Perplexity AI, the white-hot artificial intelligence (AI) startup drawing interest from at least two Big Tech suitors as a possible acquisition target, on Wednesday unveiled Comet, a web browser with AI-powered search expected to challenge market leader Alphabet Inc.’s Google Chrome.
The San Francisco-based startup, backed by NVIDIA Corp., SoftBank, and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, announced Comet in a blog posting. The browser is available to the company’s highest-paying Perplexity Max subscribers and a few others.
“We built Comet to let the internet do what it has been begging to do: amplify our intelligence,” Perplexity said in the post, which called the browser a “direct line to the world’s knowledge” on any topic and in any language. Search results, it said, are “compressed, cited and made clear” to ensure original, accurate sourcing.
“Comet is a web browser built for today’s internet,” Perplexity said of the browser that uses an AI assistant to answer questions on any page, summarize articles instantly, compare products across sites, book meetings, and send emails in one conversational interface. Perplexity deems the approach a shift “from navigation to cognition” that turns browsing into an extension of the thinking process rather than a series of open tabs.
The browser is Perplexity’s biggest challenge yet to Google Chrome, which commands about two-thirds of the browser market worldwide, according to StatCounter. Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Inc.’s Safari lag far behind.
Comet also is intended to cash in on the growing popularity of AI use for work purposes, which has nearly doubled over the past two years, according to a Gallup survey. It found 40% of workers said they occasionally use AI at work, up from 21% in 2023. Those who frequently use AI rose to 19% this year from 11% in 2023.
The latest search offering from Perplexity could make it even more compelling to Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., both of which have shown interest in acquiring Perplexity. Both companies have scuffled to keep pace with rivals Google, Microsoft Corp., OpenAI, Anthropic, and Chinese startups in the AI race.
Executives of the iPhone maker have discussed buying the startup or teaming with it to develop an AI search engine undergirded by Perplexity and integrated into Siri.
Meta, meanwhile, has sunk $14.3 billion in Scale AI, a startup that offers tools to help companies label the data used to train AI models, and hired Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang as part of the deal. It also is offering employment packages of up to $100 million as part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to recruit top AI talent.
