiled estimates show Q4 deliveries expected to fall 15% from last year

A Tesla-compiled average of analyst estimates pegs fourth-quarter deliveries at 422,850, which would mark a 15% slump from the 495,570 the company delivered in the same quarter last year, if realized. The full-year estimate of 1.6 million vehicles would represent an 8% decline from 2024 and the second annual decline for the EV company. The estimates are notably lower than the consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg and FactSet, which have been declining over the past month.

The market-implied odds derived from event contracts show that most traders think Tesla deliveries will be more than 410,000 but less than 420,000 in the quarter ending December.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

While Tesla typically shares its compilation of analyst estimates with institutional investors, this is the first time the company has shared those numbers on its own website. Tesla’s numbers include estimates from Daiwa, DB, Wedbush, OpCo, Canaccord, Baird, Wolfe, Exane, GS, RBC, Evercore ISI, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Jefferies, Needham & Co., HSBC, Cantor Fitzgerald, and William Blair.

Actual numbers are expected Friday.

Rani Molla12/29/25

Cybertruck battery material supplier writes down Tesla deal by 99%

South Korea’s L&F Co., a supplier of battery material for Tesla’s “apocalypse-proof” Cybertruck, has written down the value of its Tesla contract by more than 99%, Bloomberg reports — another sign that Cybertruck sales are faltering.

The company cited changes in supply quantities, slashing a contract valued at nearly $3 billion in 2023 to about $7,000 now.