Confusion has reportedly closed a $500M funding round

AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion.

Bloomberg, citing familiar sources, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed in early December. In an email to TechCrunch, a spokesperson for Perplexity declined to comment.

The big tranche comes as competition for AI-powered search heats up. OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Search, its answer to Perplexity. And Google is developing capabilities to counter some of Perplexity’s offerings, including AI-generated summaries and answers on search results pages.

This week, Information reported that Google is planning to take a drastic step, possibly building a chatbot-like “AI mode” directly into Google Search.

The frenzy isn’t resting – as it fights a class action lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement. On Wednesday, the company made its first acquisition, snapping up a startup, Carbon, which focuses on connecting AI systems with external data sources.