In a move that could upend both the browser market and the AI search race, Perplexity AI has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer to acquire Alphabet’s Chrome browser. The bold bid is more than double the three-year-old startup’s own $14 billion valuation, signaling CEO Aravind Srinivas’s ambition to secure billions of users and a powerful distribution channel in the escalating competition over AI-powered search.
Chrome is one of the most widely used pieces of software in the world, with more than three billion active users. Its role as a gateway to search queries and user data makes it a key battleground for Big Tech’s AI ambitions. For Google, Chrome is deeply intertwined with its push to defend market share through AI features like “Overviews,” which integrate AI-generated summaries directly into search results. For Perplexity, which already offers its own AI browser called Comet, acquiring Chrome would provide an instant leap in scale, enabling it to compete head-on with rivals such as OpenAI, which is building a similar AI-driven browsing experience.
The offer arrives at a moment of heightened legal pressure on Google. The U.S. Justice Department has sought a forced sale of Chrome as a remedy in its landmark search antitrust case, after a federal court ruled last year that Google held an unlawful monopoly. Google is appealing the decision and has made clear it does not intend to sell Chrome. Antitrust experts say the appeals process could drag on for years, with any forced divestiture likely to face skepticism in higher courts, including the Supreme Court.
Perplexity’s bid also faces questions about funding. The startup has raised about $1 billion from backers including Nvidia and SoftBank, but said on Tuesday that multiple investment funds have pledged to finance the deal in full. The proposal includes several commitments aimed at easing regulatory concerns: keeping Chrome’s open-source Chromium code intact, investing $3 billion into the browser over the next two years, and retaining Google Search as the default engine.
This isn’t Perplexity’s first audacious move. Earlier this year, it made an offer to merge with TikTok’s U.S. operations to address concerns over Chinese ownership, an idea that gained attention but ultimately did not materialize. Its latest gambit signals the startup’s determination to insert itself into the highest-stakes conversations in tech — and to do so quickly.
Still, some industry observers doubt Google would entertain the offer voluntarily, particularly at a price well below the $50 billion valuation suggested by DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg. Even if regulatory remedies forced Google’s hand, legal proceedings could delay any transaction long enough for market dynamics to shift.
For now, the bid underscores the increasing strategic value of browsers in the AI era. As more users turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, control over the default entry point to the internet could determine which companies dominate the next wave of search. And with billions of users, Chrome remains the crown jewel of that fight — making Perplexity’s audacious offer one of the boldest plays in recent tech history.
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