3 Public Stocks That Track Perplexity’s AI Search Race
No, Perplexity is not publicly traded. Retail investors mostly have to wait for a possible IPO, or use public proxies like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Baidu.
No, Perplexity is not publicly traded. Retail investors mostly have to wait for a possible IPO, or use public proxies like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Baidu.
Perplexity is one of the hottest private AI names because it sits right at the intersection of search, chatbots, and answer engines — the exact part of AI that everyday users can actually see and use. It has also kept showing up in the news with new product launches, major partnerships, and a growing valuation, which is why investors keep asking how to buy in before any IPO.
The short answer is that you can’t buy Perplexity stock on an exchange today. What you can do is understand the realistic paths to exposure, the company’s IPO timeline, and the closest public names investors use as stand-ins.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine and search platform that combines web search with large language models and citations. Its product lineup includes consumer search, Perplexity Pro, Enterprise Pro, the Sonar and Sonar Pro API, Deep Research, and newer browser- and agent-style products on its hub page.
The company says it was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Public reporting has put its scale in the roughly 200–500 employee range, with one 2025 source citing 175+ employees. Revenue is not audited or publicly disclosed, but late-2024 reporting put annual recurring revenue around $50 million, and Perplexity said in January 2025 that it was handling 169 million queries per month.
Is Perplexity publicly traded?
No, Perplexity is currently a privately held company, so there is no public ticker you can buy today. It is venture-backed and founder-led, and there is no evidence of a public parent company that would give investors indirect listed exposure through ownership of Perplexity itself.
That means retail investors cannot simply place a normal brokerage order for Perplexity shares. Any ownership today sits with founders, employees, and private investors from funding rounds.
When will Perplexity go public?
Perplexity has not filed an S-1 in SEC records, so there is no live IPO registration to track yet. Still, CEO Aravind Srinivas has publicly said the company is planning to go public in 2028, and reporting in 2025 and 2026 pointed to no IPO before then.
The most recent clearly disclosed valuation I found was $9 billion from a $500 million funding round closed in December 2024. That gives investors a rough marker for how the market has been pricing the company privately, but it does not guarantee when — or even whether — an IPO will happen on that timeline.
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For most retail investors, the realistic path is to wait for an IPO and buy shares once Perplexity lists on an exchange. If that happens, you would participate the same way you do in any other IPO: through a brokerage account, subject to whatever allocation your broker can access.
There is no public parent stock to buy instead, because Perplexity is independent. The next-best public route is to own comparable companies that sit in the same search-and-AI ecosystem, which is what most investors end up doing when they want exposure before a listing.
Private secondary markets can sometimes offer access to private-company shares, but those opportunities are generally limited to accredited investors and are not guaranteed to be available. If you go that route, treat it as a private-market transaction with real liquidity and pricing risk, not as a normal retail stock purchase.
Closest publicly-traded alternatives
The closest public alternative is Alphabet (GOOGL), because Perplexity is effectively trying to reinvent search with AI answers and citations. If you want exposure to the search market Perplexity is challenging, Alphabet is the most direct public proxy.
Microsoft (MSFT) is another relevant comp because it sits in AI-assisted knowledge work, copilots, and search-adjacent workflows. Baidu (BIDU) is the third useful comparison because it combines search heritage with an AI product layer, making it a closer search-platform proxy than most software names. Investors looking at Perplexity usually use these three as the nearest public stand-ins, not as recommendations.
Recent news
Perplexity has kept expanding its product and distribution footprint. Recent launches and partnerships include Deep Research on Feb. 14, 2025; the Sonar Pro API on Jan. 21, 2025; a SoftBank/Deutsche Telekom partnership expansion in March 2025; a Motorola global partnership on April 24, 2025; a Wiley partnership on May 8, 2025; and Gannett joining the Perplexity Publisher Program on July 30, 2025.
The company has also faced legal pressure from publishers. Reuters reported that the BBC threatened legal action in 2025, and The New York Times sued Perplexity in December 2025 over alleged copyright infringement.
Verdict
If you want Perplexity specifically, the honest answer is that you can’t buy it publicly today. The company is private, has no filed S-1, and management has only said an IPO could come around 2028.
For most retail investors, the practical move is to watch for the IPO and, in the meantime, use public proxies like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Baidu if you want exposure to the AI search theme. If you are accredited and willing to take private-market risk, secondary markets may occasionally offer a path — but that is not the same as buying a normal listed stock.
▌Common Questions
Frequently asked questions
+Is Perplexity publicly traded?
No, Perplexity is currently a privately held company, so there is no public ticker you can buy today. It is venture-backed and founder-led, and there is no evidence of a public parent company that would give investors indirect listed exposure through ownership of Perplexity itself.
+When will Perplexity go public?
Perplexity has not filed an S-1 in SEC records, so there is no live IPO registration to track yet. Still, CEO Aravind Srinivas has publicly said the company is planning to go public in 2028, and reporting in 2025 and 2026 pointed to no IPO before then.
+How can you invest in Perplexity?
For most retail investors, the realistic path is to wait for an IPO and buy shares once Perplexity lists on an exchange. If that happens, you would participate the same way you do in any other IPO: through a brokerage account, subject to whatever allocation your broker can access.
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