Artificial intelligence firms OpenAI and Perplexity have made significant financial offers to acquire Google’s Chrome web browser, a move driven by Chrome’s massive user base of nearly 3.5 billion people and its dominant market share of approximately 68%. Perplexity AI has publicly proposed more than $34 billion for Chrome, while OpenAI, with greater financial resources, has also expressed strong interest.
Google Chrome’s central role in Google’s business stems from its status as the default browser embedding Google’s search engine, which generates the company’s primary revenue stream. Owning Chrome would grant AI companies direct access to a vast audience and valuable user data, enabling them to better integrate AI functionalities within the web browsing experience seamlessly.
Perplexity’s offer includes commitments to keep Chrome’s underlying Chromium engine open source, preserve user defaults such as Google’s search engine, and invest $3 billion in Chromium development. The company also pledged not to make stealth changes and to support Chrome’s talent pool.
The bids come amid a landmark antitrust lawsuit in which a U.S. federal judge ruled last year that Google illegally maintained its monopoly over online search. Among proposed remedies, the Department of Justice suggested Google might be forced to divest Chrome, although Google has vowed to appeal the ruling and fight any required sale.
AI companies are increasingly interested in web browsers, launching their own AI-powered browsers to compete with Chrome. However, surpassing Chrome’s market dominance remains a substantial challenge.
If compelled by courts to sell Chrome, Google is likely to resist vigorously, possibly appealing to maintain control. The outcome of this unprecedented legal battle could reshape the future of web browsing and AI’s integration into everyday internet use.