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We all know the usual story: a scrappy startup challenges a tech giant, gains traction, then gets bought out by the very company it threatened.
Perplexity flipped that script last week – almost. It offered to buy Chrome from Google for US$34.5 billion.
Last year, the US Department of Justice said that Google should divest its Chrome browser to address the company’s “illegal monopoly” in online search.
The startup co-founded by Indian AI scientist Aravind Srinivas stunned Silicon Valley as Perplexity itself is worth just about US$18 billion.
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Whatever its rationale, the bid makes me think that web browsers could become Big Tech’s next battleground – again.
Perplexity recently launched its own browser called Comet, which is not yet publicly available to all users. It’s the closest I’ve seen to a Jarvis-like AI agent. I just speak, and it takes over – scrolling and summarizing my newsfeed, accepting connection requests – without me touching a mouse.
That said, Google isn’t about to let Perplexity or anyone else topple Chrome anytime soon. The browser is one of Google’s strongest moats, locking in its lead in search, and giving it oceans of user data to fuel its dominance in ads.
With the stakes so high, other major players want to win the new browser war. OpenAI is building its own AI-powered browser, while Microsoft has already packed Copilot into Edge.
Google has ruled search and browsers for so long that we see it as the default. It’ll be interesting to see if the AI era finally shakes that up.
Apart from Perplexity’s unusual and unsolicited bid, this issue also features Sourcy’s profile, Southeast Asian founders’ takes on GPT-5, why ChatGPT may soon run ads, and China’s failed bid to ditch Nvidia chips.
Have a great week – and keep getting better with AI.
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