Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Perplexity AI has made a $34.5 billion cash offer for Google’s Chrome browser.
- Google isn’t selling Chrome and is appealing a court ruling that could one day force its sale.
- Perplexity says it has funding lined up and would keep Chrome open source with no search engine changes.
Google might be forced to sell its Chrome browser in the future, thanks to a US court ruling that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search. But while the case is still crawling through appeals, Perplexity is making an ambitious bid to swoop in early to buy it.
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As reported by Reuters, Perplexity AI has tabled an unsolicited $34.5 billion cash offer to Google for Chrome, despite the fact that it isn’t actually for sale yet. The three-year-old company is worth less than half that itself, but says it has unnamed backers ready to cover the cost.
CEO Aravind Srinivas has a taste for headline-making bids. Earlier this year, he offered to merge with TikTok’s US arm to help solve Washington’s concerns about Chinese ownership.
Perplexity’s pitch includes keeping Chrome’s underlying code open source, investing $3 billion over two years, and leaving its default search engine untouched. The startup argues this would preserve user choice and avoid future antitrust headaches.
It’s a bold target. Chrome has over three billion users and is central to Google’s AI search push, making it unlikely the company would let it go until its legal avenues are completely exhausted. Analysts think that the fight could drag on for years, even if a court eventually orders a sale.
Still, the fact that Perplexity — and reportedly OpenAI, Yahoo, and Apollo Global Management — are circling Chrome shows just how valuable the browser has become in the AI race.
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