Recently, the artificial intelligence startup - Perplexity AI has officially submitted a proposal worth 34.5 billion USD to buy Google's Chrome browser. This move is said to be in preparation for the possibility that the US court will force Google to sell Chrome in a previous antitrust lawsuit.
A representative of Perplexity said that they plan to raise capital from outside investors. "Many large investment funds have agreed to finance all transactions," said Dmitry Shevelenko, sales director, but did not disclose the identities of participants.
Federal judge Amit Mehta is expected to soon rule on remedies to prevent Google from monopolizing online searches, including the ability to force the sale of Chrome and grant search data access to competitors.
The US Department of Justice also affirmed: Forcing Google to divest from Chrome will end their control over this important search location and make it easier for competing search engines to access browsers - which is a gateway to the Internet for many users.
Perplexity is a startup company famous for its AI search engine, according to CNBC. In July 2025, the company launched the AI browser Comet. Currently, Perplexity is valued at $18 billion after a $100 million capital call in early 2025. The spend of up to 34.5 billion USD - nearly double the current value - has raised concerns or large, but the company insists the funding source has been fully guaranteed.
Google has not commented on this proposal. Previously, the "technology giant" said that the US Justice Department's proposal to intervene was too necessary.
Chrome is a browser launched in 2008, not only the most popular in the world but also provides data for Google to optimize advertising.
Perplexity has pledged not to make any secret changes to Chrome if the deal is successful. The company plans to invest $30 billion over the next two years to develop Chrome and chromium, as well as retain most of Chrome's current team. The buyback proposal does not include any shares of Perplexity, to avoid entanglement in antitrust barriers.
This is not the first time Perplexity has aspired to buy a company larger than it. At the beginning of the year, the company proposed a merger with TikTok in the US but failed.
