INDEX / DIRECTORY / PERPLEXITY / ECONOMIC

Perplexity ECONOMIC

ECONOMIC AUDIT UPDATED 2026-09-22
Economic Score 0.00 /10 E Perplexity - BDS-1000 0
Economic 0.00

Evidence-only forensic audit. Scoring happens downstream - see the main dossier for the composite assessment.

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Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Perplexity’s identified product is a digital AI-search service that uses internally developed and third-party generative-AI models, with paid Pro access, API access, image generation, and file-analysis functionality reported in January 2024.1 Its reviewed product model is therefore a software-service supply chain rather than an agricultural or physical-goods supply chain.1

Perplexity’s CEO identified Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank, and SK Telecom as consumer-distribution partners in 2024, collectively described as reaching approximately 116 million users.2 SK Telecom separately reported a $10 million June 2024 equity investment in Perplexity to cooperate on generative-AI search services.3 The reviewed disclosures did not identify an Israeli distributor, reseller, importer-of-record entity, joint venture, or dedicated import subsidiary.1, 2, 3

CoreWeave announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Perplexity on 4 March 2026 for AI-inference workloads and described Perplexity’s multi-cloud strategy; the announcement did not identify an Israeli facility, supplier, data centre, or deployment.4

No public evidence identified of an agricultural-sourcing relationship with Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Galilee Export, Agrexco successors, or another Israeli agricultural supplier.1, 2, 4 The reviewed corporate disclosures, business reporting, reseller searches, and supplied document pre-scan did not identify direct relationships with those suppliers, imported agricultural goods, seasonal produce procurement, white-label goods, private-label brands, or third-party physical-goods distribution connected to Perplexity.1, 5, 6

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

The verified Perplexity product is a digital AI-search and software service rather than a physical consumer good.1 no public evidence identified of settlement-origin products, country-of-origin labelling findings, customs citations, DEFRA enforcement, or goods-origin compliance measures involving Perplexity.1

The reviewed official corporate materials and reporting did not identify a corporate policy governing sourcing or labelling of goods from occupied or contested territories.1, 7 Perplexity maintained Hebrew-localized corporate content, including careers and funding material, as of September 2026; Hebrew localization alone does not establish an Israeli legal entity, workforce, tax registration, or physical presence.7, 8, 9, 10

An Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology event report concerning a Tel Aviv municipal-AI event held on 8 September 2025 described Perplexity as a web-research/search tool and referred to three free Pro queries per day.11 The report did not identify Perplexity as a supplier, contractor, licence recipient, procured platform, deployed system, or paid beneficiary, and did not record a contract value, user count, data transfer, or government implementation.11

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

Perplexity AI, Inc.’s April 2023 SEC Form D records a Rule 506(b) equity offering with a first sale on 21 March 2023, under which the stated $28,821,948 offering had been sold to 27 investors.12 The filing did not identify individual purchasers or their ownership percentages.12

Perplexity reported a $3.1 million seed financing in September 2022 led by Elad Gil and Nat Friedman, followed by a $25.6 million Series A led by Peter Sonsini of New Enterprise Associates.9 The Series A announcement named prior and new investors but did not disclose resulting ownership percentages.9

Perplexity announced a $73.6 million Series B in January 2024 led by IVP, with named participants including NEA, Databricks, Nvidia, Bezos Expeditions, Bessemer Venture Partners, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, and other investors.10 Perplexity stated that IVP general partner Cack Wilhelm joined its board in connection with that round.10 TechCrunch reported the round at a $520 million post-money valuation.1

SK Telecom’s 2026 Form 20-F reports a $10 million June 2024 equity investment in Perplexity for cooperation on generative-AI search-engine services.3 The filing does not disclose SK Telecom’s ownership percentage.3 Flat Capital disclosed an approximately SEK 3 million investment during the fourth quarter of 2023 and characterized itself as an essentially passive minority shareholder, without disclosing its ownership percentage.13

No public source reviewed disclosed a shareholder holding at least 10%, a complete capitalization table, investor voting rights, or a current beneficial-control structure.12, 10, 14 The disclosed investments do not establish that any named investor is a controlling principal or that Perplexity is beneficially owned or controlled by Israeli capital.12, 9, 10, 3, 13

No public evidence identified of Perplexity-held Israeli sovereign bonds, Israel-focused funds, Israeli defence-manufacturer holdings, Israeli operating-company acquisitions, Israeli data centres, logistics facilities, real estate, lending, underwriting, insurance, or trade-finance facilities.12, 10, 14, 15

