30 Indian Minds Leading the AI Revolution

Aravind Srinivas' Perplexity AI is changing the way we search for information online

Perplexity AI is giving the biggies a run for their money by rewriting the playbook of online search queries with an innovative AI-powered search engine

Published: Jun 9, 2025 10:59:07 AM IST
Updated: Jun 9, 2025 11:08:38 AM IST

Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, Perplexity AIAravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, Perplexity AI 

At 30, Aravind Srinivas is giving the biggies a run for their money. His company, Perplexity AI, is changing the way we search information online. 

Srinivas, who has a dual degree (BTech and MTech) in electrical engineering from IIT-Madras and a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley, worked on problems in reinforcement learning, generative models and representation learning while at Berkeley. He went on to intern and work at some of the top AI companies in the world including Google-owned DeepMind in London, and at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, working on machine learning for computer vision. He also briefly worked at OpenAI.

In 2022, Srinivas teamed up with co-founders Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, to develop a new approach to search using AI. They created Perplexity, a product that combines traditional search indexes with the power of large language models. The Silicon Valley startup is often described as an “answer” engine rather than a search engine, using AI text generation to summarise results and creating conversational “threads” on specific topics.

The generative AI startup competes with tech giants like Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI in the AI-powered search engine space. Perplexity’s unique approach provides users with direct answers, eliminating the need to browse multiple links. Backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and others, the company has raised funds at a $9 billion valuation and is reportedly in advanced talks to raise $500 million in a funding round that would value the startup at $14 billion.

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Also read: Amitabh Nag: Breaking Indian language barriers in AI

At an event recently, Srinivas emphasised the importance of leveraging AI for tech entrepreneurs. “If you’re not using AI while writing code, you’re essentially stagnating yourself by sticking with old workflows and tooling,” he said.  

While Srinivas is optimistic about AI’s potential, he also warned of a transition period and potential difficulties for those who don’t adapt. “The industry has moved faster in the past three months than it did in the first two years of Perplexity,” he said. This acceleration is partly due to new AI models entering the global market, including China’s DeepSeek.

Regarding Perplexity’s pricing in India, Srinivas acknowledged the current $20 subscription fee might be steep for some users and announced plans to introduce a lower-tier plan for the Indian market. “We’re trying to figure out a strategy to create a lower- and higher-tier plan,” he said.  

(This story appears in the 13 June, 2025 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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