An American artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Perplexity, has expressed its intention to acquire Google Chrome for $34.5 billion (about 47.8 trillion won), indicating that competition within the AI industry for dominance in the next-generation search market is likely to intensify.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 12th (local time) that Perplexity proposed to Google to acquire Chrome for $34.5 billion. This amount significantly exceeds Perplexity's estimated current corporate value of $18 billion. Perplexity noted that several investors, including a large venture capital fund, agreed to fully support this transaction.
The market estimates the value of Chrome to be between $20 billion and $50 billion.
A U.S. court ruled in August of last year that Google illegally monopolized the online search market and suggested a partitioning plan that included the sale of Chrome as a way to alleviate the monopoly. Google's global search market share is nearly 90%.
Perplexity appears to have revealed its acquisition intentions by leveraging the uncertainty surrounding Google's antitrust lawsuit. The WSJ stated, "Perplexity's proposal may aim to show the court that there are corporations willing to acquire Chrome if a partitioning order including the sale of Chrome is issued."
On the same day, Perplexity explained in a letter to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, that the proposal to acquire Chrome was "to satisfy antitrust remedies that align with the highest level of public interest by entrusting Chrome to a competent and independent operator."
Earlier, an executive from OpenAI said in April that there would be an intention to acquire Chrome if the U.S. court orders the sale of the Google Chrome browser. With the spread of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, there is a trend for AI corporations to strengthen their search functions one after another.
However, Google has no intention of selling Chrome. It has stated that it would appeal if the court forces the sale of Chrome.