Aravind Srinivas Challenges Elon Musk To Stop His $500B Fundraising From USAID

India-West News Desk

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Aravind Srinivas, CEO of the AI search engine Perplexity AI, has openly challenged Tesla owner Elon Musk to prevent him from raising $500 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Considering raising $500B from USAID. Funding secured. Stop me if you can @elonmusk. What is USAID?” Srinivas posted on X (formerly Twitter).

This post came days after both Musk and former President Donald Trump called for the closure of USAID. On February 7, a federal judge temporarily paused the administration’s plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave, adding to the ongoing controversy surrounding the agency’s future.

31-year old Srinivas, who co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022, is no stranger to the tech world. An alumnus of IIT-Madras and the University of California, Berkeley, Srinivas previously worked at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind, before returning to OpenAI as a research scientist.

Perplexity AI, backed by high-profile investors like Jeff Bezos, has quickly established itself as a leading AI-powered search engine.

Srinivas’s challenge to Musk comes as both Musk and Trump criticize USAID, with Trump calling it a “criminal organization” and Musk describing it as being “run by radical lunatics.” While protests have occurred in Washington, DC, against the idea of dismantling the agency, Srinivas is using the moment to draw attention to his own ambitious fundraising plans, setting the stage for a high-profile clash with Musk.

In the past, the two have had cordial interactions regarding immigration and the Chennai born  Srinivas getting his green card. Recently he had tweeted, “Excited for Elon and Vivek to make legal immigration better. I would even push for a higher application fee (eg 2x) in exchange for high quality fast service. Think about immigration to America as you investing in the country. Should be as simple as you uploading documents from a mobile app, Apple Pay, interview scheduled in a week, and results arriving to you in a month.”