The AI rush is finally reaching Wall Street. Anthropic filed for an IPO last week, OpenAI followed on Monday, and SpaceX goes public this week.
So why is Perplexity in no rush to join them? Its CEO says the wait is on purpose.
Aravind Srinivas runs Perplexity, a fast-growing AI search startup. He told CNBC the firm still plans to go public in 2028.
That was the plan before his rivals filed. He says it hasn't changed.
His rivals are the two biggest names in AI. Anthropic makes the Claude chatbot, and OpenAI makes ChatGPT.
The wait is on purpose. He wants to see how these giant AI listings land first.
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Three of the biggest names in tech are about to test how much demand is left for AI. Anthropic was last worth near $1 trillion, and OpenAI filed on Monday.
SpaceX could price one of the largest IPOs ever this week. Srinivas is watching it closely.
He says the SpaceX deal will be an early read on how the others do. A weak debut, he warns, could ripple across the whole group.
Still, he thinks they will be fine. As he put it, they should "go well, because they're doing well."
There's a catch for the top AI labs, the firms building the best models. Srinivas says they earn their high prices only by staying ahead.
Go six months with no big leap, he warns, and the price starts to look shaky. He sees no sign of that yet.
But he thinks the days of endless AI spending are ending. That shift could change how the whole field is valued.
Big firms are now fighting over how much they spend on AI. OpenAI's Sam Altman called those costs a "huge issue" on a recent stream.
One odd trend even has a name: tokenmaxxing. That's when workers run up their AI use just to look busy.
Srinivas isn't sold on it. He says people want the model that works best, not the one that burns the most.
His own firm often picks a cheaper open-source model when it does the job. That choice can cost far less than a top model.
These could be among the biggest IPOs in history. That makes them a real test of demand for huge AI deals.
Srinivas says it matters for the whole field that they go well. A flop could cool the AI trade for everyone.
A hot debut would do the opposite. It could push more AI firms to rush out and list too.
SpaceX prices first, and that sets the tone. If buyers pile in, Anthropic and OpenAI get a green light.
If they hold back, the 2028 crowd may be glad it waited.
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