Samsung Electronics is seriously considering partnering with artificial intelligence service providers outside of Google to enhance the AI ​​capabilities of its Galaxy smartphones. According to Bloomberg on June 2, the South Korean tech giant is discussing plans to integrate the AI ​​assistant service of US startup Perplexity AI into the Galaxy S26 series, which is expected to launch in the first half of next year.

Although Samsung and Perplexity have not yet agreed on specific details, the two sides have reached a preliminary agreement and could announce the partnership as early as this year. Founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas and several members who worked at OpenAI, Perplexity is an AI search startup that competes directly with Google.

Samsung is said to be considering pre-installing Perplexity's AI assistant and apps on Galaxy smartphones, integrating Perplexity's search engine into Samsung's web browser, and applying its technology to its virtual assistant Bixby.

In return, Samsung is likely to become the largest investor in Perplexity’s new funding round. Bloomberg reported that the startup is looking to raise $500 million from Samsung, which would value the company at $14 billion. In addition to Samsung, Apple is also said to be interested in partnering with Perplexity, seeing it as an alternative to Google Search or ChatGPT in its Siri virtual assistant.

If successful, the partnership would help Samsung reduce its dependence on Google and pave the way for a broader partnership strategy with AI developers, similar to what Apple is doing. For Perplexity, this could be the biggest move in the mobile partnership space since the company was founded.