Free NewsletterPro Login
S&P 500 6,287 +0.42%
DOW 44,521 -0.18%
NASDAQ 21,103 +0.71%
S&P 500 +12.4%
Briefs Finance Fund +24.8%
JOIN THE FUND →

Snap's $400 Million Perplexity Deal Just Died

Published May 7, 2026
Listen to this article 3 min read
Share:
Summary:
  • Snap and Perplexity ended their $400 million AI partnership in Q1, a deal that had pushed Snap stock up 15% when announced last November.
  • Q1 revenue rose 12% to $1.53 billion in line with estimates, with Snap returning to user growth at 483 million daily actives.
  • Q2 revenue guidance of $1.52 billion to $1.55 billion assumes zero contribution from Perplexity.

Snap shares fell about 4% after hours Wednesday. The reason isn't earnings.

It's the deal that just disappeared. In November, Snap inked a $400 million pact with AI search startup Perplexity. The stock jumped 15% on that news. Six months later, the deal is gone.

What Happened With Perplexity

Snap said in its investor letter that the two firms "amicably ended" their relationship in Q1. The new Q2 sales guide of $1.52 billion to $1.55 billion now assumes zero dollars from Perplexity.

That deal was set to start adding to revenue in 2026. It now will not. Tech newsletter Sources first reported the deal had collapsed.

For investors, this matters. A chunk of the AI buzz priced into Snap last fall just got erased.

The original deal was supposed to bake $400 million in cash into Snap's 2026 numbers. Snap stock jumped 15% the day it was announced last fall. With the deal gone, that pop is now hard to defend.

Snap did not say who walked first. The investor letter only said the split was on good terms.

The Quarter Itself Was Mixed

Strip out Perplexity and Snap had a fine Q1. Sales rose 12% YoY to $1.53 billion, in line with Wall Street. Net loss narrowed 36% to $89 million.

User growth went the right way. Daily active users hit 483 million, up 5% YoY. That beat the 475.6 million Wall Street wanted. Snap pointed at its Lenses filters and Snap Map updates as the drivers.

The miss came on revenue per user, at $3.17 vs. the $3.20 estimate. Snap also warned that "large advertisers in North America remained a headwind."

A Snap Problem Or An Ad Problem?

Other ad-driven sites told a mixed story this season. Pinterest beat top and bottom line on Monday. But CFO Julia Donnelly told analysts that "large retailers remained a headwind to growth" because of Trump tariffs.

Reddit lit up the tape. Q1 sales soared 69% YoY to $663 million. That marked its seventh straight quarter of growth above 60%, per CEO Steve Huffman.

Meta and Alphabet both beat sales last week. But Alphabet's stock rose while Meta's dropped after their results.

The read: Snap and Pinterest are stuck in the same large-advertiser slump, while AI-search names keep pulling away.

What To Watch

Snap also called out the Middle East as a Q2 risk. It said ad spending out of the region was weak in March and April. Translation: Snap is guiding as if that doesn't change.

The bigger picture: Snap said in April it was cutting 16% of its staff. It also pulled 300 open roles to fund what it calls an "AI-driven transformation." Revenue from Snap's own AI bets is still TBD.

In February, Snap had said its global daily users fell by 3 million quarter over quarter. Some of that came from lower marketing spend. Some came from Australia's social media minimum age act.

This quarter Snap clawed users back. The advertiser side of the business is the one that hasn't bounced.

The cushion Wall Street thought Snap had heading into 2026 just got smaller.

Disclosure

Recent News

1 2 3 19

Get Market Briefs delivered to your inbox every morning for free!

No fluff. No noise. No politics. Just finance news you can read in 5 minutes.

