Reportedly, Google paid Samsung an ‘enormous sum’ of money months ago for default placement of its Gemini AI assistant.
Samsung Electronics is reportedly negotiating a sweeping partnership with Perplexity AI to integrate its search and assistant technologies into upcoming smartphones.
A Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, revealed that the proposed tie-up would see Perplexity’s app preloaded on future Samsung devices, with its search engine embedded in the Samsung Internet browser.
Discussions are also underway to incorporate the technology into Samsung’s Bixby assistant and set Perplexity as the default assistant in the Galaxy S26 line, expected in the first half of 2026.
Parallely, Samsung is expected to be a major investor in a new funding round for Perplexity, which is said to be seeking $500 million at a $14 billion valuation. If finalised, the deal could lessen Samsung’s dependency on Google, mirroring Apple’s recent strategy of distributing AI capabilities across multiple partners.
The potential Samsung collaboration follows Perplexity’s existing arrangement with Motorola and comes amid a wave of feature launches.
In recent weeks, the company unveiled Perplexity Labs, a feature for paid users that transforms user prompts into structured outputs such as reports, dashboards, and web apps. With the addition of the new feature, the “Deep Research” tool has now been renamed simply as research.
Perplexity also introduced a voice assistant for iPhones, which can perform multistep tasks like sending emails and booking reservations. Android support was rolled out earlier this year. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, described it as the first AI app capable of handling queries and tasks natively on iPhones.
Perplexity could be emerging as a strong competitor in the AI assistant market, boasting integrations with Samsung and Motorola, alongside its Comet web browser and interactive Labs mode. This comes as rivals such as Apple reportedly experience delays in launching their advanced AI capabilities.
