Meet man who once worked at Google, now offers Rs 302216 crore to buy Chrome browser, his business is…

Google’s Chrome is one of the most used browsers in the world. Now, a three-year-old company wants to buy the browser for a whopping amount of USD 34.5 billion or Rs 302216 crore. The company name is Perplexity AI, founded by Indian-origin techie Aravind Srinivas. The AI firm has made a USD 34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet’s Chrome browser, as per a Reuters report. Perplexity made a similar deal for TikTok US in January.

Why Perplexity wants to buy Google Chrome

Buying Chrome would allow the startup to tap the browser’s more than three billion users for an edge in the AI search race. Perplexity already has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user’s behalf. But acquiring Chrome would give it the heft to better compete against bigger rivals such as OpenAI. 

Who is Aravind Srinivas?

He is the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI. Srinivas is an Indian-origin engineer who completed a dual degree in electrical engineering in 2017 from IIT Madras. He also holds a PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. His Perplexity is backed by prominent investors, including Nvidia. Srinivas founded Perplexity AI in 2022 alongside Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho. Perplexity has raised around USD 1 billion in funding so far from investors, including Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank. It was last valued at USD 14 billion.

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Aravind Srinivas career

Srinivas began his career as a research intern at OpenAI in 2018. He later held similar roles at major tech companies like Google (2020-2021) and DeepMind. Before co-founding Perplexity AI, he returned to OpenAI as a research scientist.