For $60 million a year, social network Reddit allowed Google to use its content to train artificial intelligence

Reddit has signed a deal with Google to make its content available for training artificial intelligence models of the search giant, with the contract reportedly worth around $60 million per year.

<>The deal highlights that Reddit, preparing for a major stock market launch, is seeking new revenue streams in the face of stiff competition from services like TikTok and Meta, according to Reuters.

Sources were not authorized to speak to the media and refused to disclose their names. Reddit and Google declined to comment. Last year, Reddit announced that it would charge companies for access to its application programming interface (API), the tool through which it distributes its content. The deal with Google may be the first deal with a major artificial intelligence development company.

Reddit, based in San Francisco, has been considering going public for over three years and is preparing to file for an initial public offering this week, where it will disclose its financial performance in detail to potential investors entering the IPO market. According to two sources, the documents may be available as early as Thursday.

The company was valued at around $10 billion during a financing round in 2021, and aims to sell about 10% of its shares during the offering. Reddit's IPO will be the first by a major social network since Pinterest went public in 2019.

In recent months, artificial intelligence model developers have been busy striking deals with content owners to diversify their training data beyond large internet segments. This practice is fraught with potential copyright issues, as many content creators claim their content has been used without permission.