Perplexity AI makes an all-cash offer to acquire Google Chrome, aiming to disrupt the search market and position itself as a key competitor.
In a move that could reshape the tech landscape, AI startup Perplexity has made an unsolicited all-cash offer of $34.5 billion to acquire Google Chrome, despite Perplexity itself being valued at just $18 billion. This ambitious bid signals the startup’s intent to challenge Google’s dominance in internet search, leveraging Chrome’s vast user base of over three billion worldwide.
The proposal comes in the wake of a 2024 antitrust ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, which found Google guilty of illegally monopolizing the search market. This ruling, which suggested the possibility of a forced sale of Chrome, has created an opening for competitors to explore acquiring the browser.
The Department of Justice had previously highlighted the role Chrome plays in reinforcing Google’s search market stronghold, making its divestiture a significant remedy to address the company’s anti-competitive practices.
Perplexity’s move follows its previous interest in acquiring Chrome, an initiative it first expressed in April 2025. The startup, which leverages cutting-edge AI models including GPT-4 and Claude, believes it can operate Chrome more effectively by maintaining its open-source Chromium codebase, which would benefit other browser makers. The company has also committed to investing $3 billion in Chrome’s development over the next two years to enhance its infrastructure and performance.
The $34.5 billion bid is not without controversy. Industry experts note that Chrome’s valuation is highly disputed, with estimates ranging from $20 billion to $50 billion. Perplexity’s offer falls within the lower end of that range, a point raised by DuckDuckGo’s CEO, who suggested that Chrome could be worth as much as $50 billion.
For Perplexity, the $34.5 billion offer represents its second major acquisition attempt in 2025. Earlier this year, it made an unsolicited offer to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, citing national security concerns.
While that bid ultimately fell through, the Chrome acquisition represents a far more significant leap, positioning Perplexity as a challenger to Google’s multi-faceted dominance in search, browsing, and advertising. If the deal were to go through, the acquisition would solidify Perplexity’s position as a powerful player in the burgeoning AI-powered browser space, where it already operates its own Comet browser.
Whether or not Perplexity succeeds in its bid to acquire Chrome, one thing is clear: this bold offer is a defining moment for both the company and the broader tech industry, signaling a new era of competition in the world of web browsers and search engines.
