Perplexity makes nearly $35 billion bid for Google Chrome amid antitrust pressure

Perplexity has stunned the tech and AI world with an all-cash offer of 34.5 billion dollars to buy Google’s Chrome browser. The bid, filed on August 12, lands just as Google faces increasing regulatory pressure over its dominance in search and browsers. The package includes commitments to keep the Chromium codebase open source, invest three billion dollars over two years into infrastructure upgrades, and retain Google Search as the default option to ensure minimal disruption for users.

For a company valued at around 18 billion dollars, making a play for one of the most-used pieces of software in the world borders on audacious. Perplexity says it has secured funding commitments from major investors to cover the deal in full. The timing is no coincidence. The Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google has left open the possibility of remedies like forcing the company to divest Chrome, a scenario Perplexity appears ready to exploit. Judge Amit Mehta’s final ruling on those remedies is still pending.

Google has not put Chrome up for sale and has indicated it will fight any forced separation, warning that it could undermine user security and innovation. Reports suggest other heavyweights, including OpenAI, Yahoo and Apollo Global Management, are also assessing the situation from the sidelines.

Perplexity’s move is not just opportunistic. The company’s AI-first browser, Comet, already runs on Chromium and is designed for users who want integrated AI tools woven into their daily browsing. Owning Chrome would give Perplexity immediate access to more than three billion active users and a distribution channel for its AI stack. Even if the bid ultimately fails, it signals that AI-native companies are willing to challenge incumbents for the platforms that define digital behaviour.

For marketers, the story is less about a single acquisition and more about a shift in who controls the gateways to the internet. If Perplexity gets Chrome, it could influence not only how people search but how ads are served, measured and personalised. And even if the deal doesn’t close, it shows that antitrust pressure on Big Tech is opening doors for ambitious challengers to try and rewrite the rules of the browser game.