May 12 (Reuters) - Perplexity AI is in advanced talks to

raise $500 million in a funding round that would value the

startup at $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on

Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Venture capital firm Accel is set to lead the round, the

report said.

Perplexity did not immediately respond to a Reuters request

for comment.

The Nvidia ( NVDA )-backed startup provides artificial

intelligence search tools that deliver information summaries to

users, similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's

Gemini.

The rapid evolution of AI chatbots in the past year has

driven investor enthusiasm in startups and their offerings,

which promise to deliver faster and more detailed responses to

user queries.

Reuters had reported in March that Perplexity was in talks

to raise between $500 million and $1 billion at an $18 billion

valuation.

The company raised funds at a $9 billion valuation last

year.

Apple also reportedly plans to add AI search providers such

as Perplexity as search options within its Safari browser - a

move which could put the startup's offerings on display for a

large cohort of users.