Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, is reportedly in talks to raise $500 million, which would boost its valuation to $8 billion. This would more than double its previous $3 billion valuation after its summer funding round with SoftBank. Perplexity currently handles around 15 million queries daily and generates approximately $50 million in annual revenue. The platform uses AI to enhance web searches through a chatbot interface. Despite accusations of unauthorized web scraping and plagiarism from news publishers like The New York Times, CEO Aravind Srinivas has expressed his intention to collaborate with publishers. These fundraising discussions come in the wake of OpenAI’s $6.6 billion raise, as products like ChatGPT shift towards search functionalities with SearchGPT.