Meet Aravind Srinivas, the man who has offered Rs 2980356700000 to Google CEO Sundar Pichai to buy Google Chrome browser

Perplexity has recently launched its own AI-powered browser, Comet, and continues to position itself as a challenger to traditional search giants like Sundar Pichai’s Google’s Chrome.

Aravind Srinivas, CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI after his company made an unexpected $34.5 billion offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. The bid is more than twice the Perplexity’s own $14 billion valuation. Chrome, used by over three billion people worldwide, plays a huge role in Google’s search, advertising, and cloud services.

Who Is Aravind Srinivas?

He was born in Chennai, India and studied at IIT Madras before moving to the U.S. He did further studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His early career was as a leading AI researcher with Yoshua Bengio and also Google gave him valuable insight into search and internet technologies. 

In 2022, he co-founded Perplexity AI with Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski and launched an AI-powered search engine that delivers direct, conversational answers using real-time data.

Why Is Timing Important For Arvind’s Offer To Google?

The timing of Srinivas’s offer is important in this case. In the U.S., Google is facing a major antitrust setback after a federal judge ruled it had illegally maintained its search monopoly and also partly by paying to remain the default search engine on browsers and devices. While remedies could theoretically include forcing a Chrome divestiture, Google has vowed to appeal, a process likely to stretch over years.

Some of the reports called it unrealistic, given Chrome’s deep integration into Google’s ecosystem, while others see it as a publicity stunt that Perplexity wants to be the center of conversations about internet competition.

Will It Be Possible For Perplexity To Acquire Google’s Chrome?

Perplexity has raised about $1 billion so far, backed by investors like Nvidia and SoftBank, but funding a $34.5 billion cash deal would require massive external capital, mostly private equity or even heavy debt. Even if the deal succeeded, running Chrome outside Google’s infrastructure could reduce its value, as other independent browsers have learned.