The Perplexity app on the Apple App Retailer smartphone situated in Washington DC, Washington DC, USA on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Synthetic Intelligence Startup Complicated AI has positioned an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid Google’s Chrome browser, CNBC, was confirmed on Tuesday.
The determine is larger than Perplexity’s present ranking, however the firm mentioned it has agreed that a number of buyers would help the transaction. In July, the confusion was valued at $18 billion as a part of an extension valued on the firm $14 billion in the past.
Google didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark. The Wall Avenue Journal first reported the bid.
Perplexity is greatest recognized for its AI-powered search engine that gives a easy reply for customers to ask questions or hyperlink to unique supply supplies on the net. Final month, we launched our personal AI-equipped browser referred to as Comet.
Startups are within the midst of a struggle for benefit within the technology AI, Meta Openai provides massive pay and indicators bonuses to high engineers. Whereas Megacap Tech corporations spend tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a yr on AI infrastructure to construct massive language fashions and run massive workloads, startups should elevate billions of {dollars} from enterprise buyers, hedge funds and tech giants to pay for the {hardware} and personnel they should compete.
Confusion was approached by Meta earlier this yr for acquisition, however the firm didn’t finalize the transaction.
The Perplexity bid comes after the US Division of Justice proposed Google Divest Chrome as a part of the antitrust legislation that the corporate misplaced final yr. A choose within the case dominated that Google holds an unlawful monopoly within the core markets of web search.
In response, Google mentioned the DOJ is pushing for a “radical interventionist agenda” and that the company’s proposals are “too broad.” The corporate has but to reveal plans to coordinate its enterprise following the antitrust ruling.
Launched by Google in 2008, Chrome offers information to look giants and makes use of it to focus on adverts. DOJ mentioned in a submitting following the court docket’s choice by forcing the corporate to take away Chrome would create a extra stage taking part in discipline for search opponents.
“To alleviate these harms, [Initial Proposed Final Judgment] Google might want to promote Chrome. This may completely halt Google’s management of this vital search entry level, permitting rival search engines like google and yahoo to entry browsers, a gateway to the web for a lot of customers,” DOJ writes.
Perplexity’s bid for Chrome just isn’t the primary time it has made an enormous swing.
The startup submitted a proposal in January to merge with the brief video app Tiktok. Tiktok’s future within the US has been unsure since 2024, when Congress handed a invoice banning the platform until a Chinese language non-owner ordinance is then bought.
As of August, the construction of the Tiktok transaction proposed by Perplexity has not been realized.
