Key facts
- AI startup Perplexity plans to utilize Nvidia's new central processing units (CPUs).
- Nvidia anticipates $20 billion in sales from its 'Vera' CPU by the end of the fiscal year.
- Nvidia's CPUs are designed to handle AI agents, which operate continuously.
- Perplexity reported that Nvidia's CPU executed AI agent coding tasks 1.5 times faster than conventional CPUs.
- Perplexity described the Nvidia CPU as a suitable match for its core workloads.
AI startup Perplexity has confirmed its intention to adopt Nvidia's new central processing units (CPUs) for its operations. This move by Perplexity comes as Nvidia seeks to expand its market presence and challenge established players like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in the CPU sector.
Nvidia projects generating $20 billion in sales from its 'Vera' CPU, a general-purpose computing chip, within the current fiscal year. These CPUs are part of Nvidia's strategy to diversify its revenue streams, especially as AI companies such as OpenAI and DeepSeek develop their own AI-specific chips.
The CPU market is currently dominated by Intel and AMD, who supply chips for a wide range of devices. However, Nvidia's new CPUs are designed with the rise of AI 'agents' in mind – systems capable of executing complex tasks autonomously after receiving instructions. Unlike human users, AI agents do not require breaks between tasks.
Nate Kupp, Perplexity's Vice President for Computer Enterprise and Infrastructure, stated that Nvidia's CPU demonstrated a 1.5 times faster performance for AI agent coding tasks compared to traditional CPUs. He described the 'Vera' CPU as a "dead-on fit" for Perplexity's core workloads. Perplexity did not disclose the number of Nvidia CPUs it plans to purchase. Nvidia has previously announced that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Oracle also intend to utilize its CPUs.