Perplexity AI has made a surprise $34.5 billion cash bid for Google Chrome, aiming to acquire the browser's billions of users amid an antitrust case that could force Google to sell.

Tuesday’s disclosure that Perplexity wants to buy Chrome may be intended to influence a federal judge more than Google/Alphabet. Either way, it’s getting a lot of attention, which might have been Perplexity’s primary goal.

In an unlikely bid that shows the growing brashness of young artificial intelligence companies, the A.I. start-up Perplexity has made an unsolicited offer to buy Google’s Chrome web browser for $34.5 billion.