Perplexity Bids $34.5 Billion for Chrome: A Very Public Power Play
On August 12, 2025, Perplexity — itself worth a fraction of the price — made an unsolicited all-cash offer for Google Chrome amid the antitrust remedies fight.
Per Reuters and CNBC, on August 12, 2025 AI search company Perplexity made an unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer for Google's Chrome browser — a bid far above its own valuation at the time.
The timing was pointed: a U.S. court was weighing remedies in the Google search monopoly case, with a Chrome divestiture on the table. The bid was widely read as courtroom-and-headlines positioning: even if it never closed, it nailed Perplexity to the 'Chrome alternative' spot in the public mind.
The court ultimately did not force a Chrome divestiture, but the gambit successfully hyped Perplexity's own Comet browser — in the AI gateway war, attention itself is an asset.
This article aggregates official announcements and public reporting; original sources are linked below.
Source:路透社