Perplexity’s $34.5B Chrome Bid
An unsolicited offer from Perplexity to acquire Googles Chrome raises immediate questions about antitrust remedies, AI distribution, and who controls the internets primary access point. Perplexity has proposed a $34.5 billion cash acquisition of Chrome and says backers are lined up to fund the deal despite the startups significantly smaller balance sheet and an estimated $18 billion valuation in recent fundraising. The bid includes commitments to keep Chromium open source, invest an additional $3 billion in the codebase, and preserve current user defaults including leaving Google as the default search engine. The timing aligns with a U.S. Department of Justice








