Perplexity AI Reports Explosive Growth as Users Look for Browser Alternatives
Perplexity's AI-powered search engine is growing quickly, with CEO Aravind Srinivas reporting a 20% month-over-month increase and 780 million queries in May, according to TechCrunch. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech Summit, Srinivas said that the platform could hit 1 billion weekly queries if growth continues. He also argued that internet users are looking for fresh alternatives to legacy browsers like Google's (GOOGL) Chrome, and that integrated search tools in a browser can drive even higher engagement.
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As a result, the company is preparing to launch Comet, which is a new agentic search engine that can help complete tasks for users. In addition, Srinivas noted on X that Comet will soon include features such as meeting recordings, transcription, and search, although these will not be available in the initial release. Nevertheless, Perplexity is working hard to polish the product, with a release expected in about three to five weeks.
It is also worth noting that Perplexity is backed by investors such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, and is reportedly closing a funding round that would value it at $14 billion, up from $9 billion in December. Moreover, the search engine recently added a new feature that allows in-chat purchases via PayPal (PYPL) or Venmo. Still, despite Perplexity's growth, Google still dominates the market with about 90% global market share, followed by Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing at around 4%.
Which Stock Is the Better Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, out of the stocks mentioned above, analysts think that NVDA stock has the most room to run. In fact, NVDA's average price target of $172.36 per share implies more than 21% upside potential. On the other hand, analysts expect the least from MSFT stock, as its average price target of $514.27 equates to a gain of 9.2%.
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