Perplexity Reportedly Offers to Buy Google Chrome for More Than Its Own Valuation

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity on Tuesday launched an audacious bid to buy the Google Chrome browser in its entirety, according to a report. The Aravind Srinivas-led company is said to have offered Google $34.5 billion (roughly Rs. 3.02 lakh crore) for the rights to the world's most popular web browser, a sum which is even higher than Perplexity's own valuation. This development comes amidst the ongoing anti-trust case against the Alphabet-owned company which has been accused of benefiting from a search monopoly and the ongoing pressure to sell.

Perplexity's Offer to Buy Google Chrome

According to a Bloomberg report, Perplexity aims to fund the bid with the help of investors from the outside. However, the $34.5 billion (roughly Rs. 3.02 lakh crore) offer is said to be higher than the AI startup's valuation itself. “Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full”, Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity told the publication.

The AI company was last valued at $18 billion (roughly Rs. 1.57 lakh crore), following the recent funding round in July where it raised a fresh capital of $100 million (roughly Rs. 875 crore).

In a statement given to TechCrunch, the Aravind Srinivas-led company seemingly confirmed the offer. Perplexity reportedly said that its offer includes a commitment to keep Chrome's core engine, which is Chromium, open source and a promise of continued investment of about $3 billion (roughly Rs. 0.26 lakh crore).

Further, the AI startup also promised not to change user defaults even if its bid is successful. As per the report, Google will remain as the default search engine on Chrome instead of making Perplexity's AI-powered search the default option.

It remains to be seen whether Google has plans of selling the web browser. The Alphabet-owned company has recently been under scrutiny, following the ongoing antitrust case in which the US Department of Justice argued that Google had struck anti-competitive deals with companies such as Apple to position its search engine ahead of others. Reports suggest that the tech giant pays Apple upwards of $15 billion (roughly Rs. 1.31 lakh crore) to ensure Google remains the default search engine on Apple devices.

Following this ruling, the US government reportedly said that it wants Google to sell the Chrome browser, while also licensing search data to competitors and stop payments for exclusive promotions on other services and devices.

Interestingly, Perplexity already has a browser called Comet which supports AI agents that can perform tasks on behalf of the user. The company has made bold claims about it too, such as it could make recruiters go extinct by doing one week's worth of tasks with a single prompt.

A previous report suggested that the company had plans of reaching "tens to hundreds of millions" users by 2026 with its AI-powered browser. It was said to be in talks with smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to pre-load the Comet browser on their devices.