Google's AI Mode search function to enter Japan as soon as this year
SHOGO SUGIYAMA
TOKYO -- Google will roll out its AI-powered search tool in Japan, with the free service set to come online by the end of the year at the earliest.
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NHK
9 hours ago
- NHK
AI start-up Perplexity offers to buy Google's Chrome browser for $34.5 bil.
Artificial intelligence start-up firm Perplexity has offered to buy tech giant Google's Chrome browser. Perplexity said on Tuesday that it is offering 34.5 billion dollars to acquire Chrome. The offer comes ahead of an expected US court ruling on Google's monopoly in the search engine market. The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Google in 2020 arguing that the firm had violated antitrust law through its online search business. A US district court ruled last year that Google had illegally monopolized the search market and is expected to rule later this month on how to restore competition. Perplexity said its ''proposal is designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator focused on continuity, openness, and consumer protection." US media outlets say Google has not indicated a willingness to sell the browser.
Yomiuri Shimbun
11 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
AI Startup Perplexity Makes Bold $34.5 Billion Bid for Google's Chrome Browser
Aug 12 (Reuters) – Perplexity AI made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet's GOOGL.O Chrome browser on Tuesday, a bid far above its own valuation as the startup reaches for the browser's billions of users pivotal to the AI search race. Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers: it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership. OpenAI, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome as regulatory pressure threatens Google's grip on the industry. Google did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The company has not offered Chrome for sale and plans to appeal a U.S. court ruling last year that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search. The Justice Department has sought a Chrome divestiture as part of the case's remedies. Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer. The three-year-old company has raised around $1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan's SoftBank. It was last valued at $14 billion. Multiple funds have offered to finance the deal in full, Perplexity said, without naming the funds. Alphabet's shares were up 1.6% in afternoon trading. As a new generation of users turns to chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, web browsers are regaining prominence as vital gateways to search traffic and prized user data, making them central to Big Tech's AI ambitions. Perplexity already has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user's behalf and buying Chrome would allow it to tap the browser's more than three billion users, giving it the heft to better compete with bigger rivals such as OpenAI. The ChatGPT parent is also working on its own AI browser. Perplexity's bid pledges to keep the underlying browser code called Chromium open source, invest $3 billion over two years and make no changes to Chrome's default search engine, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The company said the offer, with no equity component, would preserve user choice and ease future competition concerns. Analysts have said Google would be unlikely to sell Chrome and would likely engage in a long legal fight to prevent that outcome, given it is crucial to the company's AI push as it rolls out features including AI-generated search summaries, known as Overviews, to help defend its search market share. A federal judge, Amit Mehta, is expected to issue a ruling on remedies in the Google search antitrust case sometime this month. 'Judge Mehta is a pretty orthodox guy. It's very possible that he would hold off on requiring a sale until the appeals process is worked out and that could be a very lengthy period of time,' said Herbert Hovenkamp, professor at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. 'It would go to the DC Circuit, which is skeptical of forced divestitures, and it's possible it would even go to the Supreme Court after that. So that process could run out for a couple of years.' Perplexity's bid is also below the at least $50 billion value that rival search engine DuckDuckGo's CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, suggested Chrome may command if Google was forced to sell it.
Japan Today
14 hours ago
- Japan Today
Perplexity AI offers Google $34.5 bil for Chrome browser
A US judge is expected to decide soon whether to order Google to sell its globally popular Chrome browser to weaken the tech firm's dominance in online search Perplexity AI has offered Google $34.5 billion for its popular Chrome web browser, which the internet giant could potentially be forced to sell as part of antitrust proceedings. The whopping sum proposed in a letter of intent by Perplexity is nearly double the value of the startup, which was reportedly $18 billion in a recent funding round. "This proposal is designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator focused on continuity, openness, and consumer protection," Perplexity chief executive Aravind Srinivas said in the letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP. Google is awaiting U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta's ruling on what "remedies" to impose, following a landmark decision last year that said the tech titan maintained an illegal monopoly in online search. U.S. government attorneys have called for Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser, contending that artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant's dominance as the go-to window into the internet. Google has urged Mehta to reject the divestment, and his decision is expected by the end of the month. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Perplexity's offer vastly undervalues Chrome and "should not be taken seriously," Baird Equity Research analysts said in a note to investors. Given that Perplexity already has a browser that competes with Chrome, the San Francisco-based startup could be trying to spark others to bid or "influence the pending decision" in the antitrust case, Baird analysts theorized. "Either way, we believe Perplexity would view an independent Chrome -- or one no longer affiliated with Google -- as an advantage as it attempts to take browser share," Baird analysts told investors. Google contends that the United States has gone way beyond the scope of the suit by recommending a spinoff of Chrome, and holding open the option to force a sale of its Android mobile operating system. "Forcing the sale of Chrome or banning default agreements wouldn't foster competition," said Cato Institute senior fellow in technology policy Jennifer Huddleston. "It would hobble innovation, hurt smaller players, and leave users with worse products." Google attorney John Schmidtlein noted in court that more than 80 percent of Chrome users are outside the United States, meaning divestiture would have global ramifications. "Any divested Chrome would be a shadow of the current Chrome," he contended. "And once we are in that world, I don't see how you can say anybody is better off." The potential of Chrome being weakened or spun off comes as rivals such as Microsoft, ChatGPT and Perplexity put generative artificial intelligence (AI) to work fetching information from the internet in response to user queries. Google is among the tech companies investing heavily to be a leader in AI, and is weaving the technology into search and other online offerings. © 2025 AFP
