TLDR: Mirae Asset Global Investments has invested approximately $110 million in Perplexity AI, an AI-driven search engine developer, valuing the company at $20 billion. This investment highlights growing confidence in Perplexity’s innovative approach to online search and its rapid growth in the competitive AI landscape.
Mirae Asset Global Investments Co., a prominent South Korean asset manager, has made a significant investment of approximately 150 billion won ($110 million) in Perplexity AI Inc., a San Francisco-based AI-driven search engine developer. This latest funding round, confirmed on September 25, 2025, elevates Perplexity AI’s valuation to an impressive $20 billion. The investment was channeled through Mirae Asset’s US arm, further solidifying its position as an aggressive investor in artificial intelligence companies.
Perplexity AI, founded in 2022, has rapidly emerged as a formidable player in the tech industry, directly challenging established giants like Google. The company’s core offering integrates real-time web search capabilities with large language models (LLMs) to provide users with conversational, source-attributed responses. This innovative approach aims to deliver more reliable and context-rich answers compared to traditional search engines.
The startup has demonstrated remarkable growth, now serving over 30 million active users and processing more than 780 million queries per month. Its annual recurring revenue has seen a sharp increase, surpassing $100 million as of March and rising to nearly $200 million just a month later.
This recent capital infusion follows a period of substantial fundraising for Perplexity AI. In early 2024, the company secured $73.6 million from global venture capital firms, including Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), at a valuation of $500 million. Notable individual investors such as Nvidia Corp. and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also backed the startup. Previous investors include Samsung Electronics Co.’s US investment arm, Samsung Next, and South Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom Co., which committed $10 million and has partnered with Perplexity to integrate its search engine into SK’s AI assistant platform, A Dot.
Perplexity AI’s ambition extends beyond its current search engine, as evidenced by its strategic moves. The company is piloting ‘Comet,’ an AI-powered browser exclusively for Perplexity Max subscribers, designed to offer integrated assistants for search, automation, and multitasking. Furthermore, Perplexity made headlines with an audacious $34.5 billion all-cash bid for Google Chrome, a move widely interpreted as a strategic statement to underscore its intent to redefine the browsing experience and directly compete with major tech players.
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Mirae Asset’s investment aligns with its broader strategy to be a leading investor in AI. The group has previously invested in other Korean AI firms, including AI chip designer Rebellions Inc. and LLM-based AI model developer Upstage, as well as AI-based advertising companies like Moloco Inc. Mirae Asset founder and Chairman Park Hyeon-joo has articulated the group’s vision to implement an intelligent, organization-wide AI platform to offer diverse investment products at reduced fees.
