Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers – it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve US concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
Buying Chrome would allow the start-up to tap the browser’s more than 3 billion users for an edge in the AI search race as regulatory pressure threatens Google’s grip on the industry.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has not offered Chrome for sale and plans to appeal a US 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 planned to fund the offer. The three-year-old company has raised around US$1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan’s SoftBank Group. It was last valued at US$14 billion.