Perplexity, a firm focused on artificial intelligence development, made a surprise today by bidding to take over the Google Chrome web browser at a value of $34.5 billion. What is strange about this bid is that the bid value is higher than the entire value of the company itself, which is estimated at around $14 billion.
Previously, US authorities have been discussing Google, and also looking at the possibility of breaking up several business components within Google to avoid monopoly. The final decision for it is awaited, and of course Google itself will fight any decision that is not in their favor.
Google Chrome is now one of the web browsers used by many people around the world. Previously, the Google Chrome part itself was estimated to be worth over $50 billion. Several parties have expressed their desire to acquire the popular web browser, including OpenAI and Yahoo.
With the development of the artificial intelligence arena, many are now looking to dominate the web browser arena, allowing various artificial intelligence agents to run easily and perform a number of tasks. Perplexity itself already has its own web browser available to paying customers, called Comet.
It is currently unknown whether Perplexity will have the funding and backing to take over Google Chrome or vice versa. The artificial intelligence-focused firm has previously tried to bid for TikTok in the United States.