Snap Says $400 Million Perplexity Deal Is First Step in Building Out Its AI Platform

Core Insights - Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million over one year to integrate its AI-powered answer engine into Snapchat [1] - This integration is the first of its kind for Snapchat, aiming to connect AI companies with Snap's 943 million monthly active users [2] Company Strategy - Snap's CEO, Evan Spiegel, emphasized the partnership as a means to enhance discovery and connection on Snapchat, reflecting a shared vision for AI's potential [3] - The integration is part of Snap's strategy to accelerate and diversify revenue growth [3][4] - Snap aims to build out its AI platform and sees a unique opportunity to distribute AI agents through its chat interface [4] User Experience - Perplexity will start appearing in Snapchat in early 2026, allowing users to ask questions and receive conversational answers from verifiable sources [4] - Perplexity will become the default AI for all Snapchat users from January 2026, while users can still interact with the existing My AI chatbot [5]