Perplexity chases $30 billion as the Dow Jones case clears expert discovery and heads to a jury
Expert discovery in Dow Jones v. Perplexity fell due on October 19, and the case now heads to a jury while Nvidia is reported in talks to back the company above $30 billion. The claim being tested is not the scraping, which a check fixes, but whether Perplexity invents quotes and files them under the Wall Street Journal's name.
Vincent Jiang · 4 min read
Two years ago this week, Dow Jones and the New York Post sued Perplexity$20B — Perplexity, private, latest valuation $20B in Manhattan federal court for what the complaint called a "brazen scheme" of mass copying. On Monday, October 19, expert discovery in that case, Dow Jones & Company v 1. Perplexity AI, No. 1:24-cv-07984, fell due, and the suit now heads toward a jury with a pretrial conference already held in September. 1
In the same window, the company being sued is trying to close an equity round that would value it at more than $30 billion, with Nvidia−4.21% — Nvidia, down 4.21 percent today reported in talks to invest. 45 The verdict and the valuation are being priced on the same docket, and nobody has joined them.
A quote is not a licensing problem
The copying claim is the part money can fix. Perplexity already runs revenue-sharing deals with Time, Fortune and Der Spiegel, and it answered the suit by calling the publishers' framing misleading and pointing to those checks. 1
The amended complaint goes further, adding false designation of origin and trademark dilution, and its sharpest exhibit is a Wall Street Journal story about F-16 fighter jets bound for Ukraine, in which the chatbot allegedly generated quotes that never appeared in the article and filed them under the Journal's name. 17 CNN's suit follows the same pattern: the network sued Perplexity in May 2026 over more than 17,000 scraped stories, after talks on terms, including limits on how the chatbot uses its content, fell through. 6
Revenue climbing past $750 million, priced next to a jury verdict
That is the product problem investors are underwriting. Perplexity's annualized revenue has climbed past $750 million from under $250 million at the start of 2026, driven partly by its Perplexity Computer agent. 5 The valuation has tracked the revenue.
Valuation up more than 50 percent in a year while expert discovery closes
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| June 2025 | $14B |
| Sept 2025 | $20B |
| Aug 2026 talks (estimate) | $30B |
The docket is getting crowded, and the firm is fighting for its seat
The Dow Jones case is one of at least six fronts: Britannica and Merriam-Webster sued in September 2025, Tribune and MediaNews Group filed separately, Reddit−2.08% — Reddit, down 2.08 percent today sued over data scraping in October 2025, and Japanese publishers including Yomiuri filed last August. 7
This week's wrinkle is inside the defense itself. Reddit has asked a New York federal judge to block its former law firm, Proskauer Rose, from jumping ship to defend Perplexity in that same scraping suit, and on October 19 Proskauer and Perplexity urged the judge to let the firm stay, disputing Reddit's "hot potato" characterization. 28
What a jury does to $30 billion
Here is the tension a buyer at $30 billion must price 1. Perplexity sells an answer engine on an implicit promise: trust what we say instead of clicking through. Discovery exists to test that promise against the company's own records, and the claim being tested is not the scrape, which a check settles, but the fabricated citation, which does not. 1
A verdict for Dow Jones and the Post would also set the rate: a jury finding that free-riding on attributed reporting is infringement, not fair use, reprices the licensing bill for every AI search engine. 1 Perplexity's side of the ledger is real. The company declined to comment on the funding talks, revenue is growing faster than the litigation can plausibly consume it, and CEO Aravind Srinivas has told CNBC the company plans to go public in 2028 regardless of how rivals list. 5
Where the split inside the company sits
The counterweight to the docket is the February 2026 shift to a subscription-first model, dropping AI advertising to protect trust in the answer engine. 7 That is an admission the product's credibility is the asset the litigation threatens, made by the company itself.
What to watch next
The judge's ruling on Proskauer's seat at the defense table is pending, expert filings land in the coming weeks, and the round, if it closes, closes while a jury selection looms. 2 If the F-16 allegation survives discovery in Perplexity's own logs, the $30 billion round will have been signed while the core product claim was being proved against the seller 1. Watch the docket, not the deck. 1
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