AI startup Perplexity is making headlines after entering advanced talks to raise $500 million in a funding round led by Accel, which would value the company at a staggering $14 billion.That’s a 50% leap from its $9 billion valuation just six months ago, cementing Perplexity’s status as one of the hottest AI companies in Silicon Valley.

So what’s fueling this meteoric rise? Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine doesn’t just spit out a list of links-it delivers direct, cited answers to any question, shaking up the way we find information online. Investors like Jeff Bezos and SoftBank have taken notice, and Apple is reportedly considering integrating Perplexity’s search into Safari, a move that could expose the service to millions more users.

The timing couldn’t be better. As Google faces stagnant search growth and new rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude enter the fray, Perplexity’s user-friendly, citation-rich approach is winning fans-and market share. “Artificial intelligence has captured the imagination of virtually every company in the tech world,” Benzinga notes, “and Perplexity is a potential threat to Google’s dominance”.

With nearly $100 million in annual revenue and a new AI-powered browser called Comet on the horizon, Perplexity is proving that the future of search is up for grabs–and it’s anyone’s game.