The Perplexity app on the Apple App Store smartphone located in Washington DC, Washington DC, USA on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Artificial Intelligence Startup Confusing AI has placed an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid Google’s Chrome browser, CNBC, was confirmed on Tuesday.
The figure is higher than Perplexity’s current rating, but the company said it has agreed that several investors would support the transaction. In July, the confusion was valued at $18 billion as part of an extension valued at the company $14 billion ago.
Google did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Wall Street Journal first reported the bid.
Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that provides a simple answer for users to ask questions or link to original source materials on the web. Last month, we launched our own AI-equipped browser called Comet.
Startups are in the midst of a fight for advantage in the generation AI, Meta Openai offers large pay and signs bonuses to top engineers. While Megacap Tech companies spend tens of millions of dollars a year on AI infrastructure to build large language models and run large workloads, startups must raise billions of dollars from venture investors, hedge funds and tech giants to pay for the hardware and personnel they need to compete.
Confusion was approached by Meta earlier this year for acquisition, but the company did not finalize the transaction.
The Perplexity bid comes after the US Department of Justice proposed Google Divest Chrome as part of the antitrust law that the company lost last year. A judge in the case ruled that Google holds an illegal monopoly in the core markets of internet search.
In response, Google said the DOJ is pushing for a “radical interventionist agenda” and that the agency’s proposals are “too broad.” The company has yet to disclose plans to coordinate its business following the antitrust ruling.
Released by Google in 2008, Chrome provides data to search giants and uses it to target ads. DOJ said in a filing following the court’s decision by forcing the company to remove Chrome would create a more level playing field for search competitors.
“To ameliorate these harms (the first proposed final decision) requires Google to sell Chrome, which will permanently shut down this important search access point and allow rival search engines to access browsers, a gateway to the internet for many users,” DOJ writes.
Perplexity’s bid for Chrome is not the first time it has made a big swing.
The startup submitted a proposal in January to merge with the short video app Tiktok. Tiktok’s future in the US has been uncertain since 2024, when Congress passed a bill banning the platform unless a Chinese non-owner ordinance is then sold.
As of August, the structure of the Tiktok transaction proposed by Perplexity has not been realized.
