CEO Aravind Srinivas said the company's IPO timeline is unchanged regardless of how rival AI listings perform
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Perplexity AI is holding to a 2028 IPO target regardless of what happens with public offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI, CEO Aravind Srinivas told CNBC. "Agnostic of these two companies, we were planning for something in 2028, so that still remains the case," Srinivas said.
Srinivas was candid about the potential downside if rival listings stumble. "I certainly think there will be ripple effects if they don't go well, like there is no sugar coating on that," he said. He added that SpaceX's IPO would serve as a leading indicator for how Anthropic and OpenAI would fare with investors. Still, he said he expected those listings to go well. "I think it's important for the AI industry that these IPOs go well, and I actually think they will go well, because they're doing well," he said.
Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko framed the 2028 commitment as a business strategy rather than a constraint. "By consistently holding 2028 as our earliest date for an IPO, Perplexity has been able to build a healthy, high-growth business," Shevelenko said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Questions about the company's financial footing arose in 2025, prompting Srinivas to push back on concerns, saying Perplexity had ample runway and would not pursue a public offering before 2028.
The discussions come as Perplexity's main AI competitors have moved to accelerate their own public debuts. Anthropic submitted a confidential IPO prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission at a valuation of $965 billion, following a $65 billion fundraising round. OpenAI submitted its own confidential S-1 filing with the SEC, with Goldman Sachs $GS and Morgan Stanley $MS leading the process ahead of a potential fall listing. OpenAI is valued at $852 billion.
SpaceX has moved furthest along among the three competitors, having already kicked off an investor roadshow ahead of what would be the largest IPO in history. Investment bankers have advised both OpenAI and Anthropic that an early mover advantage is at stake — the first to list would set terms for how investors categorize the AI sector.
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