AI Startup Perplexity Makes $34.5 Billion Bid for Google’s Chrome Browser

AI startup Perplexity made a formal offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, an audacious bid to get ahead of a potential requirement for the search giant to sell the web browser in US antitrust proceedings.

The unsolicited bid, which Perplexity intends to fund with the help of outside investors, was sent to Alphabet Inc.’s Google on Tuesday morning, a Perplexity spokesperson said. It comes not long after rival artificial intelligence startup OpenAI also expressed interest in acquiring Chrome, which together with the open-source Chromium software is the main way people access the web on PCs.