The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Following the Donald Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Aravind Srinivas, the Indian-origin CEO of Perplexity AI has challenged Tesla owner Elon Musk to stop him if he can from raising 500 billion dollars from USAID.
“Considering raising $500B from USAID. Funding secured. Stop me if you can @elonmusk,” Srinivas posted on X on February 6.
In a statement on its website, USAID has said that all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs, reported The Tribune.
Earlier, Musk had termed USAID a “criminal organisation” and called for the shutting down of the agency. The Trump administration had said that USAID was wasting money and has to be aligned with its policy priorities.
With the US witnessing nationwide protests against the dismantling of USAID, Srinivas who is the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI – an AI-powered search engine backed by prominent investors, including Jeff Bezos – joined the opposition against the decision.
Srinivas is an alumnus of IIT-Madras and he has also worked for Google and DeepMind.