(Bloomberg) — SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund 2 is investing in U.S. artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI at a valuation of $3 billion, the latest bet on an area Masayoshi Son sees as key to protecting his legacy.
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SoftBank plans to invest $10 million to $20 million in Perplexity, which is trying to use AI to compete with Alphabet Inc.’s Google search, according to people familiar with the matter. The investment, part of a larger $250 million funding round, will triple Perplexity’s valuation, making it one of the most highly valued companies in the industry.
The deal underscores how SoftBank is poised to rapidly accelerate the pace of its AI investments. The company’s billionaire founder last week laid out a grand vision for the future of AI, including a determination to achieve what he called “artificial superintelligence.” Son spoke about creating an AI thousands of times smarter than humans, SoftBank’s most grandiose declaration since it pulled out of the market after a series of ill-timed startup investments.
“We’ve done a lot of things, but it was all in preparation for my dream of making ASI a reality,” he told investors at the company’s annual general meeting on Friday. “This is what I was born to do.”
The deal hasn’t been finalized and terms are subject to change, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. Representatives for Perplexity and SoftBank declined to comment on the deal talks. TechCrunch previously reported some details of the broader fundraising.
SoftBank’s equity investment strengthens its existing business partnership with Perplexity. Earlier this year, the startup announced a deal to offer SoftBank’s Japanese mobile phone customers a free one-year subscription to its service, deepening Perplexity’s ties with Japan, one of the region’s largest markets.
Founded less than two years ago, Perplexity differentiates itself from other AI chatbots by providing more real-time information: its main service is search, but the startup calls itself an “answer engine” because it provides results in the form of text rather than links.
There has also been controversy over products that summarize news articles, over whether they give fair recognition to the work of news organizations.
SoftBank is expected to step up its AI service activities in the future: The group directly invested $200 million in Tempus AI, a startup that analyzes medical data, this year, and the two companies are now planning to set up a joint venture in Japan.
SoftBank is also working on plans to spend about $100 billion on AI-related chips in a project dubbed Izanagi, Bloomberg News reported in February. Asked about Izanagi by a shareholder last week, Son said the company was committed to delivering results and would work hard to achieve its goals, but did not provide details.
–With assistance from Katie Roof.
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