Perplexity offers to buy Chrome for billions more than it’s raised

In a bold and unprecedented move, AI search engine Perplexity has proposed an unsolicited cash offer of $34.5 billion to acquire Chrome from Google, a development confirmed by both Reuters and TechCrunch. The tech startup aims to maintain Chrome’s foundational engine, Chromium, as an open-source project and is committed to investing $3 billion into its ongoing development. As part of the offer, Perplexity assures that it will not alter the default settings for Chrome users, which includes keeping Google as the default search engine rather than switching it to its own AI-driven alternative. Google has not yet provided a response to this offer. This ambitious bid comes on the heels of a ruling from the Department of Justice, which suggested that Google be compelled to divest Chrome following a judicial conclusion that the tech giant operated illegally to uphold a monopoly in the online search space. Google has publicly resisted this notion and plans to contest the ruling. A spokesperson for Perplexity expressed confidence that the court would soon set the terms for potential remedies, possibly as early as this month. In addition to this situation, Google is also facing another federal case regarding allegations of monopolistic practices in adtech, where a judge has indicated that the company may need to divest two of its adtech products. When the DOJ first floated the idea of Google divesting Chrome, both OpenAI and Perplexity showed interest in acquiring the popular browser. With Chrome currently holding a dominant 68% market share, any court ruling that mandates its sale is likely to attract interest from other global bidders. Notably, the CEO of rival search engine DuckDuckGo testified in April that Chrome could be valued at over $50 billion, indicating that Perplexity's offer might be seen as a bargain if successful. Despite the scale of the bid surpassing the funds raised by Perplexity, which totals about $1.5 billion according to Pitchbook estimates, including a recent $100 million funding round that valued the startup at $18 billion, the company is pushing forward with its aspirations. Recently, Perplexity also launched its own browser, named Comet, in a strategic move to expand its AI search capabilities independently of Google’s ecosystem. Additionally, reports suggest that Perplexity submitted a bid last month to merge with TikTok, further emphasizing its ambitions in the tech landscape.