Parag Agrawal: IIT Bombay graduate and former Twitter CEO launches AI startup that beats GPT-5

If you’ve been wondering why “Parag Agrawal” is trending on Google search today, here’s the scoop. The former Twitter CEO who got fired by Elon Musk in October 2022 is back in the spotlight with some pretty big news.

The Big Comeback Story of Parag Agrawal

Nearly three years after that dramatic exit from Twitter, Parag has launched Parallel Web Systems Inc., an AI startup that’s already making waves. And we’re not talking about just another tech startup – this one has raised a whopping $30 million from big-name investors like Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, and First Round Capital.

The 41-year-old from Ajmer, Rajasthan, didn’t exactly take a beach vacation after getting sacked by Musk. Instead, he was spotted at Blue Bottle coffee shops in Palo Alto, reading research papers and coding on his laptop. “I’m not a person that can enjoy the beach in that moment,” he said, showing his typical workaholic nature.

What Does His New Company Actually Do?

Think of Parallel as giving AI systems their own super-smart browser. While ChatGPT and other AI models work with old training data, Parallel lets AI agents search the web in real-time, cross-check facts, and even measure how confident they are about their answers.

The platform has eight different “research engines” – the fastest one delivers results in under a minute, while their top-tier “Ultra8x” engine can spend up to 30 minutes doing deep research. And here’s the kicker – in benchmark tests, Ultra8x actually outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 and even human experts by over 10%.

The Numbers That Matter

Parallel is already processing millions of research tasks daily for early customers, including some of the fastest-growing AI companies. The startup has grown to a 25-person team in just two years and is headquartered in Palo Alto.

Some real-world examples of how it’s being used: AI coding assistants pull live code snippets from GitHub, retail companies track competitors’ products, and analysts convert customer reviews into structured data. One public company is even using Parallel to automate workflows that traditionally needed humans – and they’re getting better accuracy than human workers.

The Twitter Drama Connection

Of course, people are still curious about the whole Musk-Agrawal saga. Back in 2022, when Musk was trying to buy Twitter, things got pretty heated between them. Musk famously asked Agrawal “What did you get done this week?” during their text exchanges.

As recently as February 2025, Musk was still taking shots at Agrawal on X (formerly Twitter), saying “Parag got nothing done. Parag was fired”. Meanwhile, Agrawal and other fired executives are still fighting in court for $128 million in unpaid severance.

Why This Matters Now

Agrawal’s comeback is significant because his new company is directly challenging the big players – OpenAI, Google, and yes, even Musk’s AI ambitions. The timing couldn’t be better, with AI agents becoming more useful in real-world applications.

“I don’t think Twitter defines me,” Agrawal said recently. “If I do a good job, I’m hoping this company will define me”.

From IIT Bombay (where he secured All India Rank 77) to Stanford PhD to Twitter CTO to CEO to getting fired to now building what could be the next big thing in AI – it’s quite a journey. And with his Deep Research API launching just this week and outperforming even GPT-5, it looks like Parag Agrawal might just have the last laugh after all.