Written by Crystal Hu
(Reuters) – SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, will partner with U.S. AI startup Perplexity to offer users an artificial intelligence-based search engine as an alternative to Google and Naver, the companies told Reuters.
The partnership will allow SK Telecom subscribers to use the paid version of Perplexity for free, giving SK Telecom access to Perplexity’s proprietary model to build personal AI assistant products with access to real-time information. , the companies said.
SKT’s investment team said in an interview that details of the partnership still need to be worked out, including the timing of rolling out the Perplexity Pro version to SKT users.
SK Telecom has not ruled out the possibility of investing or establishing a joint venture with Perplexity, adding that the partnership could expand financially.
“It’s a win-win situation as SK Telecom offers more added value to our subscribers and we have access to them through our distribution channels,” said Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity. he said in an interview.
Perplexity AI, a Google search challenger, uses generative AI models to answer user queries and provide information sources. Last month, the company raised $73.6 million from investors including Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The round was led by venture capital firm IVP and valued the company at approximately $520 million.
San Francisco, Calif.-based Perplexity’s website and mobile web visits reached 45.6 million in December, according to data from SimilarWeb. It offers a free version and a paid version that charges $20 per month for unlimited searches.
SK Telecom has been collaborating with Silicon Valley startups to access frontier technologies and explore the use of generative AI. Last year, it announced a $100 million investment in US AI model maker Anthropic to co-develop large-scale language models for the communications industry.
(Reporting by Crystal Hu in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)
