Perplexity AI, the three-year-old start-up backed by Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, has lobbed a $34.5bn (£25.6bn) takeover offer for Google Chrome, the most widely used web browser on the planet.
The move is audacious, bordering on absurd. Chrome is not just a product for Google, it is a strategic pillar, a distribution channel, and a data goldmine.
Asking Google to sell it is like asking Microsoft to part with Internet Explorer in its heyday or Apple to give up Safari.
Industry voices are sceptical. Investor Heath Ahrens dismissed the bid as a “stunt”, far below Chrome’s true value, while others estimated the browser could be worth ten times more.
Funding for the deal remains unclear, Perplexity’s own valuation was just $18bn in July.
Google has yet to comment, but the timing is notable. A US judge could soon rule in an antitrust case that might force Google to break up its search operations. The company has argued that splitting off Chrome would harm consumers and security.
Perplexity says its bid is about safeguarding the open web and giving users more choice.
It has pledged to keep Google as Chrome’s default search engine, at least initially, and maintain the underlying Chromium platform used by other browsers.
But without serious financing, the offer looks more like theatre than a genuine path to prying Chrome out of Google’s grip.