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San Francisco: Perplexity AI offered Google on Tuesday $34.5 billion for its popular Chrome web browser, which the internet giant could potentially be forced to sell as part of antitrust proceedings.The whopping sum proposed in a letter of intent by Perplexity is nearly double the value of the startup, which was reportedly $18 billion in a recent funding round. »This proposal is designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator focused on continuity, openness, and consumer protection », Perplexity chief executive Aravind Srinivas said in the letter, a copy of which was seen by AFP.Google is awaiting US District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling on what « remedies » to impose, following a landmark decision last year that said the tech titan maintained an illegal monopoly in online search.US government attorneys have called for Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser, contending that artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant’s dominance as the go-to window into the internet.
