Perplexity AI’s audacious offer led by Aravind Srinivas signals rising ambitions in the AI race, but experts doubt Google will part with its flagship browser.
Bengaluru, NFAPost: In a move that has stunned Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike, Perplexity AI, the three-year-old conversational search startup founded by Indian-origin CEO Aravind Srinivas, has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash bid to acquire Google Chrome. If successful, the deal would mark one of the most dramatic shake-ups in the technology industry since the rise of generative AI.
The bid, first reported by Reuters, comes as Google faces mounting regulatory heat in the United States. The Department of Justice recently won a landmark antitrust case against the company, with a court ruling that Google unlawfully maintained its monopoly in search. Remedies under consideration include a forced divestiture of Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser with more than three billion users.
“This is about preserving user choice while ensuring innovation in the AI era,” Perplexity said in a statement outlining its offer. The company pledged to keep Chromium open-source, invest $3 billion into Chrome over two years, and retain Google as the default search engine—a move clearly aimed at easing antitrust concerns.
An audacious bid
Perplexity, which was last valued at $14 billion, has raised about $1 billion from marquee backers such as Nvidia and SoftBank. The $34.5 billion bid—more than double its valuation—would be financed through external investors, though the company has not disclosed names.
Industry insiders describe the move as audacious. “Chrome is not just a browser for Google—it’s a gateway to its AI strategy, ad ecosystem, and global dominance,” said an analyst at Bernstein. “Selling Chrome would be like selling the crown jewels.”
Some rivals, including OpenAI, Yahoo, and Apollo Global Management, have also shown interest in Chrome should regulators force a divestment. DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg has gone on record estimating Chrome’s value at no less than $50 billion.
A Chennai-born disruptor
At the center of this bold play is Aravind Srinivas, a Chennai-born graduate of IIT Madras. Before launching Perplexity in San Francisco in 2022, Srinivas worked at Google and interned with deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio.
Under his leadership, Perplexity has carved out a niche with its conversational AI-powered search engine, delivering cited answers in real time—a direct challenge to both Google and OpenAI. The startup recently launched Comet, an AI-driven browser, and struck a partnership with Bharti Airtel in May 2025 to give its 360 million Indian customers free access to Perplexity Pro.
“Acquiring Chrome would instantly give us a user base of over three billion, allowing us to scale AI-driven search in a way no startup ever has,” Srinivas said at a recent investor briefing.
Google unlikely to sell
Despite the regulatory backdrop, experts are sceptical. Chrome remains deeply embedded in Google’s ecosystem, powering not just web access but also the company’s ongoing AI rollout—including “Overviews,” its AI-generated search summaries.
“Even if regulators force a divestiture, Google will fight tooth and nail, likely all the way to the Supreme Court,” said a Washington-based antitrust lawyer. “The timeline for any sale, if it ever happens, could stretch years.”
For now, Perplexity’s bid underscores the high stakes of the AI race, where the battle is no longer just about building smarter models but about controlling distribution platforms at scale.
As one Silicon Valley investor put it: “In AI, whoever controls the gateway to the internet controls the future. Srinivas understands that better than most.”
