Archive · 20 Jan 2026
Aravind Srinivas: IIT Madras to AI Billionaire
Aravind Srinivas is a very smart person from India who became famous in the world of computers and artificial intelligence (AI).
He was born in Chennai and went to a very good school called IIT Madras.
He was so good at studying that he got many awards and even went to the United States to study more.
He worked at big companies like Google and OpenAI, where he helped make cool things like DALL·E 2.
Then, he started his own company called Perplexity AI, which is like a super-smart search engine that gives you answers instead of just links.
His company is now worth a lot of money, and he is one of the youngest billionaires in India.
He wants to make sure that people can get trustworthy information quickly and easily.
Aravind Srinivas, born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI, a major competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
He graduated from IIT Madras with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and earned a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
Srinivas worked at top AI labs like DeepMind, Google, and OpenAI, contributing to projects such as HaloNet, ResNet-RS, and DALL·E 2.
He co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022, which has raised over $165 million and reached a valuation of $18 billion by 2025.
Srinivas was named India's youngest billionaire on the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025, with a net worth of approximately Rs 21,190 crore ($2.5 billion).
- Who
- Aravind Srinivas, CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI
- What
- Aravind Srinivas' journey from IIT Madras to becoming India's youngest billionaire and a leading figure in AI
- When
- Born on June 7, 1994; founded Perplexity AI in August 2022
- Where
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; currently based in the United States
- Why
- To redefine online search as an 'answer engine' with transparent, fast, and trustworthy AI-powered knowledge access
- Birthdate
- June 7, 1994
- Birthplace
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- Education
- IIT Madras (B.Tech, M.Tech), UC Berkeley (PhD)
- Company
- Perplexity AI
- Founded
- August 2022
- Valuation
- $18 billion (2025)
- Net Worth
- Rs 21,190 crore ($2.5 billion)
- Key Products
- Comet (voice-based AI browser)