The 2026 AI funding landscape has shattered all records, with OpenAI leading the pack at $174B+ total funding following its massive $110B February round. xAI secured $20B in January's upsized Series E, while Anthropic reached $69.2B total after its $30B Series G at $380B valuation. February 2026 became the biggest month in venture capital history with $189B global funding, of which $171B went to AI startups. Figure AI ($3.2B+) and Perplexity ($2.6B+) round out the top five, as AI startups captured over 90% of venture funding in the record-breaking month.

OpenAI has dramatically upgraded ChatGPT's search capabilities, introducing shopping integration, enhanced citation systems, trending searches, memory-powered personalization, and deeper research tools exclusively for Pro users. As ChatGPT Search crosses 1 billion weekly queries, OpenAI is making its most aggressive push yet to dethrone Google as the world's default search engine — and the AI search race is heating up fast.

Stop your clients from manually running the same research queries every week. This guide shows you how to use Lucid Engine to build automated AI research agents, powered by the principles of Perplexity, into a high-value consulting service for VCs, marketers, and strategists who need consistent, deep insights.

You research the same topics over and over, drowning in tabs and half-finished docs. This guide shows how to pair Perplexity with Leapility to build “Insight Playbooks” — reusable workflows that turn raw questions into client-ready briefs. You’ll get a concrete service model, realistic pricing, and a step-by-step build process, including prompts, delivery templates, and a simple way to publish or license your playbooks.