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Perplexity Proposes $34.5 Billion Purchase of Google’s Chrome Browser

The bid arrives as the Justice Department nears a ruling on remedies to break up Google’s search monopoly by potentially forcing a Chrome sale.

Aravind Srinivas, chief executive officer of Perplexity AI Inc., during the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, June 5, 2025.
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Meta AI, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Copilot and Character.AI. Assorted AI app icons
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Overview

  • Perplexity’s offer exceeds its roughly $18 billion valuation and the company says it has lined up multiple investment funds to cover the full transaction price.
  • Its term sheet pledges to invest $3 billion in Chrome and the Chromium open-source project over two years and to maintain Google as the browser’s default search engine.
  • Google has not signaled willingness to sell Chrome, declined to comment on the bid and is widely expected to appeal any court order mandating divestiture.
  • The unsolicited proposal coincides with a forthcoming decision by Judge Amit Mehta on DOJ-recommended antitrust remedies following a 2024 ruling that Google illegally monopolized search.
  • Other potential buyers including OpenAI, Yahoo and Apollo Global Management have expressed interest, but experts say legal challenges and valuation gaps could delay or derail any sale.