Jessie Moore has been writing professionally for nearly two decades; for the past seven years, she's focused on writing, ghostwriting, and editing in the finance space. She is a Today Show and Publisher's Weekly-featured author who has written or ghostwritten 10+ books on a wide variety of topics, ranging from day trading to unicorns to plant care.
Perplexity AI is not publicly traded.
Hiive is a marketplace that connects accredited investors with shareholders of pre-IPO, VC-backed companies like Perplexity AI who want to sell their shares.
Sign up with Hiive here and get access to Perplexity AI before its IPO.
Perplexity AI has emerged as one of the most exciting AI companies, fresh with the promise of revolutionizing how you and I search for information online.
Unlike traditional search engines, which provide a list of links, Perplexity AI delivers direct, comprehensive answers to questions. Just like that, information discovery — but more intuitive and efficient.
Naturally, you might want to capitalize on that innovation by learning how to invest in Perplexity AI stock. Unfortunately, loading up on Perplexity AI stock shares is not as straightforward as buying shares on the Nasdaq — here’s what you need to know.
Why Consider Investing in Perplexity AI?
AI is trendy. But it’s also useful, and it’s becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives, including in the investing sphere, as evidenced by the bounty of AI stock pickers and AI stock analysis tools.
That’s all to say that all signs indicate that the artificial intelligence megatrend is here to stay. As one of the most popular generative AI platforms, Perplexity AI stands to benefit from this ongoing trajectory.
It has already shown remarkable potential, with the company’s valuation skyrocketing from $520 million to $3 billion by mid-2024.
In fact, the AI heavyweight is currently valued at $9 billion, after it raised $500 million in its latest funding round.
With over 500 million monthly requests and approximately 10 million monthly active users, Perplexity AI’s revenue is expected to exceed $150 million in 2025, up from $50 million in 2024.
Ok, now that you’re champing at the bit, let’s talk about how to invest in Perplexity AI.
Can I Buy Perplexity AI Stock? Is Perplexity AI Publicly Traded?
A little snag — Perplexity AI is not publicly traded. As a privately held company, there is no Perplexity AI stock symbol and doesn’t trade on major exchanges like the NYSE or NASDAQ.
This means retail investors cannot simply log into their brokerage accounts and purchase Perplexity AI stock.
The company has raised several rounds of funding from notable investors, but its shares are not publicly traded.
However, there are still inroads. Let’s discuss.
How to Buy Perplexity AI as an Accredited Investor
Perplexity AI is not publicly traded, but accredited investors can invest in private companies, including Perplexity AI, through Hiive.
Hiive is a marketplace that connects shareholders of private, VC-backed companies who want to sell their pre-IPO shares to accredited investors.
With no buying fees for secondary trades, the ability to negotiate, and a robust marketplace with thousands of companies, Hiive is a great way to invest in Perplexity AI stock and other companies before they IPO.
Sign up with Hiive, check out Perplexity AI, add it to your watchlist, and get notified about any new listings and trades.
Any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Hiive Markets Limited (“Hiive”) or any of its affiliates. This communication is for informational purposes only, and is not a recommendation, solicitation, or research report relating to any investment strategy or security. Investing in private securities is speculative, illiquid, and involves the risk of loss. Not all private companies will experience an IPO or other liquidity event; past performance does not guarantee future results. WallStreetZen is not affilated with Hiive and may be compensated for user activity resulting from readers clicking on Hiive affiliate links. Hiive Markets Limited, member FINRA/SIPC.
How to Buy Perplexity AI as a Retail Investor
Unfortunately, retail investors currently cannot buy Perplexity AI stock directly. The company remains privately held, and access to its shares is limited to accredited investors through platforms like Hiive.
However, there are alternative ways for retail investors to gain exposure to the AI sector and benefit from the growth of companies like Perplexity AI. Let’s dig in a bit.
Who Owns Perplexity AI?
Perplexity AI is owned by a combination of its founders, investors, employees, and partners:
- Founders: The company was founded by Aravind Srinivas (CEO), Johnny Ho, Denis Yarats, and Andy Konwinski. Aravind Srinivas previously worked as an AI researcher at OpenAI and Alphabet, Inc.
- Investors: Perplexity AI has attracted investment from notable figures and companies, including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Databricks, Bessemer Venture Partners, Susan Wojcicki, Jeff Dean, Yann LeCun, and Andrej Karpathy.
Does Nvidia Own Perplexity AI?
No, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) does not own Perplexity AI outright. However, the chip maker is a significant investor in the company, having participated in funding rounds, including a $73.6 million round led jointly by Nvidia and Jeff Bezos.
Nvidia’s investment in Perplexity AI is part of its broader strategy to support innovation in the AI sector, but it does not have controlling ownership of the company.
