Latest news with #ChromeBrowser
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Chrome As The Next AI Battleground? Experts Weigh In
Perplexity's $34.5 billion bid to buy Google's Chrome browser seems shocking at first glance. The AI firm has an estimated value of $18 billion — roughly half its offer price for Chrome. But the bid reaches beyond reality. This isn't a stunt around a browser. It's an attempt to seize the gate to the internet. And it's occurring at a time when Google may be forced by the courts to slip its grip on key assets — such as Chrome. AI Seeks To Shift The Center Of Gravity For Online Search In the old web, you searched, clicked and browsed. In the new web, you just ask — and let the AI take care of the rest. 'One of the biggest ideas emerging in AI is the Single Interface Experience,' said Piers Fawkes, founder of tech advisory firm PSFK and AI startup, ServiceBuddy. 'Unlike the Google era, where you'd search and then browse multiple sites, the SIE keeps you inside the AI, which then researches, books and buys on your behalf.' That's a revolution. Browsers are no longer dumb pipes. They're intelligent agents. The user who's driving the interface is driving the experience. And that's why Chrome matters now more than ever. 'For the average Chrome user, there may be no big change at first,' Fawkes said. 'But over time, AI could be baked into every browsing moment — comparison shopping, booking flights, even finding a mechanic — without leaving the browser.' In that world, Chrome's 70% share of global search is more than dominance. It's distribution for the next generation of AI. It's the high ground. AI Startup Is Punching Above Its Weight Class Perplexity's offer is more than a buyout bit. It's symbolic. A challenge flag waved at Google, already on the griddle for potentially overstepping on browser dominance. 'A federal court has ruled that Google holds an illegal search monopoly,' said Usha Haley, the W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business & Professor of Management at the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. 'The U.S. Justice Department may force divestiture of Chrome.' That's not hearsay. It's one option presented as part of the DOJ's antitrust case. Chrome could become a liability that Google has to divest. And if that happens, Perplexity wants first crack. Haley calls Perplexity's move 'strategically audacious, though unlikely to succeed.' But she adds that 'an AI-focused company acquiring Chrome brings new risks around data usage and privacy.' Perplexity has already said it will use browsing context to refine user profiles. Google Needs Chrome More Than Most Realize – So Do AI Companies "Chrome isn't just a browser," said Rich Pleeth, who was the UK and European Chrome marketing leader and is founder of AI-based delivery route optimizer, Finmile. 'It's the quiet lever that underpins Google's search and advertising dominance.' Chrome comes with Google search. That saves Alphabet billions of dollars every year in traffic acquisition costs. No Apple payments. No sweetheart deals with Mozilla. Just free, straight search volume. 'Based on retained search revenue alone, Chrome's value could easily exceed $100 billion,' Pleeth said. But he says it's not just search. Chrome feeds information to Google's whole ecosystem, from YouTube to Maps to Ads. That feedback loop makes ad targeting more precise, improves ad ranking and locks in user behavior. If Google loses Chrome, it doesn't lose a product. It loses clout, a rich data mining asset and access to lots of revenue. 'Chrome as a structural pillar of Google's business model is unbelievably valuable,' Pleeth added. 'Selling it would fundamentally weaken Google.' AI Firms See The Real Fight Is Over Discovery Who shows up when someone searches for a product, book a vacation or look for a plumber? That's the gatekeeper power. And that power is shifting from websites to AI front-ends. 'If an AI front-end controls the experience, it controls which brands and businesses get surfaced,' Fawkes said. 'That's the power play here — it's not just about owning a browser, it's about owning the point of access to the internet in the AI age.' Haley agrees. "E-commerce, travel, local services and even content publishers" could be worse off. According to her, ad networks could be heavily impacted while Bing, DuckDuckGo and even Amazon's Alexa could be harmed. OpenAI's ChatGPT has a head start. Gemini is catching up. Perplexity doesn't want to be left behind. 'Perplexity knows they risk becoming the Ask Jeeves of this generation,' Fawkes said. 'By buying the most popular browser, they can become the default SIE.' That's the bet. Outrageous. Risky. Probably impossible. But if Google is forced to sell Chrome, the question won't be whether or not Perplexity can afford it. The question will be whether a bidding war ensues among AI firms for this crown jewel of internet search.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Conservative-leaning AI platform Perplexity makes shock bid to buy 'rival' Google Chrome
Perplexity AI, one of the leading AI platforms along with ChatGPT, Claude and Google Gemini, made an unsolicited bid to purchase the Chrome browser as Google faces charges in US courts of having a monopoly on online searches. In a letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, Perplexity offered $34.5 billion (€29bn) in cash for Chrome, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The offer is particularly shocking because Perplexity is "only" worth $18 billion (€15.35bn). Perplexity's spokesperson confirmed the all-cash offer reported by the Wall Street Journal. Who are Perplexity AI? The AI platform delivers responses in conversational language it says is easy for the public to understand, setting itself apart from Google and Bing by skipping SEO-driven ranked link lists, and from ChatGPT or Gemini by using live searches instead of static snapshots of the internet. Earlier in August, Truth Social—the social media platform owned by US President Donald Trump—announced it was beta-testing integrating Perplexity AI into its search engine as Truth Search AI. While Perplexity maintains that it only provides the underlying technology for Truth Search AI and does not control "editorial" decisions, Truth Search has so far favoured conservative sources such as Fox News, The Epoch Times and The Federalist. While often framed as politically neutral, phrases like 'democratising knowledge'—which Perplexity have said they plan to do—have also been co-opted in some right-wing tech and media circles to suggest breaking perceived gatekeeper control and giving 'the people' unfettered access to information outside of mainstream institutions. Related