Bloomberg: Agreement May Be Announced as Early as This Year
Samsung Electronics is reportedly in discussions to integrate the AI assistant developed by the artificial intelligence (AI) startup "Perplexity AI" into its upcoming smartphone, the Galaxy S26, which is scheduled for release in the first half of next year.
On June 2, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, reported that Samsung Electronics and Perplexity AI are nearing a comprehensive agreement that includes Samsung's investment in Perplexity. Samsung is planning to announce this agreement as early as later this year, although the specific details have not yet been finalized.
In April, Bloomberg had previously reported that the two companies were in discussions regarding such an agreement. It is understood that in recent weeks, representatives from both sides met in Korea and have come close to reaching a deal.
Perplexity is an AI search startup founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, a former member of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, among others. From its inception, the company has provided search services based on AI technology and is competing with Google and OpenAI.
According to Bloomberg, the two companies are reportedly discussing plans to pre-install Perplexity's application and assistant on future Samsung products, as well as to integrate Perplexity's search capabilities into the Samsung web browser. They are also said to be considering applying Perplexity's technology to Samsung's AI voice assistant, Bixby.
Furthermore, it is expected that Samsung Electronics will participate as one of the largest investors in Perplexity's new fundraising round. Perplexity is currently discussing raising $500 million (approximately 700 billion won) at a valuation of $14 billion (about 19 trillion won).
Bloomberg assessed that these discussions could help Samsung reduce its reliance on Google and lay the groundwork for collaborating with a variety of AI developers, similar to Apple. For Perplexity, if the deal is finalized, it would represent the company's largest mobile partnership since its founding.
Both Samsung Electronics and Perplexity declined to comment in response to Bloomberg's request.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg also reported that Apple is showing interest in collaborating with Perplexity, and is discussing the possibility of using Perplexity as an alternative to Google Search or as a replacement for OpenAI's ChatGPT in its voice assistant Siri.
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