Perplexity AI, a leading AI-powered search and conversational platform, has recently announced a strategic acquisition of Visual Electric, an AI image and video generation startup. Visual Electric’s talented team, led by Colin Dunn and Adam Menges, will join Arvind Srinivas’ startup and help create new, immersive consumer product experiences that will soon be available to users on Perplexity and its associated AI browser, Comet.
What This Acquisition Means
They plans to sunset the standalone Visual’s service within 90 days as the startup integrates into its broader AI ecosystem.Their users will retain access to their accounts and data during this transition, with prorated refunds promised upon closure.
The deal marks both a closing chapter for Visual Electric’s independent offerings and a launchpad for enhanced visual AI capabilities in Perplexity’s products. This move enhances its capabilities in the increasingly competitive generative AI landscape, where leaders like OpenAI and Google are also evolving their image and video synthesis tools.
About Perplexity AI and Recent Innovations
Founded in 2022 in San Francisco by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, it has carved out a niche as a high-performance AI search platform blending real-time web grounding with deep language model reasoning. With over 10 million monthly users globally, it distinguishes itself by providing fast, accurate, and source-cited answers, transforming how users access and trust information online.
2025 has been a breakthrough year, with the introduction of its in-house AI model Sonar, powering free-tier queries with expanded context and search depth, and launching the Comet AI-native Chromium browser that doubles as a personal assistant automating complex web research and task execution.
Read this: Perplexty Valuation Hits $20B as it Secures $200M in Fresh Capital
Strategic Growth via Acquisitions
The Visual’s acquisition follows previous purchases like Invisible, a Seattle-based startup helping scale Perplexity’s AI agent infrastructure, reflecting the company’s ambition to build comprehensive AI products beyond just search. The integrations enable Perplexity to combine conversational intelligence with advanced multimedia generation, opening new horizons in user engagement and functionality.
Read this: This Indian Founder Wants to Buy Google Chrome and Perplexty AI for $50B
Looking Ahead
With a valuation of $20 billion as of september-2025, Arvind srinivas led AI giant is poised to challenge tech giants by offering free, transparent AI services combined with frequent feature innovations and open access. The company’s deep focus on improving factuality, reducing hallucination, and expanding multilingual capabilities further solidifies its market position. Integrating Visual Electrc’s image/video tech will accelerate Perplexity’s roadmap for natural, engaging, and multimodal AI experiences, appealing broadly to consumers and enterprise users alike.
