Perplexity AI has begun testing Comet, an AI-native web browser that blends search, task automation and personal-data queries, positioning the start-up as a challenger to Google’s dominance in browsing and search. Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas said the company is negotiating with smartphone makers, including Samsung, to have Comet pre-installed on handsets—a move he believes could boost the product’s reach to "tens to hundreds of millions" of users next year. Srinivas cautioned that convincing manufacturers to replace Google Chrome as the default browser remains a significant hurdle. The talks coincide with broader discussions between Samsung, OpenAI and Perplexity to embed additional generative-AI services in forthcoming Galaxy devices, highlighting handset makers’ push to differentiate through on-device artificial intelligence. Perplexity, whose backers include Nvidia, Jeff Bezos and former Google chief Eric Schmidt, closed a $500 million funding round earlier this year that pegged its valuation at roughly $14 billion, with some secondary-market trades implying an $18 billion figure. In India, telecom operator Bharti Airtel is providing customers a complimentary one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro. The offer grants up to 300 AI-powered searches a day, file analysis and a new Labs workspace for code and content generation, and has helped lift the Perplexity app to the top of the free charts on Apple’s iOS store.