You’ve probably seen the sleek, minimalist interface. Maybe you’re tired of scrolling through ten pages of SEO spam and "sponsored" links on Google, so you tried it. It gives you a straight answer, cites its sources, and suddenly, you're hooked. But as you're using it, a thought probably crossed your mind: wait, who makes Perplexity AI, exactly?
Is it some secret wing of Microsoft? A Google spin-off? Honestly, the answer is a lot more interesting than just another corporate project. Perplexity is a standalone startup, a "David" taking on the search engine "Goliaths," and it’s led by a group of engineers who basically have the ultimate AI resumes.
If you want to know who is actually behind the curtain pulling the strings of this "answer engine," you have to look at a four-person founding team that looks more like an Avengers lineup of Silicon Valley researchers.
The Core Four: Who Started Perplexity AI?
Perplexity didn't just appear out of thin air. It was founded in August 2022. That’s actually a few months before ChatGPT blew up and changed everything. The company was started by four guys: Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski.
These aren't just random entrepreneurs who saw a trend and jumped on it. They are deep-tech specialists.
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Aravind Srinivas (CEO) is the face of the company. Before he was trying to reinvent search, he was a research scientist at OpenAI. He also spent time at Google DeepMind and Google Brain. He’s got a PhD from UC Berkeley and is known for being incredibly opinionated about how "broken" traditional search is. He’s the guy who decided that instead of giving you a list of links, a search engine should just talk to you.
Denis Yarats (CTO) is the technical backbone. He was a research scientist at Meta (Facebook) and worked on AI at Quora. If Aravind is the visionary, Denis is the one making sure the actual machine works without hallucinating every five seconds. Interestingly, Aravind and Denis originally connected because they published almost identical research papers while at different universities. Talk about a "meet-cute" for nerds.
Johnny Ho (Chief Strategy Officer) came from a background as an engineer at Quora and a quantitative trader. He’s the guy who bridges the gap between the heavy math of AI and the actual product experience you see on your phone.
Andy Konwinski is a bit of a legend in the data world. He was one of the co-founders of Databricks, a massive software company worth tens of billions. Having him on the team gave Perplexity instant "adult in the room" credibility from day one.
Is Perplexity Owned by Google or Microsoft?
Short answer: No.
It’s a common misconception. Because Perplexity uses models like GPT-4 (from OpenAI) and Claude (from Anthropic), people assume it’s just a shell company. But Perplexity AI, Inc. is a completely independent, private company based in San Francisco.
They aren't owned by Big Tech, but they are definitely funded by them. This is where it gets a little spicy. One of their biggest early investors is Jeff Bezos. Yeah, the Amazon guy. He clearly thinks there's a future where we don't just "Google" things.
Other big names writing checks include:
- Nvidia (the people making the chips that run the whole AI world)
- SoftBank
- NEA (New Enterprise Associates)
- Andrej Karpathy (a founding member of OpenAI and former Tesla AI lead)
- Yann LeCun (Meta’s Chief AI Scientist)
By the start of 2026, the company's valuation has soared into the billions—we’re talking $18 billion to $20 billion range—making Aravind Srinivas one of the youngest billionaires in the tech world.
Why the "Who" Matters More Than the "What"
You might wonder why it matters who makes it as long as the app works. Well, in the AI world, the "who" tells you about the "how."
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Because the founders come from research backgrounds at Google and OpenAI, they have a "research-first" mindset. They aren't trying to sell you ads (mostly). They are trying to solve the problem of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
That’s a fancy way of saying: the AI looks at the live internet, reads the news, and then summarizes it for you. Most AI bots, like the early versions of ChatGPT, were just guessing based on what they learned years ago. The Perplexity team built their system to be a "librarian" first and a "writer" second.
The Team is Still Surprisingly Small
Despite having millions of users and a massive valuation, the Perplexity team is famously lean. While Google has over 180,000 employees, Perplexity has hovered around 50 to 100 people for a long time.
They hire "cracked" engineers—people who can do the work of ten normal developers. They even have a specialized "Associate Product Manager" program where they look for people with "unrivaled work ethics" and backgrounds in everything from physics to professional poker. They want people who think differently because you can't beat Google by doing things the Google way.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Models
There is a huge rumor that Perplexity "just uses ChatGPT."
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That’s not quite right. While you can choose to use OpenAI's models or Anthropic's Claude inside the app if you pay for Pro, the "default" Perplexity experience uses their own fine-tuned models. They take open-source models (like Llama) and tweak them specifically for search.
The people making Perplexity are essentially building a "routing" system. When you ask a question, their code decides which search terms to use, which websites to trust, and how to stitch the answer together. The "who" behind the company are the ones writing those specific rules.
What’s Next for the Perplexity Makers?
The team isn't just stopping at a search bar. Recently, they've launched:
- Comet: An AI-powered browser that tries to do the searching for you while you browse.
- Shopping Hub: A way to research and buy products without clicking through a dozen "Top 10" affiliate blogs.
- Global Partnerships: They recently teamed up with telecom giants like Airtel in India to put their AI in the hands of hundreds of millions of people.
Honestly, the goal for Aravind and his team seems to be making the traditional "list of links" search engine feel like a fossil from the 90s.
How to Use This Information
Knowing who makes Perplexity AI helps you understand the tool's reliability. Since it's built by former OpenAI and Google Brain researchers, you're getting a product designed by people who helped build the very tech they are now trying to improve.
If you want to get the most out of their work, here is what you should do:
- Check the Citations: The founders built Perplexity to be transparent. Always click those little numbers above the text to see the original source. It’s the "trust but verify" model they advocate for.
- Switch Your Models: If you have the Pro version, try switching between the "Perplexity" model and "Claude 3.5" or "GPT-4o." Each one is tuned differently by the engineering team for different types of tasks (coding vs. writing vs. research).
- Follow the CEO: Aravind Srinivas is very active on X (Twitter). If you want to see the future of the company in real-time, that’s where he posts updates on new features and "behind the scenes" engineering shifts.