How Do You Buy Chrome With Half the Money? My Breakdown

Delve into the recent attempt to buy Chrome for far more than its worth and the questions it raises in the tech world.

Mélony Qin Published on October 2, 2025

What if I told you that a $18 billion startup had just tried to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion? That’s right ! A startup barely three years old attempted to acquire one of the most valuable products on the internet for almost twice its own valuation.

Sounds like a headline from The Onion, right? Except it actually happened.

And the startup behind this wild move is none other than Perplexity AI : the rising star in the AI search engine space, backed by Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and other Silicon Valley heavyweights.

They have made an audacious offer to acquire Chrome lit up the internet a few weeks ago, leaving many people asking the same question: was this a serious move… or the boldest PR stunt of the decade?

Let’s unpack the story: what Perplexity actually proposed, why Chrome is so valuable, and what this “magical offer” tells us about the AI search wars.

The truth about valuation

As a part of my executive education, I learned an important lesson at Harvard Business School: Valuation isn’t the same as a company’s real value.

You see, a billion-dollar valuation doesn’t mean someone would actually pay a billion for the company today. It’s more of a bet on the future. If a $1B-valued company were to sell now, the price would depend on what it has really built: its user base, revenue, growth, licensed technology, Intellectual properties (IPs), contracts, and other tangible assets (and let’s not forget its liabilities).

In fact, business has been quite challenging in the past: $10M in sales equals a $10M valuation. If you’ve watched Shark Tank before, you know the drill: founders walk in, investors multiply revenue by 1x or 2x, maybe more if the story’s great.

If we take a look at the smartphone startup: Nothing. They just closed a $200M Series C led by Tiger Global in September 2025, hitting a $1.3B valuation. Sounds wild until you realize they crossed $1B in total sales earlier this year. Sales is a solid proof !

The AI startup world doesn’t always follow those rules. In 2025, Mistral AI raised $1.2B at a $6B valuation, but their revenue is only about $60M, that’s roughly a 100× multiple. That’s not “Shark Tank math”! AI startup valuation isn’t tied to the past sales, but to the promise of what AI might become in the future. So yes, the AI bubble is very real. AI itself is a hard sell, yet many have already failed and I have analysed the reason of those failures, you can read the part 1 here and part 2 here.

Now that valuations aren’t about revenue or polished business models. They’re about leverage, narrative, and network effects. That’s a game that VCs are playing.

Perplexity: The $18B Startup That Dares to Dream

So, let’s talk about Perplexity itself.

Founded just three years ago, Perplexity has quickly grown into one of the hottest AI startups on the planet. Its pitch? A search engine for the AI era. Instead of giving you a bunch of blue links like Google, it gives you direct, conversational answers, sourced from across the web.

They’ve positioned themselves as the “AI-powered answer engine,” combining the speed of traditional search with the depth of generative AI. Think ChatGPT meets Google Search.

And it’s not just search anymore. Earlier this year, Perplexity launched its own browser called Comet. While still small compared to Chrome or Safari, Comet is meant to show off how a browser designed around AI could change how we consume information.

With a fresh valuation of $18 billion and backing from some of the deepest pockets in tech, Perplexity has ambition to spare. But ambition is one thing. Offering $34.5 billion to buy Chrome? That’s another level.

The Magical Offer: $34.5 Billion for Chrome

Here’s what happened.

In early September 2025, Perplexity publicly floated an acquisition offer of $34.5 billion to purchase Google’s Chrome browser. For context: Chrome is not just a product. It’s the most popular web browser in the world, with over 3.2 billion users. That’s more than the entire user base of iOS and Windows combined.

Chrome isn’t just how people browse. It’s how Google controls the gateway to the web — and funnels traffic back into Google Search and Google Ads. It’s the glue holding together massive chunks of Google’s empire.

So why would Perplexity even try?