Perplexity shocked both Silicon Valley and Wall Street this week after the Wall Street Journal reported on the AI startup’s unsolicited $34.5 billion all-cash offer to buy Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser. The move comes just weeks after Perplexity launched its own AI-powered Comet browser, and as a federal judge considers whether Google must divest Chrome after the tech giant lost a landmark antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice.

Comet, which Perplexity tells Fortune will become available for all Perplexity Pro users starting Wednesday, has several advantages over Chrome. Unlike Google’s web browser, where most AI features arrive via add-ons or extensions, Comet’s AI assistant is always present, staying in the top-right corner of your browser window. It can summarize content instantly, compare information across tabs (a huge time-saver for shopping), automate workflows (booking meetings, sending emails, etc.), remind you about events, and much more. Chrome only recently added limited AI features like Gemini, the Google Lens sidebar, and “tab compare,” but these remain add-ons and do not offer end-to-end automation or context tracking like Comet’s agentic AI.

Comet feels poised to transform browsing as we know it into more of a conversational experience, where you interact with your browser to move as fast as your brain allows. But Perplexity’s blockbuster move this week raises an important question: If Perplexity absorbs Chrome, could it become the next Google?

Perplexity’s play? Going beyond ‘search’

Thomas Grange, cofounder and chief innovation officer at AI-search optimization platform Botify, says “There won’t be a ‘next Google.’”

“The game has changed,” he tells Fortune. “What’s emerging from the blend of AI search and traditional browsers isn’t just a faster search engine, it’s an entirely new hyper-personalized, context-aware, and conversational way of finding information.”

Grange says the promise of AI search engines is having AI agents act on behalf of users, interacting with other agents and transforming web browsing into something much more efficient and automated. Perplexity’s Comet browser, which debuted last month and is rolling out to all Pro users starting this week, exemplifies this shift. Unlike traditional browsers, Comet puts an AI answer engine at the heart of its interface, allowing users to ask questions and get direct answers rather than having to wade through a list of links. Above all, the assistant can act on behalf of users—aiming to make browsing less about navigation and more about productivity.

Usha Haley, Wichita State University professor and Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business, says Perplexity’s bid for Chrome “looks far less audacious once you try Comet.”

“A persistent AI assistant that can operate on any web page changes the web from a place to navigate to one that works for you. Adding Chrome’s massive user base and browser dominance could give Perplexity a once-in-a-generation leap in distribution,” she tells Fortune. But, she notes, “the next Google presents a very high bar.”

But while Perplexity can buy part of Google’s ecosystem (Chrome), scaling to Google’s level of infrastructure, reach, and trust will be extremely challenging. “AI-powered browsers do well at some limited tasks. But the road from wow demo to everyday habit is long and winding,” she says.

Redefining how we use the internet

Joshua McKenty, former NASA architect and CEO of cybersecurity company Polyguard, tells Fortune: “The acquisition of Chrome by any player, but especially by a major AI player, is extremely significant.

“Chrome represents one of the most powerful sources of new training data in existence—especially if it is decoupled from the Google login experience,” he adds. “The browser is the only scraping method that can travel behind every log-in and every firewall to index … literally everything.”

Of course, not everyone is convinced Perplexity will become the next Google—or that it would even be allowed to have Chrome. Ari Paparo, a former Google executive, tells Fortune, “We need to understand that the DOJ and the courts are not going to blindly empower a new monopoly just to replace the one they are breaking up.

“AI is both hungry for the data a web browser accesses, but also becomes more useful to the consumer as it has the context of what they are doing,” Paparo says. “Whether it is Perplexity, OpenAI, or one of the legacy tech giants that ends up as an owner of Chrome, it will be a huge change in the ecosystem.”

Haley also highlights privacy and reliability as key challenges as scale, reliability, and user trust are critical for any challenger of Google to move beyond a “wow demo” moment. But Eric Vaughan, CEO of the AI-focused enterprise-software company IgniteTech, says Perplexity can win by “eliminating the concept of search entirely.”

“The real disruption here is less about improving search results and more about bypassing websites altogether,” he tells Fortune.

For Perplexity, owning Chrome, should regulators allow it to happen, would mean immediate access to billions of daily users, copious behavioral data, and the distribution muscle to push itself to the forefront of the AI race.

What happens next?

Perplexity, which is backed by Nvidia and SoftBank, among others, says funding is available, but its offer for Chrome undoubtedly faces major regulatory, financial, and technical hurdles. To be blunt, Perplexity’s offer for Chrome is a long shot. (For one thing, Google parent Alphabet isn’t willingly selling.) The San Francisco–based startup has only a tiny fraction of the number of users that Google has, and an infinitesimal share of its revenue.

What’s more, rivals in the AI space are working on their own AI web browsers. Microsoft’s Edge browser now has Copilot Mode, which, like Perplexity’s Comet, can see and analyze open tabs, execute autonomous tasks such as booking reservations, respond to voice commands, summarize content in real time, and more—but notably, it’s free and tightly integrated with Microsoft’s ecosystem. OpenAI, the leader in AI, is close to releasing its own AI-powered browser, designed to keep user interactions within a ChatGPT-like interface and leveraging its 500 million weekly active users to challenge Chrome’s dominance. But Perplexity’s original AI-based search tool has already been credited by many in tech with pressuring its rivals like Google to upgrade and rethink their own approach to search.

Whether or not a Perplexity-Chrome tie-up actually happens, the emergence of AI-powered browsers has set the stage for profound industry change. Barry Lowenthal, president of AI-powered ads company Inuvo, says, “Google has been the default search engine for so long it is practically a reflex, but AI-powered search tools like Perplexity are changing that equation.

“If Chrome joins the mix, the potential reach and usability skyrocket,” he tells Fortune. “But becoming the next Google is not just about technology, it is about winning trust, habit, and scale. That is a long game, and right now Perplexity is just starting to play it.”

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.