AI start-up Perplexity makes $34.5bn bid for Google Chrome

Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup valued at about $18 billion as of mid-2025, made a surprise unsolicited all-cash offer of $34.5 billion to acquire Google’s Chrome web browser. This bid is nearly double Perplexity’s own valuation.

Here is the key points about this acquisition bid:

• The offer aims to buy Google’s Chrome browser amid a pending U.S. antitrust ruling that could force Google to divest Chrome as part of remedies against Google’s monopoly in search.
• Perplexity pledged to keep the Chromium engine that Chrome is based on open source and promised to invest around $3 billion in its continued development.
• Despite acquiring Chrome, Perplexity said it would keep Google as the default search engine on Chrome rather than replacing it with its own AI-powered search.
• The move is also seen as a strategy by Perplexity to gain immediate access to billions of users and vast behavioral data to compete more effectively in AI-driven search and browsing markets.
• Google has responded by calling the proposed sale “wildly overbroad” and asserted it would hurt consumers and security, planning to contest any such forced divestiture.
• Perplexity recently launched its own AI-powered web browser called Comet that integrates an AI assistant more deeply than Chrome’s current AI features.
• The U.S. Department of Justice has pushed for Google to divest Chrome as part of its antitrust resolution, as Chrome is viewed as a critical search access point reinforcing Google’s dominance.
• Several investors have committed to backing Perplexity’s ambitious offer, although financing details remain private.
• Industry analysts consider Google unlikely to sell Chrome voluntarily, expecting a lengthy legal battle over this issue.

Perplexity’s bold $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google Chrome represents a major challenge to Google’s dominance in web browsing and search amid growing regulatory pressure. The deal would dramatically accelerate Perplexity’s growth and influence by granting it control over the world’s most popular browser and its vast user base—if it succeeds despite Google’s resistance and the complex legal environment.