AI Startup Perplexity AI Seeks to Buy Google Chrome, Offers $34.5 Billion: Report
Perplexity AI, valued at $18 billion, bid $34.5 billion for Google Chrome. Perplexity AI, co-founded by Aravind Srinivas, recently launched Comet.
AI startup Perplexity AI has made a bid to buy Google Chrome Browser at a valuation of $34.5 billion, according to CNBC report. Interestingly, the current valuation of Perplexity was $18 billion. The startup confirmed, as CNBC reported, that several of its investors are ready to back this high-value deal.
AI startup Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers to user queries by synthesizing information from the web, rather than just providing a list of links. It is co-founded by Aravind Srinivas in 2022.
Perplexity AI has recently launched its own browser Comet.
According to CNBC report, Perplexity's offer comes in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's proposal that Google divest Chrome, following an antitrust ruling last year that found the company had maintained an illegal monopoly in internet search. Google responded by accusing the DOJ of advancing 'a radical interventionist agenda" and calling the proposal 'wildly overbroad," while noting it has yet to reveal how it will adjust its business after the ruling.
Launched in 2008, Google Chrome supplies the search giant with valuable user data that helps it target ads. In a filing after the court's ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that requiring Google to sell Chrome would help level the playing field for competing search engines. 'To remedy these harms, the [Initial Proposed Final Judgment] requires Google to divest Chrome, which will permanently end Google's control over this critical search access point and give rival search engines access to the browser that, for many users, serves as a gateway to the internet," the DOJ stated.
Earlier, Meta also approached Perplexity AI for acquisition, but deal wasn't finalised.
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