‘Even When I Don’t Work, I Think About Work’: Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas Claims You Can’t Take A Break In AI

Perplexity AI co-founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas, remarked that in the fast-evolving artificial intelligence (AI) industry, one has to stay updated all the time.

While speaking at News18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2025, he said, “In AI, if you take a break and come back after three months, it would look like the world has changed completely.”

“I wake up, I work, and even when I don't work, I think about work, and that's what's happening with everyone in the AI industry,” the CEO added.

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Why you can't take a break in AI—Aravind Srinivas explains

“AI industry has moved faster in the last three months for me than my first two years of starting Perplexity,” Srinivas claimed.

Founded in 2022 by Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, the free AI-powered search engine, Perplexity AI, was last valued at $9 billion when it raised $500 million in funding led by Institutional Venture Partners. 

With Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among its backers, the startup is said to be about to double its valuation to $18 billion, fuelled by demand for AI and related products.

At the summit, Srinivas urged venture capitalists (VCs) to take more risks and not to be worried about their capital.

"VCs in India are still very risk averse, and they like to invest in things that they wouldn't lose money on, rather than investing in things they would potentially make a lot of money on, but are okay, losing some money in some incorrect bets," he said.

Incidentally, he backed Union Minister Piyush Goyal's stand on Indian startups as "a very positively provocative comment and meant to instigate to build."

At Startup Mahakumbh 2025 in New Delhi, the Minister condemned the startup economy, questioning whether India was settling for low-paying gig jobs while China raced ahead in deep-tech innovation.

Goyal said, “What are India's startups of today—we are focused on food delivery apps, turning unemployed youth into cheap labour so the rich can get their meals without moving out of their house.”

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