In an interesting turn of events, AI firm Perplexity has presented an unsolicited bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser. On Tuesday, August 12 Perplexity offered $34.5 billion as a purchase price for one of the largest web browsers in existence.
The amount that Perplexity is putting on the table is significantly higher than its valuation of around $18 billion, media reported. The San Francisco-based company has reportedly claimed that multiple investors are ready to fund its acquisition of Google Chrome. The names of these interested investors remain undisclosed for now.
The development comes at a time when Google and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are in a tussle over Chrome. In an ongoing legal battle, the DoJ has been pressing to have Google sell Chrome — in order to reinstate a level playing field for other players in the web browser sector.
This antitrust case started in October 2020 when the DoJ joined attorneys general from 11 states to file a lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit accused the Alphabet-owned company of monopolizing the search engine market with Chrome. The browser comes integrated with all Android devices.
The DoJ believes that if Google sells Chrome, it would curb Google’s control over the market and let other browsers to survive in the market. Google, however, has strongly opposed this step claiming that selling Chrome would hamper user security and innovation. A final decision in this ongoing case is expected later this year.
For now, a response from Google on Perplexity’s offer remains awaited. The AI platform has also not released an official statement on its offer to purchase Chrome.
Founded in 2022, Perplexity lets users access generative AI-based web responses in a conversational format. Last month, the platform debuted its native AI browser named “Comet” .
The company has been ramping up its partnership efforts to position itself at a vantage point to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, xAI’s Grok, and Google’s Gemini.
In July, for instance, Perplexity announced a partnership with Coinbase to let crypto investors get real-time market data through AI.