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Indian Express
2 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Perplexity's $34.5B Chrome bid: How AI is fueling the next browser wars
AI search startup Perplexity has made an unsolicited offer to purchase Google Chrome for $34.5 billion, a move that comes as a US court considers forcing the tech giant to sell its popular web browser as part of the remedies in an antitrust case that Google lost last year. Google parent Alphabet's share price held steady on Tuesday, indicating that investors do not appear to be taking Perplexity's offer to buy Chrome seriously. However, Perplexity's move is still significant as it is targeted at one of Google's prized assets even as the US government pushes to break up the big tech company. The $34.5 billion potential price tag also highlights the growing strategic importance of web browsers in the age of AI. Perplexity has positioned itself as a challenger to Google with its generative AI-powered search products. The San Francisco-based startup closed a $100 million funding round in July this year at a valuation of $18 billion, as per reports. Its offer to buy Chrome at nearly twice its own value has drawn skepticism from analysts, tech columnists, and others. To be sure, Perplexity has said it will seek the help of outside investors to fund the $34.5 billion bid for Chrome. The company added that it would not make stealth modifications to the web browser, and has further offered to invest $3 billion in Chrome and its underlying web infrastructure over the next two years if the deal goes through. But that is still a very big if. The deal would realistically be possible only if the US district court rules in favour of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and forces Google to spin out its market-leading web browser, among other proposed remedies. In a landmark antitrust ruling last year, Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia held that Google had an illegal monopoly of the online search market. The case then entered the remedies phase, where Judge Mehta heard arguments from both Google and the DOJ on the most appropriate ways to address the tech giant's anti-competitive behaviour and create a more equal playing field for other search competitors. The DOJ, which filed the landmark case against Google in 2020, called for the company's divestiture of Chrome. It also proposed to prohibit Google from making exclusive search deals with smartphone makers and browser developers to set its search engine as the default. For instance, the company reportedly pays Apple over $20 billion every year to make Google Search the default search engine on iPhones. Another proposed remedy by the DOJ is to make Google Search more interoperable. This would involve the company providing access to valuable search data such as ranking signals, US-originated query data, and its search index at a 'marginal cost, and on an ongoing basis.' In its defence, Google has argued that 'the DOJ's proposal to break off Chrome — which billions of people use for free — would break it and result in a shadow of the current Chrome.' The browser would likely become 'insecure and obsolete', Parisa Tabriz, vice president and general manager, Google Chrome, said. Google's counter-proposal is to let smartphone makers and browser developers have multiple default search agreements. With Judge Mehta set to rule on the proposed remedies this month, there is blood in the water as AI companies like Perplexity move to challenge Google's search dominance by trying to take Chrome off its hands. How does this tie into the browser wars? The second, and more strategic reason AI companies are eyeing web browsers is the shift in user behaviour. People are increasingly turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT instead of traditional search engines to look up information online. Eddy Cue, a senior Apple executive, testified in the Google antitrust remedies case that search volume to its Safari browser had declined for the first time in 22 years. Cue linked the drop in search volume to the rise of AI chatbots. However, AI chatbots lack user context. Unlike traditional web browsers, chatbots do not offer insights into a user's online activity such as reading articles, writing emails, online shopping, etc. Tech startups like Perplexity, The Browser Company, and even OpenAI are looking to fill this gap by developing AI native web browsers, where the traditional search bar is replaced by an AI chatbot or agent. To be sure, Google is also testing a Gemini integration in Chrome. Perplexity on Wednesday announced that its agentic AI browser Comet is available to all Pro subscribers in the US. 