AI upstart Perplexity makes $34.5B offer for Google's Chrome

• The AI upstart raises its public profile, including awareness of its own nascent Comet browser, by offering to buy something that's not for sale.

Catch up quick: Google may be forced to sell Chrome as a remedy to its antitrust troubles, at which point there could be several bidders with even deeper pockets than Perplexity (including OpenAI).

Behind the scenes: Perplexity code-named this effort Project Solomon, according to documents obtained by Axios.

• The proposed term sheet it sent to Google is nonbinding, and refers to the transaction as an asset sale "tailored to satisfy remedy requirements" related to the antitrust case.
• Perplexity says it would "maintain uninterrupted availability and support for existing customers for at least 100 months post-close," and "always allow users to choose their own default settings."
• It also pledges to invest $3 billion over two years to support Chrome.

By the numbers: Perplexity most recently was valued by VCs at $18 billion, in an early-summer fundraising round led by Accel, but claims to have requisite financing lined up to buy Chrome for $34.5 billion.

• It did not identify any investors in its letter to Google, but told the WSJ that "several investors including large venture-capital funds had agreed to back the transaction in full."

• Multiple Perplexity investors tell Axios that they've not spoken to the company about a Chrome deal.

The intrigue: Perplexity is the buyside protagonist here, but it's also been talked about as a possible acquisition target for Google. And for Apple.

• Even if this Chrome transaction never materializes, it could serve as a visibility springboard to a different sort of deal.