In a staggering and unconventional move, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI, led by India-born founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas, has submitted an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser, currently the world’s most widely used web browser with over three billion users.
The bid is more than double Perplexity’s own valuation, which was estimated at around $14 billion to $18 billion as of mid-2025. Perplexity has also pledged to invest an additional $3 billion over the next two years into Chrome’s development, promising to keep its underlying Chromium project open-source and retain Google as the default search engine.
Despite the bold offer, Google has not indicated any willingness to divest Chrome. Industry observers see the move as speculative, and possibly designed to capitalise on mounting U.S. antitrust pressure that could one day force Google to sell.
Some analysts have called the bid a strategic publicity stunt aimed at boosting awareness of Perplexity’s own AI-powered browser, Comet, which offers features like instant video summaries, smart price tracking, and calendar-integrated travel searches.
If the deal ever went through, it could radically reshape the browser landscape by merging Chrome’s market dominance with Perplexity’s AI innovation. However, experts believe Chrome’s true value could be between $20 billion and $50 billion, suggesting the offer may be undervalued.
About Aravind Srinivas
Aravind Srinivas, born on June 7, 1994, in Chennai, India, into a Tamil family, earned dual degrees (B.Tech and M.Tech) in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras before pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Aravind Srinivas co-founded Perplexity AI in 2022 after working at both Google and OpenAI, and under his leadership, the company has secured backing from major tech investors including Jeff Bezos and Nvidia. The recent bid for Google Chrome marks his latest high-profile move to challenge Big Tech, following Perplexity’s earlier proposal to merge with TikTok’s U.S. operations.
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