Artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity AI has stunned the tech world with a $34.5bn bid to acquire Google Chrome, the world’s most widely used web browser.
The three-year-old company, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and chipmaker Nvidia, is led by former Google and OpenAI employee Aravind Srinivas. It claims the takeover would ensure “an important commitment to the open web, user choice, and continuity” for Chrome’s estimated three billion users.
The offer comes as Google faces mounting antitrust pressure in the United States, including two ongoing cases and a pending court ruling that could force the company to break up its search business. Google has described the idea of spinning off Chrome as “unprecedented” and warned it would harm consumers and security.
As part of its proposal, Perplexity said it would keep Google as Chrome’s default search engine while allowing users to change it, and would maintain Chromium, the open-source platform behind Chrome and other browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Opera.
Valued at around $18bn in July, this AI company did not reveal how it would finance the deal. It has also faced copyright disputes with media outlets.
However, industry analysts have widely dismissed the move as unrealistic.
Technology investor Heath Ahrens called it “a stunt” and “nowhere near Chrome’s true value,” noting its unmatched data and reach. Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures suggested Chrome may be worth “ten times more” than the bid.