TheAI search space is heating up, and Perplexity is not hitting the brakes.
While OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX gear up for what could be the most consequential wave of tech IPOs in years, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas is keeping his company’s 2028 listing plans exactly where they are. No pivots, no delays, no second-guessing.
“Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028, so that still remains the case,” Srinivas told CNBC in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
That’s a bold stance, especially when you’re talking about a market that could get spooked if some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence stumble out of the gate.
Anthropic, the company behind Claude, confidentially filed for an IPO last week. OpenAI has done the same. And SpaceX’s upcoming debut is expected to be the litmus test for mega-cap tech offerings in the current climate. Together, these listings could shape how public markets value the next generation of AI powerhouses. It’s a pretty high-stakes moment, and Srinivas knows it.
“I certainly think there will be ripple effects if they don’t go well, like there is no sugar coating on that,” he admitted to CNBC.
So why not wait and see how the land lies? Srinivas’s reasoning is straightforward: Perplexity built its roadmap independently, and changing course based on what competitors do would be reactive rather than strategic. Whether OpenAI and Anthropic crush it or struggle on Wall Street, Perplexity believes its own timeline makes sense.
There’s also the question of whether the lofty valuations attached to these companies are even justified. Both OpenAI and Anthropic sit at the cutting edge of AI development, but Srinivas hinted that investors will start asking hard questions if progress stalls.
“If for six months you don’t see a model capability advance from one of these two companies, then it’s a problem for them,” Srinivas said. That’s a reminder that the AI race isn’t just about who raised the most money or filed first, it’s about sustained breakthrough after breakthrough.
The broader context here matters too. Companies are getting pickier about where they spend their AI budgets. Srinivas pointed out something that many in the industry are quietly acknowledging: if an open-source model can handle a task 90% as well as a frontier model, at a fraction of the cost, why pay the premium?
“If there is an open source model that gets the job done 90% of the time, I’d probably use that if it’s 10 to 20 times cheaper than the frontier model,” he said.
That kind of pragmatism could either hurt or help companies depending on which side of the pricing equation they sit. For now, it seems to be reshaping how enterprises think about their AI stacks.
The coming months will reveal a lot about whether public markets have the stomach for another wave of high-growth, high-valuation tech giants. If OpenAI and Anthropic price well and trade smoothly, Perplexity’s 2028 timeline might look brilliantly timed. If not, Srinivas will find out just how much his own company’s fate is tied to the broader narrative around AI’s commercial promise.
What seems clear is that the AI industry is entering a phase where execution will matter more than hype, and staying the course requires more than just confidence.
