Artificial-intelligence startup Perplexity on Tuesday offered to purchase Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion as it works to challenge the tech giant’s web-search dominance. Perplexity’s offer is significantly more than its own valuation, which is estimated at $18 billion. The company told The Wall Street Journal that several investors including large venture-capital funds had agreed to back the transaction in full. Estimates of Chrome’s enterprise value vary widely but recent ones have ranged from $20 billion to $50 billion. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is weighing whether to force Google to sell the browser as a means of weakening Google’s stranglehold on web search. Mehta last year ruled that Google illegally monopolized the search market and is expected to rule this month on how to restore competition. The Perplexity offer could be an attempt to signal to the judge that there is an interested buyer, should he force a sale. In a letter to Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet GOOGL 1.11%increase; green up pointing triangle, Perplexity said its offer to buy Chrome is “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator.” Google hasn’t indicated a willingness to sell Chrome. In testimony this year, Pichai told the judge that forcing the company to sell it or share data with rivals would harm Google’s business, deter it from investing in new technology and potentially create security risks. Chrome has roughly 3.5 billion users worldwide and accounts for more than 60% of the global browser market.

Full exclusive : Perplexity offers to acquire Chrome for $34.5 billion, significantly more than Perplexity’s estimated $18B valuation, and says large VC funds agreed to back the deal.