Perplexity Adds Microsoft’s Azure as a Cloud Service Provider

Perplexity signed a $750 million, three-year deal with Microsoft that will enable the artificial intelligence startup to use the tech giant’s Azure cloud service, Bloomberg reported Friday (Jan. 30).

The deal will allow Perplexity to use Microsoft’s Foundry service to access AI models, according to the report.

“We are excited to partner with Microsoft for access to frontier models from X, OpenAI and Anthropic,” a Perplexity spokesperson said, per the report.

The deal with Microsoft will operate alongside the one Perplexity has with its longtime cloud partner Amazon Web Services, according to the report. The Perplexity spokesperson said the company has not shifted spending from AWS, that AWS remains the firm’s preferred cloud provider, and that “we’re excited to announce expansions of that partnership in the coming weeks.”

Amazon sued Perplexity in November in an attempt to stop the AI startup from letting consumers use its AI tools to shop on Amazon’s marketplace, according to the report.

PYMNTS reported at the time that Perplexity said in a Nov. 4 blog post that it received an “aggressive legal threat” from Amazon demanding that it prohibit the users of its Comet browser from using their AI assistants to shop on Amazon’s platform.

The startup said in its post that it will not be intimidated and will fight to ensure users can deploy agentic AI “to take control of their digital lives.”

On the same day, Amazon said in a statement posted in response to Perplexity that it thinks it is “fairly straightforward” that third-party applications offering to make purchases for customers from other businesses should respect businesses’ decisions about whether to participate.

PYMNTS reported Nov. 5 that Amazon’s cease-and-desist letter against Perplexity marked the first major legal test over whether an autonomous AI agent has the right to act as a shopper on an eCommerce platform.

Microsoft reported Wednesday (Jan. 28) that the revenue of its Intelligent Cloud segment rose 29% year over year in the second quarter of its fiscal 2026 to reach $32.9 billion, with Azure and other cloud services growing 39% in reported terms.

PYMNTS reported at the time that while Microsoft does not break out AI revenue explicitly, Azure has become the primary delivery mechanism for large-scale AI workloads, from training foundation models to deploying inference at enterprise scale.

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.