New Delhi: Aravind Srinivas’ Perplexity AI startup has proposed an all-cash bid of $34.5 billion for Alphabet’s Chrome browser. The AI company which was recently valued at $14 billion, has proposed a deal that is almost twice as much as its reported valuation.
Who Is Aravind Srinivas?
Aravind Srinivas was born in 1994 in Chennai. He pursued BTech and MTech in electrical engineering from IIT Madras. He graduated with a PhD in Artificial Intelligence at UC Berkeley in 2021.Â
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Srinivas has held some of the most coveted industry positions at leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google Brain and DeepMind. His early career included a stint at Google and work with deep learning expert Yoshua Bengio.
What Is Perplexity AI?
In 2022, Srinivas co-founded Perplexity AI with Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski. The company specialises in AI-driven search engines that offer real-time conversational responses. The AI company recently raised approximately $1 billion from investors such as Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank.
Net Worth Of Aravind Srinivas
The cofounder and CEO of Perplexity AI Aravind Srinivas’ company has achieved an impressive milestone with a recent valuation of $14 billion. Reports state that the company generates nearly $50 million in annual revenue. Srinivas also holds stakes in companies such as Chennai Meenakshi Multispeciality Hospital Ltd and eMudhra Ltd.
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Perplexity Offer To Buy Chrome
Under the astute leadership of Srinivas, Perplexity AI has proposed $34.5 billion to buy the Chrome browser. By acquiring Chrome, the company would gain access to the enormous user base of the browser. It is expected to greatly increase the competitiveness of Perplexity against bigger firms like OpenAI.
Perplexity already offers an AI-powered browser called Comet. Perplexity AI aims to take on the established tech giants and transform the digital information landscape by leveraging AI to deliver real-time conventional search results.Â
The $34.5 billion offer of Perplexity AI to buy Chrome has sparked debates across tech forums and financial communities. The amount is massive considering the fact that the company’s valuation is $14 billion and the offer to buy Chrome is $34.5 billion. This raises questions about the viability of such an acquisition.Â
According to Reuters, the offer of Perplexity AI includes a commitment to maintain Chromium, the open-source code behind Chrome, invest $3 billion over the next two years and retain the existing default search engine settings of Chrome.