Perplexity and SoftBank Launch AI Search App for Mobile Users

Japanese investment bank SoftBank has entered into an exciting partnership with startup Perplexity to expand access to its AI-driven search application. This strategic collaboration will enable users of two of Japan’s largest mobile providers, Y!mobile and Linemo—both subsidiaries of SoftBank—to experience Perplexity’s premium offerings.

Typically priced at $20 per month, Perplexity Pro offers users enhanced AI search capabilities, including file uploads and the option to select their preferred AI models—such as Llama 3, Claude 3 from Anthropic, and OpenAI's latest GPT-4o. To celebrate this partnership, Perplexity will offer the premium service at no cost for the first year beginning June 19, while SoftBank manages the application process.

Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, expressed enthusiasm about this collaboration with SoftBank, describing it as “the beginning of infinity” in a post on X (formerly Twitter), emphasizing the monumental potential of their combined efforts.

Designed with a user-friendly conversational interface, Perplexity allows users to conduct AI-assisted web searches that generate transparent responses complete with citations and sources. Users can interact with the app by asking questions through text or voice, and the app smartly generates relevant follow-up queries.

In addition to its consumer offering, Perplexity provides businesses with access to its premium features through an enterprise-focused subscription. This version, known as Perplexity Enterprise Pro, is tailored to enhance workflows for organizations. It allows unlimited file uploads and facilitates easy management of team members within the application, along with a commitment to protect user data from being used in training AI models.

Having recently secured $62.7 million in venture funding, Perplexity is now valued at over $1 billion. The startup enjoys support from prominent investors, including Jeff Bezos, former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy, Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, and Jakob Uszkoreit, the former Google researcher credited with developing the original Transformer model. Furthermore, Nvidia has also shown confidence in Perplexity, with CEO Jensen Huang revealing that he uses the app “almost every day.”

In April, Perplexity established a similar agreement with Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, making its AI-powered search application accessible to even more users across mobile platforms. This expanding network of partnerships underlines Perplexity’s growing influence in the AI search landscape and positions it as a formidable player in the industry.