Samsung Electronics is close to signing a significant investment deal with Perplexity AI, to integrate the startup’s artificial intelligence tech across the South Korean electronics giant’s devices, Bloomberg reported citing sources.

Representatives for Samsung and Perplexity declined to comment, the report said, citing sources to add that the two sides met in South Korea over the past few weeks.

According to the report, the “wide-ranging deal” would put Perplexity’s AI search technology at the forefront of Samsung devices. So, what would this mean for customers? We explore…

Samsung to be biggest investor in Perplexity’s new funding round

Sources told Bloomberg that Samsung Electronics is also expected to be among the largest investors in Perplexity’s new funding round and is in “advanced discussions” to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation.

This could signal a departure from Samsung’s reliance on Alphabet’s Google search engine, and “pave the way for it to work with a mix of AI developers”, the report added.

For Perplexity, the arrangement would mark its biggest mobile partnership to date and follows a recent integration deal with Motorola.

Perplexity and Apple deal in the works too?

According to a report by Bloomberg News, iPhone maker Apple has also shown interest in working with Perplexity, as an alternative to Google Search and ChatGPT (integrated in the Siri voice assistant).

“We’ve been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we’ve started some discussions with them about what they’re doing,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said during recent testimony at a Google antitrust trial.

It’s unclear how Perplexity’s relationship with Samsung, one of Apple’s fiercest rivals, would affect that, the Bloomberg report added.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)