Snap and Perplexity sign $400M deal to put AI search directly in Snapchat (www.engadget.com)

Snap and Perplexity announced a $400 million deal to embed Perplexity’s AI search engine into Snapchat’s chat interface, with the integration slated for "early 2026." Perplexity is paying Snap for distribution, and Snap says revenue from the deal will start contributing in 2026. The integration will let Snapchat users ask questions and receive conversational answers "drawn from verifiable sources" inside chat, adding to Snap’s existing AI suite (MyAI currently uses models from OpenAI and Google and will soon include Perplexity). CEO Evan Spiegel framed the deal as the first step toward a broader ecosystem of AI partners and said Snap may pursue similar integrations. Technically and strategically, this is notable because it pairs a retrieval-augmented, citation-focused search model with a massive consumer messaging platform, accelerating real-world usage and scale for Perplexity while giving Snap a distinctive, source-aware AI capability. The partnership underscores a multi-model, multi-partner approach to in-app AI (model switching, RAG-style grounding, and tighter source attribution), and positions Snapchat as a distribution channel for "intelligent agents" — with implications for personalization, moderation, and monetization. Spiegel also teased forthcoming AI features (AI Clips for prompt-driven short video generation) and a next-gen AR glasses strategy (Specs spun into a subsidiary), signaling broader hardware and creative ambitions around AI.