NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) partners with Perplexity AI to challenge Alphabet Inc. Class C Chrome by pre-installing an AI browser on mobile devices.

Investments Made by NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) in Perplexity AI is challenging Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) search dominance through browsers. Perplexity's CEO Aravind Srinivas revealed on Friday that the company is in talks with global smartphone manufacturers to pre-install their Comet browser in smartphones, in an attempt to change user habits through default settings. This browser with integrated AI functionality is currently only available for desktop testing, allowing users to directly query personal data (such as emails, calendars, or browsing history) through natural language, and even perform tasks like scheduling meetings and summarizing web pages. Srinivas admitted, "Convincing manufacturers to switch the default browser from Chrome to Comet is extremely challenging," but emphasized that once user stickiness is established on mobile platforms, it could lead to potential user growth in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions. Industry data shows that Alphabet Inc. Class C's Chrome currently holds about 70% market share in the mobile browser market, while Apple Inc.'s Safari and Samsung's browser together hold 24%. Perplexity's breakout strategy reflects the intensifying competition in AI agent technology OpenAI is also developing an AI browser with autonomous decision-making capabilities that can automatically handle complex operations like travel bookings and financial management. This startup, which raised $500 million this year and is valued at $14 billion, has investors such as Accel, NVIDIA Corporation, Jeff Bezos, and former Alphabet Inc. Class C CEO Eric Schmidt. Bloomberg reported in June that Perplexity is in negotiations with Samsung and exploring the possibility of embedding AI search functions into device assistants (such as Siri or Bixby) in collaboration with Apple Inc. In the AI-driven browser wars, Perplexity is attempting to open up a new entry point different from traditional search by deeply integrating generative AI with user data. This revolution not only concerns browser market share but also points to the struggle for defining the next generation of human-computer interaction.