Now Perplexity Is Trying to Get Into the Local AI Action

August 26, 2026 · Thomas Claburn

URL: https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/26/now-perplexity-is-trying-to-get-into-the-local-ai-action/5292449

“This local-first approach enables significant cost savings, since local inference avoids per-token API fees.”

Perplexity’s local AI platform only runs on Nvidia DGX Spark workstations, while Perplexity courts a rumored $30 billion Nvidia investment. The competing harnesses are free. The privacy pitch doesn’t even cover the product yet because the privacy policy hasn’t been updated. This is local-first as a sales channel for Nvidia hardware.