Missed IIT by 0.01, rejected by MIT: Meet Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas
Aravind Srinivas overcame significant educational hurdles after failing to meet the cut-off at IIT Madras. Taking charge of his learning, he self-taught programming and excelled in competitive challenges. Following successful internships at top AI research facilities, he co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022. Now, at just a young age, he boasts a remarkable net worth of $2.1 billion, showcasing his…
Aravind Srinivas, a 32-year-old co-founder of Perplexity, missed his dream of studying at IIT Madras by just 0.01. After his first semester, he attempted to switch his branch from electrical engineering to computer science but fell short of the CGPA cut-off by a mere 0.01. This setback, coupled with a subsequent rejection from MIT, fueled his determination to succeed in a different path.
Srinivas immersed himself in learning programming through online lectures and competitive programming sites, teaching himself coding as a form of self-assertion. His perseverance paid off when he interned with Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, who later recommended him for a PhD. Despite facing rejection from MIT and Berkeley, Srinivas landed internships at prominent AI labs, including OpenAI, where he was further mentored by research scientist John Schulman, the inventor of ChatGPT at OpenAI.
After working at DeepMind and Google, Srinivas co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022, which has since been valued at $20 billion. Forbes currently lists Srinivas as one of India’s youngest billionaires, with a net worth of $2.1 billion.
Written by urgent.news from Times of India's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
