Perplexity isn’t just eyeing Google’s market share — it’s adopting its strategy. CEO Aravind Srinivas recently revealed that the AI startup is building a web browser to track user activity beyond its app, in a bid to power personalized advertising.
Speaking on the TBPN podcast, Srinivas openly stated that user data from outside the app is key to the company’s advertising goals. Perplexity wants to understand everything — not just what users ask inside its AI tool — but how they behave online more broadly.
“We want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” he said. “Because some of the prompts people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not personal.”
The Perplexity CEO argues that understanding what users search for during leisure time — where they stay, what they buy, and what content they browse — gives richer insight for targeted ads.
The Browser That Watches Everything
Perplexity’s new browser, named Comet, is expected to launch in May. Though the project faced early delays, Srinivas said it’s now back on track. And with it, Perplexity aims to gain the same kind of user-level surveillance advantage that helped Google become a $2 trillion advertising giant.
Just like Google built Chrome and Android to gather vast user data, Perplexity plans to use Comet to build full behavioral profiles. The difference? Srinivas is being far more direct about his company’s intent.
“We plan to use all the context to build a better user profile,” he said. He even mentioned the company’s “discover feed” as a potential space for showing personalized ads.
While Perplexity positions this approach as user-friendly — arguing that more relevant ads are a fair trade for tracking — privacy advocates may not agree. The idea of an AI startup openly building a browser for data collection is sure to raise concerns.
But in today’s tech world, tracking is the norm. Meta tracks people across websites through embedded Pixels, even those without Facebook or Instagram accounts. Apple has also been caught collecting location data through its default settings, despite its “privacy-first” image.
Bigger Moves: Motorola, Samsung, and Even Chrome?
Perplexity’s browser ambitions don’t stop with Comet. The company has started pushing into the mobile space, striking a partnership with Motorola. Its app will come pre-installed on Motorola’s Razr phones and can be triggered by the device’s built-in Moto AI using the phrase “Ask Perplexity.”
Bloomberg also reported that Perplexity is in talks with Samsung. Srinivas didn’t officially confirm it, but he did reference the article, which mentioned both Samsung and Motorola partnerships.
Clearly, Perplexity is taking big swings — not just building an AI search tool, but aiming to become a core part of the devices people use daily.
And it’s not just tracking Google’s strategy. It may be waiting to inherit some of Google’s assets, too.
As Google fights a landmark antitrust case in the U.S., the Justice Department wants a court to force the company to divest its Chrome browser. If that happens, Srinivas said both Perplexity and OpenAI would be interested in buying it.
That’s right — Perplexity wants to own Chrome.
This bold vision puts the startup in direct competition with tech giants like Google and Meta, not only in search but in the business of surveillance-powered ads. But it also highlights a deep irony: at the same time regulators are trying to break up Google’s dominance, a newer company is openly replicating its most controversial practices.
Whether Perplexity succeeds in becoming the next Google — or merely repeats its mistakes — remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: with Comet on the horizon, the race for AI-driven, data-fueled dominance is heating up fast.
