Perplexity CEO is ‘Ready to Invest $1 Million, and 5 Hours/Week’ to Make India Great Again in AI

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, in a post on X, expressed his support for the development of AI in India. 

“I am ready to invest $1 mn personally and 5 hours per week of my time into the most qualified group of people that can do this right now to make India great again in the context of AI,” he said. Srinivas was referring to a previous X post by him in which he assured help to anyone willing to run a “DeepSeek-like company in India and open-source the models”.

Notably, he means it with all seriousness. “Consider this as a commitment that cannot be backtracked,” he affirmed. 

In order to make the cut, he said the team must be “cracked and obsessed” like the Chinese research lab DeepSeek, whose recent models have shaken up the AI world with unprecedented efficiency. 

Moreover, he added that he would invest an additional $10 million if the team aims to beat the latest DeepSeek-R1 model on all benchmarks with rigour. 

Srinivas believes India should build a foundation AI model of their own instead of building on top of existing open-source models. “India must show the world that it’s capable of ISRO-like feat for AI,” he earlier said. 

Expressing a disagreement with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Srinivas said the former is “wrong in pushing Indians to ignore model training skills and focus on building on top of existing models”. “Essential to do both,” Srinivas argued in a post on X.

Srinivas is an Indian citizen and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Recently, he also announced plans to recruit talent to expand the company’s presence in India.

“I am looking to recruit someone to work together on growing Perplexity in India. It will be fun and intense. You must be based in India and willing to travel and meet with strategic partners and institutions – scrappy startup mode,” Srinivas said in a LinkedIn post.

Last year in December, Srinivas met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to discuss AI’s potential in India.

Following the meeting, Srinivas posted on X, “We had a great conversation about the potential for AI adoption in India and across the world. Really inspired by Modi ji’s dedication to staying updated on the topic and his remarkable vision for the future.”

“Was great to meet you and discuss AI, its uses and its evolution. Good to see you doing great work with Perplexity AI. Wish you all the best for your future endeavours,” PM Modi responded.