Perplexity adopts Nvidia Vera CPU for AI workloads

The AI search company Perplexity confirmed on Tuesday, July 7, that it will deploy Nvidia's new Vera central processing unit (CPU) in its production systems, becoming the latest high-profile customer for the chipmaker's ambitious push into the general-purpose processor market. The move signals a direct challenge to longtime CPU incumbents Intel and AMD in a data center market valued at roughly $200 billion.

Perplexity's decision followed internal testing where the Vera CPU executed AI agent coding tasks approximately 1.5 times faster than the traditional x86 server processors the company had been using. In some test environments involving concurrent operations, performance improved by up to 1.9 times. Nate Kupp, Perplexity's vice president of enterprise infrastructure, said the chip was a dead-on fit for the company's core workloads, though Perplexity did not disclose the volume or value of its planned purchase.

Nvidia, having dominated the market for graphics processing units (GPUs) that accelerate artificial intelligence, is now targeting the broader CPU sector with its Arm-based Vera processor. The company has told investors it aims to generate around $20 billion in revenue...