Perplexity AI Makes $34.5 Billion Bid for Google Chrome
Perplexity AI has proposed buying Google Chrome for $34.5B, pledging to keep Chromium open-source and invest $3B in development. Deal faces antitrust backdrop.
Perplexity AI has proposed buying Google Chrome for $34.5B, pledging to keep Chromium open-source and invest $3B in development. Deal faces antitrust backdrop.
© E. Vartanyan
Perplexity AI has made a headline-grabbing move, offering to buy Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, Reuters reports. The bold proposal comes amid mounting pressure from U.S. regulators, who are pushing Google to divest Chrome as part of an antitrust case over its dominance in the online search market. A court ruling on potential «sanctions» is expected later this month.
According to the company, Perplexity is prepared to secure full financing from undisclosed investment funds. It has pledged to keep Chromium’s source code open, invest $3 billion in the browser’s development over the next two years, and leave the default search engine unchanged. The startup believes acquiring Chrome would grant access to an audience of over three billion users and strengthen its ability to compete with OpenAI, which is also developing its own AI-powered browser.
The race for Chrome is drawing interest from other contenders, including OpenAI, Yahoo, and private equity giant Apollo Global Management. This isn’t Perplexity’s first high-profile bid: in January, it expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. assets, though that deal never materialized.
Google, for its part, has not officially put Chrome up for sale and plans to appeal any court ruling related to monopoly claims. Meanwhile, Perplexity recently launched its own browser, Comet, equipped with AI features designed to perform tasks on behalf of users — a move that could give the company a stronger foothold in the market should it succeed in securing Chrome.