Perplexity AI, Inc. was founded in 2022 by four engineers—Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski—with strong backgrounds in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. It is known for launching its flagship conversational answer engine search platform in December 2022, designed to provide direct answers to user queries across a wide array of topics.

The founders brought together expertise from leading AI research labs and technology firms, including OpenAI, Databricks, Meta, and Quora. Aravind Srinivas, the CEO, earned his PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and worked as a research scientist at OpenAI before co-founding Perplexity AI. The company quickly grew its user base, reaching 10 million monthly active users by 2023 and processing millions of queries daily.

Perplexity AI has developed innovative products like Perplexity Pages, allowing users to generate customizable web pages from prompts, and applications such as Buy with Pro and Snap to Shop. The firm has attracted significant investment, achieving unicorn status with valuations peaking around $9 billion. Its investors include prominent figures like Jeff Bezos and companies such as NVIDIA.

The company plans to expand revenue streams by introducing advertising on its platform and has pursued enterprise partnerships with major companies including Databricks, Zoom, Hewlett Packard, and Stripe. In 2025, Perplexity demonstrated ambitions for further growth by submitting a bid to acquire TikTok’s US operations, aiming to merge and diversify its consumer offerings.

Perplexity AI aims to position itself as a leading competitor in the AI-powered search engine market by leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to enhance user interaction and provide comprehensive, conversational search experiences.