(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.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)