Aravind Srinivas announced his company will go public in 2028 regardless of what happens to Anthropic or OpenAI. That's like saying you'll definitely get married in four years regardless of whether you meet someone or develop a personality. The confidence is breathtaking.
Perplexity makes an AI search engine. You know what the world needed. Another way to get wrong answers faster.
The "regardless of what happens" part deserves attention. Anthropic just filed confidentially to go public. OpenAI might go public. Might not. Srinivas looked at this landscape of uncertainty and thought: perfect time to announce my own IPO date like I'm booking a dentist appointment. Four years out. Mark your calendars. Set a reminder. Tell your broker. Tell your therapist.
Here's what happens between now and 2028. OpenAI releases GPT-7. Anthropic releases Claude Opus 9. Google releases seventeen products that all do the same thing. And Perplexity keeps answering search queries with the conviction of a hungover college sophomore citing Wikipedia.
The beauty of announcing an IPO four years early is nobody remembers you said it. By 2028, Srinivas can pivot to "we meant 2029" or "we're exploring strategic alternatives" or "we've decided to focus on our core mission of disappointing users in private." The flexibility is remarkable.
Retail traders are already pricing this in. They've got spreadsheets open. Valuation models running. They're calculating projected earnings for a company whose CEO just told CNBC he's going public no matter what happens to his two largest competitors. That's not confidence. That's a man who knows something or knows nothing, and both options are equally terrifying.
The IPO market in 2028 will be littered with AI companies that raised too much money and delivered too little value. Perplexity just called dibs on its spot in the graveyard.
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