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In the wake of its big antitrust loss, Google could soon find itself forced to sell one of its crown jewels. Among the government's proposed remedies in the search case is a requirement that Google divest its market-leading Chrome browser, and Perplexity is already throwing its proverbial hat into the ring with a whopping $34.5 billion offer. The problem, however, is that Perplexity doesn't have nearly that much cash.

Perplexity has ridden the AI hype wave, with its AI-powered search appearing on smartphones and in the company's custom Comet browser. Like any company offering an AI product, investors have been happy to throw money at Perplexity, totaling around $1 billion so far. Investors value the company at about $14 billion right now. So how does Perplexity have more than twice that to buy Chrome? That's the neat part—it doesn't.

There is so much capital floating around in the artificial intelligence sphere currently that even a cash-poor firm like Perplexity can secure enough investment to splurge on Chrome. Reuters reports that the all-cash offer is funded by various venture funds, but Perplexity has not offered specifics.

Throughout the remedy trial this past spring, a cavalcade of Google competitors took the stand to express interest in buying Chrome. For example, an OpenAI executive pledged to turn Chrome into an AI-first experience if that firm were able to acquire it. This testimony undercut Google's claim that no one in the industry would be able to manage the browser.

Google has strenuously objected to the government's proposed Chrome divestment, which it calls "a radical interventionist agenda." Chrome isn't just a browser—it's an open source project known as Chromium, which powers numerous non-Google browsers, including Microsoft's Edge. Perplexity's offer includes $3 billion to run Chromium over two years, and it allegedly vows to keep the project fully open source. Perplexity promises it also won't enforce changes to the browser's default search engine.

An unsolicited offer

We're currently waiting on United States District Court Judge Amit Mehta to rule on remedies in the case. That could happen as soon as this month. Perplexity's offer, therefore, is somewhat timely, but there could still be a long road ahead.

This is an unsolicited offer, and there's no indication that Google will jump at the chance to sell Chrome as soon as the ruling drops. Even if the court decides that Google should sell, it can probably get much, much more than Perplexity is offering. During the trial, DuckDuckGo's CEO suggested a price of around $50 billion, but other estimates have ranged into the hundreds of billions. However, the data that flows to Chrome's owner could be vital in building new AI technologies—any sale price is likely to be a net loss for Google.

If Mehta decides to force a sale, there will undoubtedly be legal challenges that could take months or years to resolve. Should these maneuvers fail, there's likely to be opposition to any potential buyer. There will be many users who don't like the idea of an AI startup or an unholy alliance of venture capital firms owning Chrome. Google has been hoovering up user data with Chrome for years—but that's the devil we know.