Perplexity vs Profound

Vespa.ai Achieves AWS AI Competency

Vespa.ai announced it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI Competency in the AI Software category. This designation recognizes Vespa as an AWS Partner that helps customers build, deploy, and operate large-scale AI applications on AWS. The Vespa AI Search Platform combines hybrid retrieval, advanced ranking, machine learning inference, and real-time serving in a single platform, reducing infrastructure complexity while providing low latency and scalability for production AI. Vespa is trusted by organizations including Perplexity, Spotify, and Yahoo, powering billions of queries and recommendations across industries such as information platforms, digital commerce, media and advertising, and life sciences. The recognition validates Vespa's expertise in building production AI search applications on AWS.

• Vespa.ai achieved the AWS AI Competency in the AI Software category.
• The designation recognizes Vespa as an AWS Partner for building and operating large-scale AI applications on AWS.
• Vespa AI Search Platform combines hybrid retrieval, advanced ranking, ML inference, and real-time serving.

EU Classifies ChatGPT as Very Large Online Search Engine

The EU Commission has classified ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act, prompting Swiss media association VSM to call for copyright reform. VSM argues that AI chatbots increasingly provide generated answers instead of links to journalistic sources, with over 99% of users not clicking through to sources, thereby depriving publishers of traffic and ad revenue. VSM demands a technology-neutral copyright law that obliges AI providers to compensate journalistic work. The German media authority ZAK has also ruled that media law applies to AI search services, with decisions against Google and Perplexity. The Swiss parliament has referred a related proposal back to the Federal Council to examine AI's impact on search engines and platforms.

• The EU Commission classified ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act in late August.
• The Swiss media association VSM sees this as confirmation that the line between search engines and AI services is disappearing.
• VSM claims that over 99% of users do not click through to sources when using AI chatbots, compared to over 60% for traditional search engines.

Xbox Patent Hints at In-Game Ads; Perplexity Courting Creators

AdExchanger's Thursday roundup focuses on two key stories: AI companies like Perplexity, OpenAI, and Anthropic are increasingly investing in influencer marketing to humanize their products, mirroring a cycle where advertisers become competitors. Separately, Microsoft's Xbox has filed a patent describing in-game ad insertion at natural gameplay breaks and rewarded ad viewing for ad-free play, indicating its ongoing push into gaming advertising. Other briefs include a rebrand of SSP 33Across as WealthStage, OpenAI in talks for a $1.2 trillion valuation funding round, a child's inadvertent $118k YouTube ad spend, DoorDash investing $425M in Wonder, and a warning about malware on shady casino sites.

• Microsoft's Xbox filed a patent for in-game ads at natural breaks and rewarded viewing.
• Perplexity is hiring an exec to run its creator program.
• OpenAI is in early talks for a funding round valued at $1.2 trillion.

Profound raises $180M in Series D to build your AI Marketer

Profound has raised $180M to build the AI platform for marketing. CEO James Cadwallader writes why AI is creating more work for marketers, and how AI Marketer brings company context and agents together to help teams do it.

Estée Lauder Adopts GEO for AI Visibility

Estée Lauder has forged a global partnership with AI marketing platform Profound to enhance its brands' visibility in generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini. The beauty conglomerate will leverage Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to analyze and improve how its products appear in AI-driven search and answer platforms. This initiative, integrated into its One Operating Ecosystem, marks a significant step in treating AI visibility as a core marketing discipline, with content optimization across product pages, blogs, and YouTube channels. The partnership highlights the growing importance of AI assistants as new discovery channels for consumers.

• Estée Lauder partners with Profound, an AI marketing platform, for global GEO strategy.
• Focus is on analyzing and optimizing brand presence in AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini.
• The initiative will be deployed across Estée Lauder's entire brand portfolio worldwide.

AI search marketing startup Profound raises $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation

Profound, a marketing software startup that helps brands appear in AI search results, announced a $180 million Series D funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation, just seven months after its $96 million Series C. The round was co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons. The company, which launched two years ago as an analytics platform, now focuses on generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), helping businesses understand how AI systems influence consumer brand discovery. Profound reports revenue growth of 3x in the past six months and serves over 1,000 enterprise customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Walmart. The funding will likely support expansion and product development in the rapidly growing AI search optimization space.

• Profound raised $180 million in Series D funding.
• The valuation is $1.8 billion, making Profound a unicorn.
• Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round.