Perplexity Offers $34.5 Bn to Acquire Google Chrome Amid Antitrust Uncertainty

Artificial intelligence search startup Perplexity has made an audacious $34.5 billion offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser and its open-source sibling, Chromium — a sum nearly double the company’s own estimated valuation. The bid follows the startup’s recent debut of Comet, a browser it built using Chromium’s open-source framework.

Google has not responded to the acquisition proposal and has shown no public indication that it plans to sell Chrome. However, legal pressure could change the equation. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is weighing potential remedies to address Google’s dominance in online search, following a landmark ruling last year that found the company had illegally maintained a monopoly. One of the options on the table is forcing Google to divest Chrome, a scenario that has drawn concern from Mozilla and sparked interest from rivals eager to gain a competitive foothold.

The court’s decision is expected by the end of this month, after a 10-week bench trial concluded in 2023. During the proceedings, OpenAI executives indicated they would consider buying Chrome should it become available. The AI firm is also believed to be working on its own web browser. Google has said it intends to appeal the antitrust ruling.

With roughly 67.9% global browser market share — representing around 3.8 billion of the world’s 5.65 billion internet users, according to StatCounter — Chrome is among the most powerful software distribution platforms in existence, surpassing even Facebook’s user base. Its potential sale would be one of the most significant shifts in the browser market in decades.

 

For AI-focused companies such as Perplexity and OpenAI, owning Chrome could provide a direct pipeline to billions of users as AI search tools increasingly compete with traditional keyword-based search. Microsoft attempted a similar push by integrating AI into Bing last year, but the move failed to significantly dent Google’s dominance — a shortfall some attribute to Google’s swift rollout of AI Overviews, its own generative AI-driven search enhancement.

Despite growing hype, Perplexity’s current reach remains modest compared to Google. Court documents revealed that in December 2024, Perplexity processed 20 million daily messages, while Google’s AI Overviews handled roughly 595 million daily queries — about 7% of the company’s estimated 8.3 billion daily searches. By comparison, OpenAI’s ChatGPT search integration, launched last October, is believed to slightly surpass AI Overviews in daily usage, although exact figures remain sealed.

The Chrome acquisition proposal comes at a time when U.S. courts are tightening scrutiny on Google across multiple fronts, including separate rulings against its advertising and Android businesses earlier this year. The outcome of Judge Mehta’s decision could reshape the competitive dynamics of web browsers and search engines, fueling what many industry watchers describe as a new browser war.

Today, nearly all major browser developers — with few exceptions such as Vivaldi — are embedding generative AI tools into their products, betting that users want more natural, conversational web interactions. Whether Chrome becomes a pawn in that battle now depends on how the court defines the future rules of engagement.