Google Gets $35 Billion Offer for Chrome as AI Browser Fight Escalates
Search.com has entered the race to accumulate Google Chrome, topping Perplexity AI’s $34.5 billion bid with a $35 billion counteroffer backed by JPMorgan Chase and a consortium of personal fairness corporations.
The $500 million transfer intensifies a high-stakes battle over the way forward for net looking and AI search, as extra challengers place themselves to take management of the world’s most-used browser.
“We see this as each offense and protection,” Melissa Anderson, president of Public Good, which owns Search.com, advised Decrypt. “Buying Chrome offers us the dimensions to speed up adoption of our AI search platform—and a direct connection to customers.”
The U.S. Division of Justice sued Google in 2020, alleging it illegally dominates search and promoting. In April, a federal courtroom dominated Google had monopolized the digital advert market. Chrome accounts for about 65% of worldwide browser use, however a March 2025 Wharton report estimated Google’s management of search visitors at practically 90%.
On Tuesday, Perplexity AI submitted its $34.5 billion proposal, positioning the deal as a option to protect an open-source net and counter Huge Tech’s grip on browser infrastructure. Unnamed institutional buyers again that supply.
Each Search.com and Perplexity are framing their bids as treatments to that dominance. For Search.com, nevertheless, the acquisition is about greater than infrastructure—it’s about entry.
“Google and Bing management the lion’s share of search,” Danny Bibi, CEO of Public Good’s dad or mum firm Advert.com, added. “For us to catapult development and supply true incremental visitors, Chrome is the entry level. That’s the gateway.”
Search.com is a division of Public Good, itself owned by advert.com, a digital advert community based in 1993. The corporate estimates it brings in $300 million to $400 million yearly by way of promoting, and believes proudly owning Chrome might push that into the billions.
Search.com’s bid matches the construction of Perplexity’s provide—together with Chrome’s codebase, logos, infrastructure, and consumer information—however provides user-focused perks: ad-free looking, cashback for searches, and a 60% revenue-share mannequin for publishers.
“It’s a part of our dedication to moral AI—we’re not scraping content material with out compensation,” Anderson mentioned. “We wish to help journalism, and we provide a 60% advert income share to the publishers who contribute content material.”
AI Arms Race Involves the Browser
The bids land as AI options grow to be key options within the browser market. Microsoft has added Copilot Mode to Edge. Courageous consists of the Leo assistant. Opera runs on Google’s Gemini and is testing a next-gen browser known as Neon. An OpenAI-built browser is rumored to be in growth.
Search.com, which unveiled a generative AI platform earlier this month, says Chrome would function the spine for what it calls “a platform constructed for public curiosity, not simply revenue.”
“Everybody ought to have free, equitable entry to data,” Anderson mentioned. “We wish to ship that whereas conserving publishers paid and shoppers in management.”
Google has not publicly responded to both proposal. In accordance with Anderson and Abibi, the corporate has acquired Search.com’s provide.
With two competing bids on the desk, the way forward for Chrome—and the position of AI within the browser house—is now firmly in play.
“We’ve put a stake within the floor,” Abibi mentioned. “It’s now as much as them.”
Perplexity didn’t reply to Decrypt’s request for remark.
