The US Department of Justice wants to send ripples through the tech world, and it could do so as soon as this month.
For those unaware, the DOJ wants Google to divest Chrome, a move that it believes would foster more competition in the browser market and put an end to the tech giant’s ‘illegal’ search monopoly. US District Judge Amit P. Mehta is expected to issue remedies to Google sometime in the coming days, and they could include forcing the tech giant to sell off Chrome.
If forced to divest, there are several companies looking to pounce, including the likes of Yahoo, OpenAI, Perplexity, and more, and one of them just put through an unsolicited bid.
Perplexity, as confirmed by Bloomberg, has made a formal offer to Google to acquire the Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. As of July 2025, Perplexity itself was valued at less than half of that — $18 billion, to be precise, which means it’ll need external financing to close the massive deal.
A long road ahead
Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko confirmed that “Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full.”
If the deal does eventually go through, Perplexity doesn’t aim to make any significant changes to the browser. According to a term sheet seen by Reuters, Perplexity will keep the underlying Chromium open source, make no changes to Chrome’s default search engine, and invest roughly $3 billion into the browser over the next two years. Additionally, the company aims to “extend offers” to a substantial portion of Chrome’s current employees.
For what it’s worth, even if Judge Amit P. Mehta forces the tech giant to divest Chrome, it wouldn’t happen all of a sudden (unless Google actually wants Chrome off its hands). The tech giant will most likely appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals. If unsuccessful again, Google could then take the case to the US Supreme Court. The entire process could drag on for several years, potentially well into the end of the decade.
