Perplexity Taps Microsoft Azure in $750M Deal as AI Agent Battle With Amazon Intensifies
Perplexity has not shifted spending away from Amazon Web Services, which remains its primary cloud provider.
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[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR India]
AI search startup Perplexity has signed a $750 million, three-year agreement with Microsoft to run its models on the tech giant’s Azure cloud platform, highlighting the intensifying race among hyperscalers to lock in fast-growing AI companies, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Under the deal, the Nvidia-backed startup will access a range of advanced AI models through Microsoft’s Foundry program, including systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. A Perplexity spokesperson confirmed the partnership, saying the agreement provides access to “frontier models from X, OpenAI, and Anthropic.”
Importantly, the spokesperson added that Perplexity has not shifted spending away from Amazon Web Services, which remains its primary cloud provider, suggesting the Microsoft deal is additive rather than a replacement.
The cloud partnership comes at a tense moment for Perplexity.
In November 2025, Amazon sued the startup over its “agentic” shopping feature, which allows AI agents to place orders on behalf of users. Amazon alleged that Perplexity’s system covertly accessed customer accounts, disguised automated activity as human browsing, and ignored repeated requests to stop.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accused Perplexity of using its Comet browser and associated AI agent to trespass on Amazon’s platform, posing risks to customer data and degrading the shopping experience.
“Rather than be transparent, Perplexity has purposely configured its CometAI software to not identify the Comet AI agent’s activities in the Amazon Store,” Amazon said in the complaint.
“Perplexity’s misconduct must end,” the company added, arguing that the use of code instead of “a lockpick” does not make the alleged activity lawful.
Perplexity has strongly denied the allegations, previously calling Amazon’s legal action an attempt to use market dominance to stifle competition. In a blog post, the company described Amazon’s move as a broader threat to user choice and the future of AI assistants.
“Bullying is when large corporations use legal threats and intimidation to block innovation and make life worse for people,” Perplexity wrote.
The startup did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the lawsuit.
Beyond the courtroom, the dispute has sparked a wider debate in the tech community over who controls agency in an AI-driven internet. As one user on X put it, “This lawsuit goes way beyond shopping, it’s about agency ownership.” Another asked more bluntly: “Why would Amazon care if the human or the agent is doing the purchasing?”
