Perplexity, $18B AI unicorn, Offers to Buy Google Chrome browser for $34.5 Billion
I had an opportunity to meet Aravind Srinivas, the visionary co-founder and CEO behind Perplexity, as they describe themselves “a free AI-powered answer engine”, in April 2024, when they raised $165 million in funding, valuing the company at over $1 billion. Today Perplexity is valued at mind-boggling $18 billion, backed by Jensen Huang(Founder and CEO NVIDIA), Jeff Bezos(Founder Amazon) and many other top minds and VCs.
Aravind’s story is one of relentless curiosity and ambition. Born in Chennai (formerly Madras), India — the same city as Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai — he began with humble beginnings. Graduating from IIT Madras with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and later earning a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Aravind’s journey took him through research roles at some of the world’s leading AI labs including OpenAI,
Google Brain, and Google DeepMind before founding Perplexity in 2022.
Perplexity has quickly risen from a promising startup to a formidable player in AI-powered search. Just recently, it secured an additional $100 million funding round, pushing its valuation to an impressive $18 billion — a meteoric rise since its inception only three years ago.
Now, Perplexity is making headlines again with an audacious $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. This bold move is about more than just acquiring technology — it’s about reshaping the digital landscape.
Why does this matter?
Chrome commands over 3 billion users worldwide, serving as the gateway to the web and a treasure trove of search traffic and data.
Owning Chrome would give Perplexity the scale and reach to compete with tech giants like Google and OpenAI in the AI search race.
Perplexity pledges to keep Chrome’s underlying Chromium code open source, invest $3 billion over two years, and maintain the browser’s default search engine — a promise to the open web and users.
This move challenges Google’s long-standing dominance and disrupts the tech status quo amid ongoing antitrust scrutiny.
Aravind and the Perplexity team are proof that grounded beginnings, combined with bold vision and relentless innovation, can disrupt even the largest tech empires.
The future of search and browsers is being rewritten — and this is just the start. What are your thoughts on this daring bid?
Via Anna Tutova
Perplexity, $18B AI unicorn, Offers to Buy Google Chrome browser for $34.5 Billion😱
I had an opportunity to meet Aravind Srinivas, the visionary co-founder and CEO behind Perplexity, as they describe themselves “a free AI-powered answer engine”, in April 2024, when they raised $165 million in funding, valuing the company at over $1 billion. Today Perplexity is valued at mind-boggling $18 billion, backed by Jensen Huang(Founder and CEO NVIDIA), Jeff Bezos(Founder Amazon) and many other top minds and VCs.
Aravind’s story is one of relentless curiosity and ambition. Born in Chennai (formerly Madras), India — the same city as Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai — he began with humble beginnings. Graduating from IIT Madras with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and later earning a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Aravind’s journey took him through research roles at some of the world’s leading AI labs including OpenAI,
Google Brain, and Google DeepMind before founding Perplexity in 2022.
Perplexity has quickly risen from a promising startup to a formidable player in AI-powered search. Just recently, it secured an additional $100 million funding round, pushing its valuation to an impressive $18 billion — a meteoric rise since its inception only three years ago.
Now, Perplexity is making headlines again with an audacious $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. This bold move is about more than just acquiring technology — it’s about reshaping the digital landscape.
Why does this matter?
▪️Chrome commands over 3 billion users worldwide, serving as the gateway to the web and a treasure trove of search traffic and data.
▪️Owning Chrome would give Perplexity the scale and reach to compete with tech giants like Google and OpenAI in the AI search race.
▪️Perplexity pledges to keep Chrome’s underlying Chromium code open source, invest $3 billion over two years, and maintain the browser’s default search engine — a promise to the open web and users.
▪️This move challenges Google’s long-standing dominance and disrupts the tech status quo amid ongoing antitrust scrutiny.
Aravind and the Perplexity team are proof that grounded beginnings, combined with bold vision and relentless innovation, can disrupt even the largest tech empires.
The future of search and browsers is being rewritten — and this is just the start. What are your thoughts on this daring bid?
Via Anna Tutova
