Perplexity AI plans to go public in 2028 regardless of how upcoming blockbuster listings from rivals Anthropic and OpenAI are received by investors, according to Chief Executive Officer Aravind Srinivas. Speaking to CNBC, Srinivas said the company's IPO plans remain unchanged even as some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence prepare to test public market appetite.
“Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028 so that still remains the case,” he said.
Anthropic, the developer of Claude, confidentially filed for an IPO last week and was most recently valued at nearly $1 trillion. OpenAI is also reportedly exploring a public listing soon. Alongside the highly anticipated debut of SpaceX, these offerings are expected to become major tests of investor demand for mega-cap technology stocks.
Srinivas acknowledged that the performance of those listings could have broader implications for the sector. “The SpaceX IPO this week will definitely be a leading indicator to how Anthropic or OpenAI will go out,” he told CNBC. “I think it's important for the AI industry that these IPOs go well.”
Valuations Tied to Innovation Pace
The prospect of trillion-dollar valuations for AI companies has drawn increasing scrutiny from investors, particularly as spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to surge.
Srinivas defended the lofty valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic, arguing that both companies remain at the forefront of AI development. “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,” he said, suggesting that sustained innovation remains critical to justifying current market expectations.
After months of aggressive investment, companies are increasingly scrutinising costs and evaluating whether premium AI models generate sufficient returns. The trend has coincided with growing discussions around AI usage within organisations, including what Srinivas described as “tokenmaxxing” — employees increasing AI usage to signal productivity.
Perplexity's approach differs from companies tied to a single model. Its platform uses models from multiple providers and automatically selects the most suitable option based on performance and cost. “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,” Srinivas said.
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