3 Alternatives to Perplexity AI for Retail Investors
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Since Perplexity AI stock is not available to retail investors, here are three publicly traded alternatives that provide exposure to the AI sector:
Note: This article does not provide investment advice. The stocks listed should not be taken as recommendations. Your investments are solely your decisions.
1. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) deepened its investment in AI search startup Perplexity, participating in multiple funding rounds since November 2023, including a recent round valuing the latter at $9 billion.
Notably, Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas has demonstrated confidence in the partnership, reportedly purchasing additional Nvidia shares during recent market volatility.
According to our quant ratings system, Zen Ratings, Nvidia has an overall grade of C (hold). The ratings are based on 115 different factors, including Growth, Momentum, and Sentiment.
Interestingly, Nvidia is ranking lower on Value which measures factors such as estimated earnings yield, cash flow yield and the PEG ratio.
While we generally don’t suggest investing in C-rated stocks, ratings are updated daily — add NVDA to your free watchlist below to get regular updates on what’s up with the company.
2. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) maintains strategic connections to two leading AI startups. While not a direct investor in Perplexity AI, Amazon provides crucial AWS infrastructure powering Perplexity’s search engine, including SageMaker, EC2 P4 instances, and access to Claude models through Amazon Bedrock.
The companies have partnered on Perplexity Enterprise Pro, collaborating on marketing and co-selling activities.
Meanwhile, Amazon has invested heavily in Anthropic. This deal has given Amazon a minority stake in the Claude maker while making AWS Anthropic’s primary cloud provider.
The arrangement helps Amazon compete with Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership in the competitive AI race.
Amazon also scores highly according to our quant ratings system, Zen Ratings. It earns an overall grade of B (Buy), as it scores highly on factors such as Momentum and Financials.
Stocks with an overall B rating have historically outperformed the market, delivering an average of 19.88% annual returns.
3. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META)
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) has no direct investment in or ownership of Perplexity AI, unlike Nvidia’s significant financial backing.
However, Meta’s influence comes through technology: Perplexity built “Sonar,” its default search model, on Meta’s open-source Llama 3 architecture.
This technical relationship gives Meta indirect influence in Perplexity’s development without financial ties. Perplexity fine-tunes the Llama 3 foundation to optimize for concise answers and web content synthesis.
Both companies also share Brave’s web index as part of their search infrastructure. While Meta develops its own AI search capabilities, its primary connection to Perplexity remains through the open-source Llama models that power Perplexity’s core technology.
Similar to Amazon, Meta Platforms also has a “B” rating and should be on the radar of AI investors in 2025. As you can see above, it has an excellent A rating for Financials (always a good thing for long-term investors), as well as above-average ratings for Momentum and Sentiment.
How to Buy the Perplexity AI IPO
Prefer to wait for the IPO? Here are the steps on how to buy Perplexity AI stock if and when it becomes available:
- Create or login to your brokerage account (if you don’t have one, we recommend eToro)
- Search for Perplexity
- Select how many shares you want to buy
- Place your order
- Monitor your trade
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
Perplexity AI Stock Price Chart
While there is no Perplexity AI stock price chart available since the company is not publicly traded, we can look for other clues about its rapid growth.
For one, Perplexity AI is gaining traction at an attractive clip, with total website visits surging from 2.2 million in 2022 to more than 52 million in 2023.
Even more impressive is Perplexity’s revenue trajectory, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) jumping 82% in just two months—from $11 million in February 2024 to $20 million by April 2024.
This rapid financial and user growth helps explain why Nvidia continues deepening its investment and why the startup recently achieved a $9 billion valuation.
Conclusion
Investing in innovative AI companies like Perplexity AI might seem exciting, but access remains limited for most retail investors.
Currently, only accredited investors can buy Perplexity AI stock through platforms like Hiive, which connects them with shareholders looking to sell their pre-IPO shares.
For retail investors, the best approach is to either wait for a potential Perplexity AI IPO or consider investing in publicly traded companies that have exposure to the AI sector or direct connections to Perplexity AI, such as Nvidia, Amazon, or Meta Platforms.
As the AI industry continues to evolve rapidly, staying informed about companies like Perplexity AI and their potential public offerings will be crucial for investors looking to capitalize on this transformative technology.
FAQs:
Is Perplexity AI publicly traded?
No, Perplexity AI is not publicly traded. It is a privately held company, and its shares are not available on public stock exchanges.
Can we invest in Perplexity AI?
Accredited investors looking at how to invest in Perplexity AI stock can do so through platforms like Hiive that facilitate pre-IPO investments. Retail investors currently cannot directly invest in Perplexity AI.
What are the top 3 AI stocks to buy now?
While investment decisions should be based on your own research and financial goals, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta Platforms are three publicly traded companies with exposure to the AI sector.
Who is Perplexity AI owned by?
Perplexity AI is owned by its founders (Aravind Srinivas, Johnny Ho, Denis Yarats, and Andy Konwinski), investors (including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Databricks), employees, and partners.
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