Perplexity makes unsolicited $34.5B offer to buy Google's Chrome browser
Aug 7, 2025
Key Points
- Perplexity, valued at $18 billion, makes unsolicited $34.5 billion offer for Google's Chrome browser, signaling to the court that a buyer exists should antitrust-ordered divestiture occur.
- Perplexity's own Comet browser apparently isn't gaining traction fast enough, exposing that even better products cannot overcome Chrome's distribution dominance in a winner-take-all search market.
- Polymarket odds on the deal completing in 2025 collapsed to 3% within hours, reflecting the offer's near-zero probability and the uncertainty of whether divestiture would remain relevant as AI search alternatives reshape competition.
Summary
Perplexity, valued at $18 billion, made an unsolicited offer to buy Google's Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. The offer came as a federal judge weighs whether to force Google to divest Chrome as a remedy in the government's antitrust case. Perplexity's move could signal to the court that a willing buyer exists should divestiture be ordered.
Chrome has 3.5 billion users worldwide and accounts for more than 60% of the global browser market. Valuations of Chrome's standalone value range from $20 billion to $50 billion, though those estimates may be low. Google pays Apple roughly $20 billion annually for default search placement on Safari, suggesting Chrome's search revenue alone could support a much higher price.
Perplexity promised to keep Google as Chrome's default search engine, maintain and support the open-source Chromium project, and allow users to change settings. Google has argued that forced divestiture or data-sharing would harm its business, deter investment, and create security risks. The company is unlikely to abandon that position.
The offer reveals a starker reality: Perplexity's own browser, Comet, which launched recently with CEO Aravind Srinivas calling it a critical bet for the company, apparently isn't gaining traction fast enough. The company appears to be signaling that even a better product cannot overcome Chrome's distribution advantage. Search feels like a winner-take-all market, and Perplexity, despite claiming 30 million monthly active users, has negligible share of total queries. ChatGPT remains the dominant AI chat interface, and consumer adoption tends to concentrate around a single winner.
Polymarket odds on the acquisition happening in 2025 opened at 34% when the news dropped and fell to 3% within hours, a market-driven verdict that the deal has roughly zero probability.
The underlying problem is timing. Google has dominated search for two decades, but the competitive threat now comes from AI-powered alternatives like Perplexity and ChatGPT, not from Chrome divested to a different owner. By the time a forced sale could be executed, the competitive dynamics may have already shifted beyond the remedy's relevance.