Well, this escalated quickly. AI search engine Perplexity has just slid a bold, unsolicited offer across the table to Google: $34.5 billion in cold, hard cash… for Chrome. Yep, Chrome — the browser that’s basically the internet’s front door for 68% of users worldwide.
Perplexity confirmed the jaw-dropper to TechCrunch and sweetened the pitch with some promises: Chromium (Chrome’s open-source heart) would stay open and get a cool $3 billion in fresh investment. Plus, they say they won’t mess with your defaults — meaning Google would still be the default search engine. Which is hilarious, because, well… Perplexity is a search engine.
Why now? The U.S. Department of Justice has been on Google’s tail, recently suggesting Chrome be sold off after a judge ruled the company illegally maintained its search monopoly. Google says nope, and they’re ready to fight. But Perplexity seems to think the court might soon set “sell Chrome” in stone — and they want first dibs.
It’s worth noting this bid is about half of what DuckDuckGo’s CEO once estimated Chrome could be worth (“upwards of $50 billion”). So, if the deal went through, it’d be a bargain buy for Perplexity… even though the offer is way more than the $1.5 billion they’ve raised so far and more than their own $18 billion valuation.
Perplexity’s been busy lately — just last month, they launched Comet, their own AI-powered browser, and even floated the idea of merging with TikTok. It’s giving “main character energy” in the tech world right now.
Will Google ever sell? Probably not voluntarily. But if the court forces their hand, this could be the beginning of a bidding war where Perplexity, OpenAI, and who-knows-who-else all throw their hats in.
One thing’s for sure: if a startup with $1.5B raised is casually offering $34.5B for Chrome, tech season is about to get very interesting.
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