Perplexity Pulls A Tesla: All Talk, No Deals...Yet

Perplexity AI is quickly proving that in tech, attention is a currency all its own. In the past few months, the AI-powered search startup has floated a dizzying series of headline-worthy moves: offering to buy ByteDance Ltd‘s BDNCE TikTok, pitching $34.5 billion for Alphabet Inc‘s GOOGL GOOG Google Chrome browser, and reportedly entertaining acquisition talks with Apple Inc AAPL and Meta Platforms Inc META. None of these deals has actually happened — and that might be the point.

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The Tesla Playbook

If this sounds familiar, it should. Tesla Inc's TSLA early years were marked by similarly audacious, often premature announcements that kept Elon Musk's electric car company in the headlines. Think of 2016's "Solar Roof" reveal, years before mass deployment, or the now-famous 2019 Cybertruck unveiling — complete with a "shatterproof" window test that shattered on stage. These stunts built Tesla's image as a bold innovator and kept its stock in the public conversation, long before it began to consistently turn profits.

Perplexity appears to be running a similar ‘PR arbitrage’ strategy: use big, sometimes implausible plays to insert itself into major industry narratives. Its TikTok bid made it part of the national security debate over Chinese tech. Its Chrome offer landed days before a judge was set to rule on whether Google should be forced to sell the browser.

Read Also: OpenAI’s Tesla Playbook: Big Revenue, Zero Profit, All Vision

Why It Works (For Now)

This hype-first model can energize employees, attract partners, and keep investors curious. In markets where narrative drives capital, staying visible is a competitive advantage — especially for a small player competing with giants like OpenAI and Google.

But there's a risk. For Tesla, early hype eventually aligned with execution. For Perplexity, the challenge will be converting clever PR into actual strategic wins before the headlines start to feel like noise.

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