PANews reported on July 18 that according to the Financial Times, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity has a valuation of $18 billion after the latest round of financing. The company is supported by well-known investors such as Nvidia and SoftBank, and is currently negotiating with investors for a new round of $1 billion in financing. With its AI-driven search technology, Perplexity is accelerating its challenge to the status of traditional search engine giants such as Google.