Parag Agrawal, the former CEO of Twitter who was ousted following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company, has returned to the tech industry by founding an AI startup called Parallel Web Systems Inc. The Palo Alto-based firm is focused on developing advanced infrastructure that enables artificial intelligence agents to autonomously search, gather, and analyze information from the internet with unprecedented efficiency.
Agrawal announced Parallel’s flagship product, the Deep Research API, which the company claims outperforms humans and leading AI models including OpenAI’s GPT-5 on various complex research benchmarks. According to Agrawal, the platform already powers millions of research tasks daily across ambitious startups and public enterprises, automating workflows that previously required human intervention.
Supported by $30 million in funding from prominent investors such as Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures, Parallel operates with a team of 25 employees specializing in next-generation AI research tools. The technology is positioned to serve diverse applications, from coding assistants that retrieve real-time code snippets, to market analysts automating complex data compilation, and chatbot developers seeking rapid and accurate research capabilities.
Agrawal’s move marks his ambitious comeback after being abruptly removed from Twitter CEO position in 2022. Having built machine learning models in his earlier tenure at Twitter, Agrawal concluded that AI agents not humans will dominate online interactions in the near future, predicting a world where multiple digital agents operate on our behalf across the web.
With Parallel, Agrawal aims to build a new kind of web optimized for machines, reshaping how information is retrieved and utilized in the digital age, potentially transforming sectors reliant on real-time, accurate data.
This new venture is closely watched as one of Silicon Valley’s most promising AI startups of 2025, representing a significant shift in Agrawal’s career and the broader AI research landscape.