Trump reverses course on Intel CEO amid US-China chip showdown Warning signs in Europe's job market: Workers now brace for tariff effects Google faces anti-trust charges In one of the biggest anti-monopoly cases of the modern tech era, United States vs. Google LLC, a US district judge ruled in August 2024 that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly on search engines in violation with the Sherman Act. Namely, Google had used illegal means or those in opposition to open, free market practices to maintain dominance by spending billions of dollars per year to make itself the default search engine on Apple's Safari browsers and Android devices, making it impossible for competitors such as Bing or DuckDuckGo to reach users at any significant scale. This locked Google into a dominance loop that others were unable to break into. Being the default browser brought Google more users, which gave it more data to make its search and ads better, which would then encourage people to keep using Google—making it even harder for anyone else to catch up. After the August 2024 ruling, the case moved into a remedies phase where the US Justice Department proposed structural fixes—including forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser, end default search deals and share search data with rivals. In November of last year, Judge Amit Mehta rejected Google's attempt to dismiss some of the some of those proposals, which kept a potential Chrome divestiture on the table and set the stage for final remedy hearings in 2025—which is where the Perplexity offer came in. Related AI browsers share sensitive personal data, new study finds Perplexity's opposition to Google's dominance Perplexity's leadership has explicitly named Google as a rival. In an interview for TIME magazine in April of last year, CEO Aravind Srinivas said that Google was its "main competitor" and that Google's ad-based profit model prevents the integration of AI responses into search. Because Google's search business depends on showing ads alongside search results or links, replacing those results with quick, AI-generated answers—which is what Perplexity does—could undercut Google's revenue. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is an investor in Perplexity, and the company relies on Microsoft's Azure AI platform for its infrastructure. While Perplexity claims to have secured 'multiple unnamed funds' to support its all-cash bid for Chrome, there's so far no indication that either Bezos or Microsoft is directly financing the bid. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
AI Startup Perplexity Makes $34.5 Billion Bid For Google Chrome
AI company Perplexity has made a $34.5 billion offer for Google's Chrome browser, according to multiple outlets, making the bid as a judge considers forcing Google to spin off Chrome after it was ruled to have held a monopoly over online advertising technology. The offer was first reported Tuesday morning. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The $34.5 billion offer is backed by several unnamed investors 'including large venture-capital funds,' according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the bid. Forbes has reached out to Perplexity and Google for comment. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
CNN
5 days ago
- Business
- CNN
AI search firm Perplexity makes $34.5 billion surprise bid for Google Chrome
AI Tech giantsFacebookTweetLink Follow Artificial intelligence search company Perplexity has made an unsolicited, $34.5 billion offer to purchase Google's Chrome browser, a surprise move by a Google Search challenger that's looking to upend how people find information online. A Perplexity spokesperson confirmed to CNN the details of the offer, which The Wall Street Journal first reported. The bid comes as Google awaits a court's decision after a landmark ruling last year found that the internet giant had violated US antitrust law with its search business. The US Justice Department has proposed as a remedy that Google sell its Chrome browser. Google has promised to appeal the ruling and called the idea of spinning off Chrome an 'unprecedented proposal' that it says would harm consumers and security. Google did not immediately provide a comment to CNN. Perplexity's offer — while likely a long shot, given Google's resistance to a forced sale of Chrome — marks the latest example of how new firms are taking on tech's biggest players to reshape the internet in the AI era. Perplexity is a nearly three-year-old startup whose search tool uses AI models to parse web content and curate answers. Answers are usually posted as a summary, although Perplexity does provide links to its sources. It launched an AI search engine that competes with Google's dominant offering in December 2022. Perplexity launched its own AI-powered web browser called Comet in July. The company is pitching it as a more personalized browser that connects the dots between a user's calendars, browsing tabs, social channels and more. OpenAI is also said to be developing a web browser, according to Reuters, in yet another signal that AI companies are looking to play a bigger role in how people use the web. Perplexity was most recently valued at $18 billion following a $100 million funding round, Bloomberg said in a report last month, citing a person familiar with the matter. The company did not comment on the report. That makes Perplexity's offer for Chrome worth nearly double its own valuation. Google, meanwhile, is worth nearly $2.5 trillion; shares of the company (GOOGL) rose around 1% on Tuesday. Google Chrome isn't the only high profile acquisition target that Perplexity has pursued. The company said earlier this year it was making a bid to buy TikTok, after a law was passed last year requiring the social media app's parent company, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-China-based company or face a ban in the United States. Perplexity has also reportedly been eyeballed by bigger tech players — both Meta and Apple have had discussions about buying the AI search firm, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Information, although it's not clear the talks will go anywhere. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Perplexity Offers $34.5 Billion for Google Chrome
Bloomberg Technology TV Shows AI startup Perplexity said it made an unsolicited bid for Google's Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. The Trump administration is pushing for Google to sell the Chrome browser after a federal judge found Google has an illegal monopoly in internet search. Google is not selling Chrome. Bloomberg's Seth Fiegerman reports on "Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)
