This is the second major offer AI startup has made to buy key assets this year. In January, I offered to buy a Tiktok.
Perplexity AI said it has made an unsolicited all-cash offer of $34.5 billion to Alphabet’s Google Chrome browser.
The agreement requires funding beyond the recently reported $18 billion startup, if Alphabet agrees to it.
If approved by a startup that bought Chrome almost three years ago, it would allow over 3 billion users to access the company as regulatory pressures place a greater emphasis on Google’s management of the tech industry.
Confusion did not say how the offer would be funded on Tuesday, but raised $1 billion in funding from investors such as SoftBank and semiconductor chip giant Nvidia.
Reuters has said that if Alphabet accepts it, some funds will fully fund the contract.
Alphabet has not offered to sell Chrome and plans to appeal a US court ruling that states that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the online search market. The U.S. Department of Justice says the sale of chrome will help improve the case. The federal judge is expected to govern the case’s relief package later this month.
Web browsers as important gateways
When a new generation of users rely on chatbots like ChatGpt and confusion, web browsers have revived prominently as key gateways for searching for traffic and precious user data, making it the center of Big Tech’s AI ambitions.
Perplexity already has Comet, an AI browser that can perform certain tasks on behalf of a user. When you buy Chrome, you can tap over 3 billion users on your browser, giving you weight to compete better with bigger rivals like Openai. ChatGpt’s parents also work with their own AI browser.
Perplexity, run by CEO Aravind Srinivas, says it keeps the browser’s code open source and does not make any changes to the default search engine, according to Reuters.
The San Francisco-based startup is far from the only company that has expressed interest in Google Chrome. Openai, the owner of ChatGpt, has also expressed interest, similar to Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm based in Yahoo and New York.
It’s not the first eye-catching bid from this year’s AI startup. In January, Perplexity AI offered to buy Tiktok after regulators called for Chinese-owned apps to be sold to US companies. The White House delayed the ban several times. The latest delays were announced in late June.
Neither Google nor Prplexity responded immediately to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
On Wall Street, Alphabet’s stock price has risen 1.4% since the market was opened. Potential funder Nvidia is relatively flat, with an increase of only about 0.1%. However, SoftBank has grown by more than 6.9% as of 1pm (17:00 GMT) in New York. Perplexity is not a publicly available company.