Operational Presence & Market Activity

Perplexity’s April 2023 Form D listed 341 Moultrie Street, San Francisco, California as its principal place of business and mailing address.12 The Associated Press described Perplexity as San Francisco-based in June 2024.16 Perplexity’s current terms select California law and San Francisco courts for specified disputes but do not state a current headquarters street address.8

Two 2025 court complaints independently described Perplexity as a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in San Francisco; these statements are litigants’ allegations rather than adjudicated findings.17, 18 Reddit’s October 2025 complaint additionally alleged that Perplexity maintained an office at 299 Park Avenue, New York, with dozens of employees; this is not an independently verified company disclosure.17

Perplexity’s careers material describes San Francisco as its “home base” and identifies offices in Palo Alto, New York, Austin, and Washington, D.C.7 The retrieved office-location material did not identify an Israeli office.7 no public evidence identified in the reviewed materials of an Israeli office, sales operation, support centre, warehouse, retail location, registered branch, workforce, or settlement-based facility.7, 8, 12, 16

A third-party page reproducing a New York Department of State search result reported a foreign-authority filing for Perplexity AI, Inc. and a San Francisco executive-office address, but the underlying state filing was not directly retrieved; this remains an unresolved registry lead and is not relied on as primary proof.19

No public evidence identified of Israeli employer registration, tax registration, tax residency, Preferred Technology Enterprise status, or an Israel Innovation Authority award.8, 12, 14 The targeted Israeli-government, Innovation Authority, and procurement-domain queries did not return a Perplexity record, but they do not constitute authenticated, record-by-record checks of every relevant registry.6, 14, 11 No entity-level workforce figure, country-level employee breakdown, Israel-specific revenue, customer number, or characterization of Israel as a strategic market was disclosed in the reviewed sources.1, 8, 12, 16

No public evidence identified of an Israeli government, IDF, Ministry of Defence, settlement, or critical-infrastructure contract, tender, enterprise deployment, authorized reseller, or systems-integrator relationship.6, 10, 20, 21, 22, 11 The September 2025 Ministry event reference is evidence of public-product discussion in workshop material, not evidence of public procurement or deployment.11

The supplied full-text pre-scan found no mention of Perplexity in the November 2024 DBIO company-list annex, the November 2025 DBIO report, the December 2024 BDS corporate-priority guide, the June 2023 OHCHR settlement-database update, the 2025 OHCHR update, or the UN Special Rapporteur’s A/HRC/59/23 report.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 The supplied scan also found no target mention in the identified Who Profits, PAX, Amnesty, Al-Haq, Human Rights Watch, KLP, and insurance-sector reports.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 These are document-scoped absences and do not establish an absence of activity across all databases, unpublished investigations, subsidiaries, customers, or commercial relationships.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

No public evidence identified, within the reviewed source set, of activity in West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem settlements, or the occupied Golan Heights.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 As no underlying Israel- or settlement-linked commercial activity was verified, continuation after 19 July 2024 or November 2024 cannot be assessed.20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

The verified issuer and operating-company name is Perplexity AI, Inc.8, 12 The SEC Form D records Perplexity AI, Inc. as a Delaware corporation organized in 2022.12 Perplexity’s own Series A announcement states that it was founded in August 2022 and launched its original Ask answer engine in December 2022.9

Perplexity’s terms attribute its websites, answer engine, related mobile application, and associated consumer services to Perplexity AI, Inc.8 The reviewed terms do not identify a separate operating subsidiary for the company’s API and Enterprise products.8

The April 2023 Form D identified Aravind Lakshminarayanan Srinivas as chief executive officer and named Andrew D. Konwinski, Srinivas, Pieter Abbeel, Dzianis Yarats, and Peter Sonsini as related persons and directors or executive officers as specified in the filing.12 The Associated Press identified Srinivas as Perplexity’s CEO and co-founder in June 2024.16 A September 2023 interview identified Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski as Srinivas’s co-founders, and Accel’s portfolio record identifies Srinivas, Ho, Konwinski, and Yarats as founders.26, 27 CoreWeave’s March 2026 announcement identifies Dmitry Shevelenko as Perplexity’s chief business officer.4

The 2023 Form D and January 2024 Series B announcement are dated governance snapshots rather than a current authoritative board roster.12, 10 No current authoritative board chair, complete board roster, or complete C-suite list was identified in the reviewed public disclosures.12, 10, 14

