Jan 29 (Reuters) — AI startup Perplexity has signed a $750 million cloud services deal with Microsoft. The agreement gives Perplexity access to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Three-Year Partnership Focused on AI Models

The three-year deal allows Nvidia-backed Perplexity to run multiple AI models through Microsoft’s Foundry program. These models include systems developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the deal to Reuters. The spokesperson said Perplexity chose Microsoft Foundry as its main AI platform under the new multi-year agreement.

AWS Remains Primary Cloud Provider

Perplexity did not comment on the deal to Reuters. However, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg News that the partnership focuses on accessing frontier AI models from xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

The spokesperson added that Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains Perplexity’s primary cloud provider. The Microsoft agreement does not shift spending away from AWS.

Amazon Lawsuit Background

Separately, Amazon sued Perplexity last year over its “agentic” shopping feature. Amazon claimed the tool used automation to place orders for users. The company also alleged the feature accessed customer accounts without permission and masked automated activity as human browsing.