Perplexity wants to buy Chrome if Google has to sell it

Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said he didn’t want to testify in a trial about how to resolve Google’s search monopoly because he feared retribution from Google. But after being subpoenaed to appear in court, he seized the moment to pitch a business opportunity for his AI company: buying Chrome.

If Judge Amit Mehta sees things the way the Justice Department does, he could force Google to spin out its popular web browser – including the free open source Chromium browser that many other web browsers are built on. Google says this remedy is playing with fire, and could result in a new Chromium owner charging for the product or failing to keep it running in an adequate way, causing ripple effects across the browser industry.

But Perplexity would be happy to take on the project, Shevelenko testified. When an attorney asked if Perplexity believes anyone besides Google could run a browser at the scale of Chrome without diminishing its quality or charging for it, Shevelenko responded, “I think we could do it.”

It’s not the first time the AI upstart has put its name in the ring to take over a major technology platform under siege …read more