Perplexity is keeping its 2028 IPO plans intact as OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX lead a wave of high-profile offerings that could put investor appetite to the test.
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of the AI-powered search and answer engine startup, told CNBC that the company’s timeline remains unchanged by the market reception to upcoming debuts from peers OpenAI and Anthropic.
“Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028, so that still remains the case,” Srinivas told the network in an interview that aired on Tuesday.
His comments come as the AI industry moves toward what could be one of the busiest periods of tech listings in years.
Anthropic, the maker of Claude, confidentially filed for an IPO last week. OpenAI has also confidentially filed for an IPO, while SpaceX’s upcoming debut is expected to test investor appetite for mega-cap technology offerings.
Together, the offerings could shape how public markets value the next generation of AI and technology giants.
Srinivas acknowledged that the performance of those offerings will matter to the broader industry, even if they don’t alter Perplexity’s own plans.
“I certainly think there will be ripple effects if they don’t go well, like there is no sugar coating on that,” he told CNBC.
Srinivas defended the lofty valuations attached to OpenAI and Anthropic, arguing that both companies remain at the cutting edge of AI development.
At the same time, he suggested that investors will continue to scrutinize whether leading model developers can maintain a rapid pace of improvement.
“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.
The debate over AI valuations comes as companies take a harder look at their AI budgets. Srinivas said customers are becoming more selective about which models they use.
“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.