'We'll start expanding access every week going forward to make Comet generally available to all Perplexity Pro users,' CEO Aravind Srinivas said in a post on X. Comet is a desktop browser that primarily relies on an AI agent to respond to user queries with links to relevant websites. It comes with several advanced features such as the ability to describe an image on a user's screen or perform deeper research about a particular topic. Users can also prompt the AI agent within Comet to take control of the browser and autonomously perform tasks such as sending an email or posting on a social media platform. For Perplexity, the appeal of Google Chrome is most likely its distribution. Google Chrome has a market share of 70 per cent in the global desktop browser market and a 67 per cent share in the mobile browser market. It has around 3.5 to 4 billion users globally, as per the DOJ. While Chrome's business model is not highly lucrative on its own, it plays a pivotal role in Google's search flywheel. The browser gathers data that feeds into its search engine, which uses the data to show more relevant search results as well as targeted ads. Note, search-related advertising makes up a bulk of Google's revenue. Chrome could also serve as a direct channel for Perplexity to showcase its latest and most advanced AI products, where users can experience their capabilities without actively seeking it out. It is likely that other AI companies will also throw their names into the running. Nick Turley, ChatGPT's head of product, testified during Google's antitrust remedies trial that OpenAI would be interested in buying Chrome. While ChatGPT already has web search features baked into it, the company would be able to potentially bring its AI chatbot to even more users with Chrome. Brian Provost, Yahoo's Search General Manager, also testified that the company would be open to buying Chrome with the help of its parent firm Apollo Global Management. However, big tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are unlikely to pursue Chrome as it would be difficult to pass antitrust scrutiny.
The National
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
It is not surprising that young men are choosing to carry weapons
It also betrays a rather signature MSP ignorance of day-to-day reality in impoverished, usually but not exclusively inner-city, communities in the context of threadbare social services and and several decades of alienation from more wealthy and more healthy citizens. The public service depletion that contributes per force to the endemic decision by so many good young people to 'bear arms' is the complete evisceration of community policing that followed the establishment of a unitary police force in this country. Do people in political and social bubbles realise that a parallel justice and 'policing' system has emerged in the de facto absence of an adequately state-funded presence in daily life in many areas? Do they understand that some young men protect themselves and their loved ones by the carrying of, for the most part, deterrent weaponry? READ MORE: Shona Craven: Young people have the right to feel disillusioned A rudimentary 'justice' system has arisen in many areas to deal with criminal and antisocial behaviour in courts of summary street justice, as the police and by extension the state is not protecting either life or property with a properly funded, engaged and embraced community police service. If Holyrood is to save, and at the same time improve, lives in all areas of Scottish life, from health to education and law and order ,it must commit, across political boundaries, to secede from a neoliberal Westminster colonial stranglehold and subscribe wholeheartedly to the commonweal principle that charity and justice begin at home. Angela Constance's colleagues must provide a credible vision of justice in all areas of Scottish life and do the job their Scottish electorate are paying them to do without excuses and/or equivocation: seek radical constitutional change as their pre-eminent priority, and in the meantime have more cops with moral authority. Knives are a symptom of wounded lives that need radical surgery not sticking plasters! Dr Andrew Docherty Selkirk IT is time the running sore of Brexit was given the chance to heal. The self-inflicted damage that Brexit has done economically has really only benefitted other countries. The reality of the close interactions between economies and the illusion that one country can stand alone has been exposed. Trump's misguided tariff war has shown clearly just how interdependent even the biggest economy in the world is. Brexit significantly weakened London as a financial centre. Before Brexit the London Stock Exchange was $1.5 TRILLION larger than Paris. Post-Brexit, the Paris region is emerging as the powerhouse of the EU with more than a hundred US-originated companies creating more than 4000 jobs. READ MORE: Experts debunk Nigel Farage claim that scrapping net zero would save £40bn a year The market speculator insiders benefited initially from the UK Brexit upheaval just as Trump's cronies did in the US tariff debacle. The scenario: create confusion, exploit the resulting stock exchange fall, walk away with a large profit and look for another opportunity. The fallout in damaged economies and poorer families is not their concern; their next big profit is. The illusion that Brexit benefitted ordinary people and not the rich speculators is