Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer to acquire Google’s Chrome browser, in a move that could reshape the internet search and browsing landscape.

The bid, confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday, is more than Perplexity’s own $18 billion valuation but is backed by a group of venture investors willing to finance the deal. The Wall Street Journal first reported the offer.

Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that delivers concise answers and links to original sources, and last month it launched its own AI browser, Comet. The company’s audacious approach to dealmaking is not new — earlier this year, it proposed a merger with TikTok, though that plan never materialised.

The timing of the Chrome bid is no accident. It comes after the U.S. Department of Justice proposed that Google be forced to divest Chrome following the tech giant’s loss in an antitrust case last year. The court ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in internet search, and the DOJ argued that selling Chrome would give rival search engines better access to users.

In its filing, the DOJ described Chrome as “a critical search access point” and said divesting it would “permanently stop Google’s control” over that gateway. Google has called the proposal “wildly overbroad” and accused the DOJ of pursuing “a radical interventionist agenda.”

Chrome, launched in 2008, is the world’s most popular web browser and a major source of user data for Google’s ad-targeting business. Losing it would significantly alter Google’s market dominance, creating an opening for competitors like Perplexity, Meta, and Microsoft.

Perplexity’s offer, if successful, would instantly give the startup a dominant position in browser distribution and access to hundreds of millions of users. Industry analysts say it would also supercharge Perplexity’s AI search ambitions, integrating its technology directly into one of the most widely used gateways to the internet.

Perplexity’s aggressive bid underlines the intensifying competition in the generative AI space, where tech giants and well-funded startups are racing to secure strategic advantages. Whether Google is willing — or compelled — to entertain the offer remains to be seen.