AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion.

Bloomberg, citing sources familiar, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed earlier in December. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment.

The mammoth tranche comes as the competition in AI-powered search heats up. OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Search, its answer to Perplexity. And Google is developing capabilities to rival some of what Perplexity offers, including AI-generated summaries and answers on search results pages.

This week, The Information reported that Google is planning to take a more aggressive move, potentially building a chatbot-like "AI mode" directly into Google Search.

Perplexity isn't resting on its laurels -- even as it battles a class action lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement. On Wednesday, the company made its first acquisition, snatching up a startup, Carbon, specializing in connecting AI systems to external data sources.