Perplexity offers Google 34.5 billion US dollars for Chrome browser

The future of Chrome is also currently being negotiated in antitrust proceedings against Google. The court could order a forced sale of Google's own web browser, which dominates the market. The AI start-up Perplexity has now come into play as a possible buyer and is offering 34.5 billion US dollars for Chrome. Although the offer significantly exceeds Perplexity's market capitalization, the AI company claims to have secured financing from investors.

Google has been on trial in the antitrust case since 2020. The US Department of Justice and many US states had sued the company because, in their opinion, it had abused its market power. By making payments to the manufacturers of browsers and end devices, Google had ensured that its search engine was preset – an unlawful obstruction of free competition. Judge Amit Mehta followed the plaintiffs' argument in April 2024. The consequences are now being discussed. These include that Google could be obliged to sell Chrome. However, Google's antitrust case harbors risks for the future of browsers, not just Chrome.

More than one interested buyer for Chrome

OpenAI has previously expressed an interest in buying Chrome should the court case over Google's future lead to a forced sale. OpenAI could thus solve a central problem, as observers believe that one of the company's biggest difficulties currently is distributing its AI. A decision by the judge is expected later this month.

Perplexity's offer could show the judge that there is more than one party interested in buying Chrome. This will be costly for the buyer. After all, the Google browser is estimated to be worth between 20 and 50 billion dollars. Perplexity's offer is pretty much in the middle of Chrome's latest value estimates, but significantly exceeds the stock market value of the AI company.

Google's challenger Perplexity was already valued at more than one billion dollars last year and is now said to be worth around 18 billion dollars. However, the AI company needs external support to make a purchase for 34.5 billion dollars. However, Perplexity told the Wall Street Journal that the bid is fully backed by several investors, including major venture capital funds.

In a letter to Sundar Pichai, head of Google parent Alphabet, Perplexity explained that the offer to buy Chrome was “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in the highest public interest by delivering Chrome to a capable, independent operator.” So far, Google has no interest in selling Chrome, and when asked, the data company would not comment on Perplexity's offer.

Perplexity stands by Chromium

Perplexity already has its browser, Comet, with integrated AI agents, which, like Chrome, is based on Chromium and uses Perplexity as its search engine. For now, this is reserved for Perplexity Max subscribers who pay 200 dollars a month, so the user base is manageable. Chrome, on the other hand, is the market leader among web browsers. With around 3.5 billion users, the Google browser has a market share of over 60 percent. However, in addition to Chrome and Comet, many other browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, and Opera also rely on Chromium. If you add up the market shares of Chromium browsers, you get almost 80 percent.

In its billion-euro offer to Google, Perplexity promises to continue to maintain and support Chromium. Although Chromium is an independent open-source project, it is largely controlled by Google. Last year, Google developers contributed more than 94 percent of the program code. In addition, Perplexity would retain Google as the default search engine even after the purchase of Chrome. However, users can change this at any time in the settings.

A court decision on the consequences for Google in the antitrust proceedings is expected in August. Market observers currently consider it unlikely that the data company will be forced to sell Chrome. However, the judge has not yet indicated which way he is leaning. However, it can be assumed that Google will exhaust all instances if the court orders such measures.

(fds)