Perplexity Offers to Buy Chrome from Google for $34.5 Billion

AI startup Perplexity formally offered Google $34.5 billion today to acquire its Chrome web browser and Chromium web browser project. The offer is the mid-point of the product’s estimated $20 billion to $50 billion valuation.

Perplexity, which is valued at just $18 billion after a recent funding round, says it will pay for the acquisition with the help of outside investors. “Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full,” the company claims.

Google has said that it is against divesting itself of Chrome, though it may be required to do so if its appeal of the stunning U.S. v. Google verdict is denied: In August 2024, U.S. district court judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google owns an illegal monopoly in online search, and in March 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice formally requested that Google be forced to sell Chrome because it’s a primary vector of its illegal business practices.

Google is appealing the verdict. But Perplexity is sending a message to judge Mehta that, should he order the divestment, it would not only carry forward with Chrome–which would presumably replace its Chromium-based Comet web browser–but will also invest over $3 billion over the next two years to update both Chrome and Chromium and “extend offers to a substantial portion of Chrome talent.”

Chrome has over 3.5 billion monthly active users and currently dominates the desktop and mobile web browser markets with 70 percent and 67 percent usage share, respectively. OpenAI has also expressed interest in acquiring Chrome, and it has said separately that intends to release its own (presumably Chromium-based) web browser soon.

Judge Mehta said that he would need one year to arrive at a final remedy in U.S. v. Google, so that decision could come at any time: We passed the one-year mark from his initial ruling last week.