Perplexity AI officially made a play for TikTok on Saturday, submitting a bid to its parent company, ByteDance, to allow Perplexity to merge with TikTok U.S. and create a new entity combining Perplexity, TikTok U.S. and New Capital Partners, CNBC has learned.
The new structure would allow for most of ByteDance's existing investors to retain their equity stakes and would bring more video to Perplexity, according to a source familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of the potential deal.