‘Spoke to Nikhil and Nithin': Indian-American Perplexity CEO hints at Zerodha collaboration
This comment from Srinivas comes shortly after his startup made an unsolicited $34.5 billion (over ₹3,02,152 crore) all-cash bid to acquire Google Chrome, according to a Reuters report.
For some context
This morning, Srinivas announced a new finance-focused feature within Perplexity AI. 'Indian stocks are now covered on Perplexity Finance,' he wrote.
'Zerodha when?' an X user asked him in the comments section.
The Indian-origin, San Francisco-based CEO of Perplexity AI then hinted at a possible collaboration, revealing that he had already spoken to the co-founders of Zerodha.
'Spoke to Nikhil and Nithin. Will have something to share soon,' wrote Srinivas.
What is Perplexity AI?
Perplexity is an AI-powered "answer engine"—a hybrid between a search engine and a conversational chatbot. It allows users to ask questions in natural language and receive answers that are supported by real-time web search and source citations.
A possible Zerodha collaboration?
The talk of a Perplexity and Zerodha collaboration is not entirely without precedent. Last week, an X user suggested that Perplexity team up with Zerodha to add Indian stock markets to the finance page of its Comet browser.
Aravind Srinivas had responded to this suggestion by tagging Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha. 'Absolutely, setting up a call for Monday…' Kamath responded.
Perplexity's offer to Google
Perplexity AI made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet's Chrome browser on Tuesday, a bid far above its own valuation as the startup reaches for the browser's billions of users pivotal to the AI search race.
Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers: it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership.
(Also read: Indian-origin man offers over ₹3302152 crore to Google just to buy…)
(With inputs from Reuters)
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