From IIT Madras To Berkeley PhD To Billionaire: Chennai’s Aravind Srinivas Makes History At 31 With Rs 21,190 Crore Fortune And Global AI Impact

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you thought billionaires are all silver-haired tycoons sipping single malt in glass towers, think again. Meet Aravind Srinivas — a 31-year-old from Chennai who’d probably rather be debugging code than swirling whiskey. With a staggering net worth of Rs 21,190 crore, he has just clinched the title of the youngest person on the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025. His journey isn’t just about amassing wealth but it’s a heady mix of sleepless coding nights, science fairs, and being at the right place at the right technological boom.

Aravind Srinivas: Early Years and Education

Born in Chennai on 7 June 1994, Srinivas was that curious kid who could never leave a gadget unopened. If it was running small coding experiments at home, or pulling apart electronic toys, Srinivas showed early signs of a restless, inventive mind. He pursued Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras and completed both his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He also worked as a teacher — guiding juniors on reinforcement learning before the term even became trendy in mainstream tech circles.Berkeley soon beckoned, and by 2021 he had a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He specialised in AI fields that ranged from computer vision to reinforcement learning.

Aravind Srinivas: A Global Career in Tech

Srinivas’s resume reads like a world tour of the most prestigious AI labs. He worked at OpenAI, where reinforcement learning was his playground, before heading to DeepMind in London to dig into contrastive learning. At Google, he made his mark on vision models like HaloNet and ResNet-RS. Then came a return to OpenAI, where he was part of the celebrated DALL·E 2 project — the text-to-image generator that set the internet buzzing.By 2022, he’d swapped the employee badge for a co-founder’s title. Alongside Denis Yarats and Andy Konwinski, he launched Perplexity AI, a chat-based search engine that gives crisp, referenced answers instead of sending users spiralling down search-result rabbit holes. With India emerging as one of its fastest-growing markets, Srinivas is eyeing the country as more than just a user base.

Aravind Srinivas: Betting on India

For Srinivas, India isn’t just “home”; it’s the next frontier. He has plans to set up engineering hubs in Bengaluru or Hyderabad, while also exploring partnerships in education, healthcare, travel, and retail. There’s even talk of a Perplexity fund dedicated to Indian AI startups — a move that could turbocharge the country’s homegrown innovation scene.

Aravind Srinivas: Lifestyle and Wealth

Unlike the stereotypical billionaire with yachts and sprawling estates, Srinivas keeps his lifestyle practical with a dash of flair. He divides his time between Silicon Valley and Chennai, drives a Tesla Model S Plaid, and has a soft spot for two wheels — collecting classics like the Royal Enfield Classic. For someone sitting on a fortune, he still carries the unmistakable air of someone grounded, with India firmly stitched into his personal and professional life.

The Bigger Picture: India’s Billionaire Boom

The Hurun India Rich List 2025 counted 358 billionaires, together worth Rs 167 lakh crore. Unsurprisingly, Mukesh Ambani tops the list with Rs 9.55 lakh crore, followed by Gautam Adani at Rs 8.15 lakh crore. Roshni Nadar Malhotra leads among women, while Shah Rukh Khan made a dazzling entry into the billionaire club with Rs 12,490 crore. Interestingly, two-thirds of the list are self-made entrepreneurs, proving that the old guard of inherited wealth is being challenged by fresh blood.

A New Generation of Talent

In that context, Aravind Srinivas stands as the poster child of this new era. From IIT classrooms to Berkeley labs and Silicon Valley boardrooms, he represents the global reach of Indian talent and the rising influence of AI-led entrepreneurship. For Chennai, he is a hometown hero. For India, he’s part of a growing generation of innovators who aren’t just catching up with the world but helping to lead it.And perhaps the most fascinating part? At just 31, Aravind Srinivas is only getting started.