Perplexity announced in October 2025 that it had acquired Visual Electric, and TechCrunch reported that Visual Electric’s team would join Perplexity’s Agent Experiences group and that the acquired company planned to shut down its product within 90 days.15 The reviewed report did not disclose the acquisition price, acquired ownership percentage, retained legal-entity status, workforce, revenue, or geographic operating footprint.15 no public evidence identified that Visual Electric was Israeli-domiciled, operated in Israel or occupied territory, manufactured in Israel, or had an IDF, defence, settlement, or Israeli critical-infrastructure nexus.15

No public evidence identified of a corporate parent, Israeli incorporation, Israeli headquarters, Israeli tax residency, state ownership stake, government-appointed director, golden share, founder-share mechanism, charter restriction, parent, sibling company, franchisee, licensee, or Israeli operating subsidiary structurally linking Perplexity to the Israeli state.8, 12, 9, 10, 14 The privately held company’s current charter, shareholder agreements, voting arrangements, capitalization table, and comprehensive subsidiary list were not available in the reviewed public records.12, 14

An Associated Press report in January 2025 described Perplexity’s proposal for a possible future merger structure involving TikTok’s United States business; the report did not establish that a merger, United States government ownership, or a new parent company was consummated.28

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

TechCrunch reported that Perplexity generated between $5 million and $10 million in annual recurring revenue in January 2024, without geographic attribution.1 Perplexity is privately held and the reviewed records did not provide a public 10-K, 20-F, comparable annual financial report, or Israel-attributed revenue disclosure.14, 16

No public evidence identified of Israeli revenue, Israeli profits, Israeli tax payments, or profit repatriation into or out of Israel.8, 12, 14, 16 No verified Israeli operating subsidiary was identified from which profit flows to the Delaware corporation could be documented.8, 12, 9, 10

No reviewed record identifies a direct Israeli corporate beneficiary, Israeli operating entity, payment recipient, or documented downstream economic result attributable to Perplexity.7, 8, 11 Hebrew-localized web content and the Israeli-government workshop reference establish Israeli-facing availability and use of Perplexity as a research-tool example, but do not establish an Israeli legal entity, office, revenue stream, public-procurement relationship, paid beneficiary, or government deployment.7, 8, 11

No public evidence identified of an Israeli government or industry designation treating Perplexity as a major employer, sector anchor, national-market leader, critical-infrastructure provider, or other material economic participant.8, 12, 14

Footnotes

  1. https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/04/ai-powered-search-engine-perplexity-ai-now-valued-at-520m-raises-70m/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aravind-srinivas-16051987_excited-to-announce-that-weve-raised-627m-activity-7188553473569738752-P4-K ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1015650/000119312526188763/d78252d20f.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. https://www.coreweave.com/news/coreweave-announces-agreement-to-power-perplexitys-ai-inference-workloads ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. https://apnews.com/article/perplexity-ai-search-engine-forbes-f307cb607f0db871b05f843a3f744340 ↩

  6. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2024_DBIO-IV_Company-list.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. https://www.perplexity.ai/he/hub/careers ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  8. https://www.perplexity.ai/ca/hub/legal/terms-of-service ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14

  9. https://www.perplexity.ai/he/hub/blog/announcing-our-series-a-funding-round-and-mobile-app-launch ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  10. https://www.perplexity.ai/he/hub/blog/perplexity-raises-series-b-funding-round ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  11. https://govextra.gov.il/media/plznli2n/%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1-%D7%A1%D7%92%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%9B%D7%AA-%D7%94-ai-%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA-8925.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  12. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1972171/000156761923005521/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19

  13. https://storage.mfn.se/508ad321-2877-4f0c-b40a-517c8838997c/flat-has-invested-3-msek-in-the-ai-company-perplexity.pdf ↩ ↩2

  14. https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=0001972171 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  15. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/perplexity-acquires-the-team-behind-sequioa-backed-ai-design-startup-visual-electric/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. https://apnews.com/article/perplexity-ai-search-engine-forbes-f307cb607f0db871b05f843a3f744340 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  17. https://business.cch.com/ipld/RedditSerpapiComp20251022.pdf ↩ ↩2

  18. https://docketnexus.com/document/457777258/ ↩

  19. https://www.bizprofile.net/ny/williamsville/perplexity-ai-inc-2 ↩

  20. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2024_DBIO-IV_Company-list.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  21. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025-DBIO-V-report-1.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  22. https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  23. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session31/database-hrc3136/23-06-30-Update-israeli-settlement-opt-database-hrc3136.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  24. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/60/19 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  25. https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/59/23 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  26. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannechen/2023/09/06/how-perplexityai-is-pioneering-the-future-of-search/ ↩

  27. https://www.accel.com/companies/perplexity ↩

  28. https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-bytedance-trump-perplexity-87988733973760927bb5681f7de9b9af ↩