Perplexity, Led By Aravind Srinivas, Makes $34.5 Billion Play For Google Chrome

Photo: Ted Talk screenshot

India-West News Desk

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Perplexity AI chief executive Aravind Srinivas has launched an audacious $34.5 billion bid to acquire Google’s Chrome browser, positioning the fast-growing AI startup at the center of one of the tech industry’s biggest potential shake-ups.

The proposed acquisition price is nearly twice Perplexity’s own valuation of $18 billion, but the company says multiple investors have pledged financial backing. The startup, known for its AI-powered search engine and newly launched Comet browser, is seeking to expand aggressively in a market dominated by tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI.

Perplexity’s offer comes as Google faces pressure from a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust ruling recommending the divestiture of Chrome, which the company launched in 2008. Google has criticized the proposal as “wildly overbroad” and has not indicated whether it would consider a sale.

This is not Srinivas’s first big swing. Earlier this year, Perplexity floated a proposal to merge with TikTok, but no agreement materialized.

Srinivas, 31, co-founded Perplexity in 2022 after earning dual electrical engineering degrees from IIT Madras and completing a PhD in computer science at UC Berkeley. Backed by investors including Jeff Bezos, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, and Nvidia, the company has quickly become a rising force in generative AI.