dead. Even Farage has moved on, attempting to ride on Donald Trump's coattails. Is he too a would-be dictator? People within Reform already have their doubts. Andrew Milroy Trowbridge, Kent AS details of the UK-EU trade deal become clearer, the UK Government, even by its own admission, has highlighted that the economic gains resulting from it will be marginal. At a recent meeting of G7 finance ministers in Canada, Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed the deal would add nearly £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040 and boost trade with the EU as Britain's single biggest trading partner. The UK Government estimates that material changes in areas covered, such as fisheries, food and energy, will increase GDP by 0.2% by 2040. Contrasting with this, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that Brexit will reduce the UK's long-term GDP by approximately 4% compared to remaining in the EU. The deal shows the UK clearly moving towards a relationship with the EU that is the worst of both worlds: formally sovereign, yet locked in ongoing negotiations and deeply enmeshed in EU frameworks across the entire economy. Moreover, these conditions also mean the UK can't strike a trade deal with the US involving food and agriculture unless there is no trans-shipment of goods, or unless the EU signs a trade deal with the US that solves this issue. Trade deals with the likes of India, the US and the EU simply limit the immense economic damage of Brexit to the UK economy, rather than bringing any benefits. Alex Orr Edinburgh
Korea Herald
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
N. Korea chides Trump over Gaza, Greenland, ‘Gulf of America' and Panama
North Korea chided US President Donald Trump over his repeatedly stated expansionist ambitions to own the Gaza Strip, purchase Greenland and regain control of the Panama Canal as well as his order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." In a Korean Central News Agency commentary released Wednesday titled 'Oppressive and Ruthless Plunderer— This Is America,' the Kim Jong-un regime on Wednesday criticized Trump's unorthodox foreign policy — notably without once mentioning Trump's name. The KCNA commentary instead rebuked the "current US administration." The commentary stated, "On the 4th, the current United States administration publicly declared that it would take over the Gaza Strip if the Palestinians there were relocated elsewhere," citing Trump's remarks from a Feb. 4 joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The commentary, without naming Trump, condemned his repeated claims over the Gaza Strip as proof of the US intent to "expand a new foothold for its Middle East domination strategy." "The US' innate nature of surviving through slaughter and plunder, along with its hegemonic and aggressive ambition for global domination, is not merely a thing of history but is being clearly demonstrated through today's reality in Gaza," the Korean-language commentary read. 'This is by no means an issue confined to the Gaza Strip." The commentary also listed Trump's expansionist statements, calling for the US to 'immediately stop violating the dignity and sovereignty of other nations and peoples.' 'The current US administration, from the moment it took office, is brazenly committing reckless acts that mock international law and principles without hesitation by having schemed to incorporate Greenland as part of the US, asserted jurisdiction over the Panama Canal and renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America,'' the commentary read. 'The sovereignty, right to self-determination, and territorial integrity of nations and peoples can never be subjects of bargaining or mockery by the US.' The KCNA commentary also appeared on the sixth page of Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party's official newspaper and a key propaganda tool for domestic audiences. North Korea has been issuing statements with greater frequency and intensity, denouncing the US as an imperialist force seeking global dominance through power while reinforcing the perception that strengthening its military and nuclear capabilities is a legitimate response to US-originated threats. During a Feb. 8 visit to the Defense Ministry to mark the 77th anniversary of the Korean People's Army, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said, "The dark shadow of the US, invariably lurking behind conflicts both large and small and bloody ravages around the world today, serves as evidence that our Party and government's policy of pursuing limitless defense capabilities is the most justified." While North Korea's state-run media has repeatedly portrayed the United States as the root of regional and global threats, it has yet to issue any statements directly targeting Trump since his inauguration. The only instance in which North Korea has mentioned Trump's name since his inauguration was in a brief two-line report on the ceremony. Trump has repeatedly boasted about his friendship with Kim Jong-un and expressed openness to meeting him again.
