AI startup Perplexity AI stunned the tech world by submitting a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash bid for Google’s Chrome browser, far exceeding its own $14 billion valuation and underscoring the intensifying AI search and browser competition.
This bold move positions Perplexity at the center of headlines, demonstrating aggressive ambitions in the AI-driven browser wars.
The three-year-old startup, backed by heavyweights like Nvidia and SoftBank, has raised around $1 billion in funding and is valued at approximately $14 billion. Despite the oversized price tag, Perplexity claims “multiple funds have offered to finance the deal in full,” though it declined to name them.
Chrome, used by more than three billion users, would give Perplexity a massive platform to accelerate its AI search ambitions and compete directly with bigger rivals like OpenAI. The acquisition would complement its AI browser, Comet, enabling task automation and seamless integration of AI into everyday browsing.
Perplexity pledged to keep the underlying Chromium code open source, invest $3 billion over two years, and leave Chrome’s default search engine unchanged. This structure, with no equity component, is designed to preserve user choice and ease competition concerns, potentially defusing antitrust scrutiny.
Google has not responded to Reuters, and has not offered Chrome for sale, signalling a probably long legal battle. Regulatory pressure is already mounting, last year, a U.S. court ruled Google holds an unlawful monopoly in online search, and the Justice Department is seeking a Chrome divestiture as part of its remedies.
As chatbot-based search via ChatGPT and Perplexity gains traction, browsers are regaining importance as gateways to search traffic and prized user data. Control of Chrome could reshape the AI search ecosystem, fueling new dynamics between Big Tech and nimble AI startups.
