AI startup Perplexity makes bold $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser

Perplexity AI said it has made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet’s Chrome browser, a low but bold bid that would need financing well above the startup’s own valuation.

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 U.S. concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership.

Buying Chrome would allow the startup to tap the browser’s more than three billion users for an edge in the AI search race as…