Perplexity AI, a San Francisco-based startup backed by Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), SoftBank, and Jeff Bezos, has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion cash offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser, one of the most widely used internet tools in the world, Bloomberg reports.
The offer, sent Tuesday morning, comes as U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to rule in the coming days on remedies in the government’s case against Google, which could include requiring Chrome to be divested to open the search market to competition.
Perplexity’s offer stands more than $14 billion above the $20 billion valuation the startup is seeking in its new fundraise, up from $18 billion last month, according to Business Insider. The company launched in 2022 and pairs large‑language models with web search to deliver real‑time answers.
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Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko told Bloomberg that “multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full,” though the firms were not named.
Bloomberg reports the bid has no equity component, pledges to keep the Chromium code open source, commits $3 billion of investment over two years, and would leave Chrome’s default search engine unchanged.
Despite Perplexity’s bold move, Bloomberg says some industry analysts believe the offer undervalues Chrome significantly. Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Colin Sebastian says the bid “should not be taken seriously” since it “vastly undervalues the asset.” He estimates the browser’s value closer to $100 billion and said a forced spinoff is “unlikely given the potential harm to users through lower-quality and less reliable products.”
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The Department of Justice has argued that Google illegally monopolized the search market and proposed remedies that include a Chrome divestiture and licensing search data to competitors, as U.S. regulators push for remedies in a landmark antitrust case against Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)). However, Reuters says legal experts caution that even if Judge Mehta orders a sale, appeals could delay the process for years.