Perplexity CEO: SMBs Could Drive the Next Economic Boom
Oct 12, 2026 · 54:45
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas tells Molly O'Shea that the next wave of American economic growth will come from smaller, AI-native companies, and that his model-neutral agent platform is built to serve them. He traces Perplexity's evolution from answer engine to Perplexity Computer, citing 5x revenue growth and one solopreneur spending over $1M annually while making $3M. He argues AI products have recursive effects, not network effects, so user depth beats user counts. He explains local and hybrid AI with NVIDIA and Apple, rules out building Perplexity data centers, and describes sovereign deployments for data-wary governments. He ends with his hiring-by-trials method, Larry Page's 'user is never wrong' philosophy, and his bet on long-horizon agents turning everyone into a scientist.
