STORY: Perplexity AI made a $34.5 billion all-cash offer for Alphabet’s Chrome browser on Tuesday.
A bid far above its own valuation.
The startup is reaching for the browser’s billions of users pivotal to the AI search race.
Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers: it made a similar one for TikTok US in January.
It offered to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
OpenAI, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome.
That’s as regulatory pressure threatens Google’s grip on the industry.
Google did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The company has not offered up Chrome for sale.
And also plans to appeal a U.S. court ruling last year that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search.
The Justice Department has sought a Chrome divestiture as part of the case’s remedies.
Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer.
The three-year-old company has raised around $1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank.
It was last valued at $14 billion.