Blogs

June 27, 2026
The act of leaving out a word or words from a sentence deliberately, when the meaning can be understood without them

What is Lorem Ipsum? Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since 1966, when designers at Letraset and James Mosley, the librarian at St Bride Printing Library in London, took a 1914 Cicero translation and scrambled it to make dummy text […]

Read More
May 5, 2026
How to Create Multiple Income Streams: A Beginner's Playbook
  • Most people rely on a single income stream from their job - which is also the most heavily taxed.
  • Multiple income streams come from a mix of cash flow, dividends, side businesses, real estate, and royalties.
  • The fastest path for most beginners is starting with one extra stream - usually dividends or a side hustle - and stacking from there.
Read More
May 5, 2026
The 60/40 Portfolio Explained: A Beginner's Guide
  • A 60/40 portfolio holds 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds (or other fixed income).
  • It's designed to balance growth from stocks with stability from bonds.
  • Your "right" mix depends on age, time horizon, income needs, and how well you sleep when markets drop.
Read More
May 5, 2026
How to Invest in Silver: A Beginner's Guide
  • Silver is both a precious metal and an industrial metal, used in solar panels, electronics, and medical tech.
  • Investors can buy silver four main ways: physical bars and coins, ETFs, mining stocks, or futures contracts.
  • Most beginners are best served by allocating a small slice of their portfolio to silver - usually between 1% and 3%.
Read More
May 1, 2026
Asset Allocation by Age: The Right Portfolio Mix at Every Stage of Life
  • Younger investors should hold mostly stocks because they have decades to recover from crashes and benefit from compounding.
  • Allocations gradually shift toward bonds and stable income as retirement approaches, but stocks remain important even past age 65 to outpace inflation.
  • Annual rebalancing is essential - it forces you to buy low and sell high while keeping your portfolio aligned with your actual life stage.
Read More
April 30, 2026
Stablecoin Explained: Why Some Cryptocurrencies Actually Aren't Volatile
  • Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to stable assets like the US dollar, giving crypto-style speed and access without the volatility of Bitcoin or Ethereum.
  • Fiat-backed stablecoins like USDC are the safest option, while algorithmic stablecoins have failed spectacularly and should generally be avoided.
  • Stablecoins fit a portfolio as cash reserves with better yields, a hedge against crypto volatility, and a fast, cheap rail for international transactions.
Read More
April 30, 2026
Buy Now, Pay Later Risks: Why This "Easy" Payment Method Is Dangerous to Your Wealth
  • Buy now, pay later services like Klarna, Affirm, and Sezzle are debt products designed to feel harmless while keeping users in a cycle of overspending.
  • BNPL exploits psychological debt blindness, triggers late fees, and damages credit scores without helping users build positive credit history.
  • Building real wealth means waiting 30 days, paying upfront when you have the cash, and avoiding systems built to extract money from your future income.
Read More
April 30, 2026
Dividend Payout Ratio: The Secret Metric That Shows If a Stock Is Safe or Risky
  • Dividend payout ratio is total dividends paid divided by net income, showing the percentage of earnings a company returns to shareholders.
  • A 20-50% payout ratio is generally safe and sustainable, while ratios above 75% often signal a dividend cut is coming.
  • High dividend yields can be warning signs, not opportunities - safety and dividend growth matter more than the headline yield number.
Read More
April 30, 2026
Ethereum for Beginners: What It Is and Why Smart Investors Are Paying Attention and this is a test heading
  • Ethereum is a blockchain platform that runs smart contracts, while Ether (ETH) is the cryptocurrency that powers the network.
  • Use cases include decentralized finance, NFTs, gaming, supply chain tracking, and digital identity - many still experimental.
  • Most investors should treat Ethereum as a small allocation hedge using dollar-cost averaging, not a get-rich-quick lottery ticket.
Read More
April 30, 2026
Dollar Cost Averaging Strategy: How to Beat Emotion and Build Wealth Steadily
  • Dollar cost averaging means investing the same amount at regular intervals regardless of what the market is doing.
  • The strategy automatically buys more shares when prices are low and fewer when prices are high, lowering your average cost over time.
  • DCA removes emotion, eliminates the need to time the market, and turns volatility into a mathematical advantage for long-term investors.
Read More
1 2 3 20
0 Shares
Share via
Copy link
Briefs WebMCP tools loaded successfully