TLDR;

Perplexity is growing at over 20% per month and hit 780 million queries in May.
CEO Aravind Srinivas predicts hitting one billion queries per week within a year.
The company is building a new browser, Comet, to redefine AI-powered browsing and action-taking.
Comet is positioned as a “cognitive operating system” to integrate AI deeply into users’ online lives.

Perplexity AI, the fast-growing AI startup, led by co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas, is rapidly gaining ground in a space long dominated by Google.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s Tech Summit Thursday, Srinivas revealed that Perplexity handled 780 million user queries in May, reflecting a monthly growth rate exceeding 20 percent. This exponential rise has led to bold predictions. ]

“Give it a year, we’ll be doing, like, a billion queries a week if we can sustain this growth rate,” Srinivas said during the event.

For context, the platform began with only 3,000 queries on its first day in 2022. Today, it processes around 30 million per day, underscoring a swift transformation from experimental tool to mainstream utility.

From Conversations to Thinking Systems

What sets Perplexity apart is its ambition not just to answer questions, but to reimagine the way people experience the internet. The company’s upcoming product, a new browser named Comet, represents a radical extension of that vision. Rather than being “just another browser,” Srinivas described Comet as a “cognitive operating system” designed to live with users in their daily workflows.

With Comet, the goal is to shift AI’s role from answering to acting. AI-powered answers, Srinivas explained, condense multiple searches into a single result. But actions, executing entire browsing sessions with a prompt, require a more advanced platform. For this reason, the company is integrating both client-side and server-side computing into Comet’s core to deliver what it hopes will be seamless, personalized interactions.

Infinite Retention and the Browser Advantage

Perplexity’s push into the browser market is strategic. Srinivas believes that control over the browsing interface is key to user retention and query volume. “If people are in the browser, it’s infinite retention,” he noted. Everything from the search bar to side widgets can become touchpoints for engagement. This approach is not only about user experience, but also about scale and monetization.

Srinivas pointed to the shortcomings of legacy browsers, hinting at user fatigue with Chrome in particular. He sees this as an opportunity to attract users looking for faster, more intelligent browsing tools. With Comet, users won’t just receive smarter answers, they’ll gain an AI that lives alongside them on the web, capable of proactively assisting with daily tasks and research.

Perplexity’s Bold Bid Against Tech Giants

Srinivas is no stranger to the world he now competes with. An alumnus of both DeepMind and OpenAI, he’s seen firsthand how legacy companies evolve and stumble. He criticized Google’s repeated rebranding of AI search features without meaningful progress, arguing that Perplexity’s willingness to ship products rapidly gives it a competitive edge.

The company is also developing a monetization model that mimics Google’s early strategies, tracking user activity to deliver targeted premium ads. This system will roll out after Comet’s launch, which is expected within five weeks. Additional features such as meeting transcription and searchable recordings are also on the roadmap shortly after.

For now, Perplexity continues to chart a course that looks increasingly disruptive. With bold tech bets, an aggressive growth trajectory, and a rapidly evolving product suite, the startup appears determined to challenge not just how we search, but how we live on the internet.

 

The post Perplexity CEO Projects Billion-Query Weeks Amid Explosive Growth appeared first on CoinCentral.

---

Filed under: News - @ June 6, 2025 12:24 pm