The investment, which could be structured as a convertible loan, will deepen Character.AI's existing partnership with Google, where Character.AI uses Google's cloud services and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to train models, Reuters reported.

Founded by former Google employees Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI lets users chat with virtual versions of celebrities like Billie Eilish or anime characters. In addition to a free version, Character.AI also has a subscription model that costs $9.99 a month.

Character.AI’s chatbots, which come in a variety of roles and styles, have attracted users between the ages of 18 and 24, who contribute about 60% of its website traffic, according to data from Similarweb. This demographic helps position the company as a provider of more fun personal AI assistants, compared to other AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

Character.AI says the site has attracted 100 million monthly visitors in its first six months since launch. The company is also in talks to raise capital from investors, which could value the company at more than $5 billion.