Samsung, Perplexity close to AI alliance: Bloomberg

Samsung Electronics Co. is reportedly in advanced talks to equip its next flagship Galaxy smartphone series with the artificial intelligence-powered search technology from Perplexity AI Inc. in a move to accelerate the diversification of the South Korean tech giant’s AI ecosystem.

Bloomberg reported that Samsung is expected to sign a deal with Perplexity this year, which will allow the US startup’s AI app to be pre-installed on the Korean smartphone giant’s upcoming Galaxy S26 series, slated for release next year.

Perplexity’s AI search features would also be integrated into the Samsung web browser and potentially power Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant, according to the Bloomberg report.

As part of their strategic partnership, the Korean tech giant is also said to be considering investment in the US AI startup, which is seeking to raise $500 million at a valuation of $14 billion. If this funding is finalized, Samsung would become the largest investor in the round.

Neither Samsung nor Perplexity has confirmed the report.

If the two companies form an AI alliance, it would further diversify Samsung’s AI ecosystem, which currently relies heavily on Google LLC, market analysts said.

TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON GOOGLE  

The Bloomberg report follows its previous coverage of the potential alliance in April.

Since then, Samsung has further reinforced the AI partnership with its long-time strategic partner, Google. Last month, Google and Samsung unveiled AI-powered extended reality (XR) smart glasses.

This builds on the two companies’ earlier collaboration to promote Google’s Gemini as a unified AI assistant for the Galaxy S25 series, released earlier this year. Samsung has since expanded Gemini across the Galaxy S-series, Fold, Flip and A-series with the One UI 7 software update.

Samsung’s AI-powered companion robot, Ballie, will also feature Google’s Gemini large language model.

Yet, their relationship is not without friction, a reason for Samsung to reduce its reliance on Google.

Google continues to nurture its own hardware ambitions through its Pixel smartphone line, and it has been in disputes over Samsung’s new operating system development and changes in its mobile web design.

AI DIVERSIFICATION TO ACCELERATE

Beyond Google, Samsung Electronics has forged strategic AI alliances with other companies such as Nvidia Corp., through its AI-RAN Alliance, and OpenAI to incorporate generative AI models like ChatGPT into its Galaxy AI suite.

Samsung and its AI partners are actively expanding their AI network amid the accelerating AI-driven convergence of hardware and software.

Its archrival Apple Inc. is also said to be exploring the possibility of replacing Google search with Perplexity search technology and adopting Perplexity AI instead of ChatGPT for Siri’s generative AI functions.  

In 2023, Samsung Electronics unveiled its first generative AI model, Samsung Gauss, designed to compete with tools such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, Bing AI chatbot and others.

Initially deployed internally to boost employee productivity, Gauss was also designed to power Samsung’s smart consumer devices.

Despite the development of its own AI technology, Samsung continued to seek to expand AI collaboration with external partners to deliver more powerful, diverse and competitive AI-driven products.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.