As Google faces mounting legal pressure over its dominance in online search, OpenAI has emerged as a potential buyer for one of the tech giant’s most valuable assets: the Chrome browser. The prospect surfaced during a remedies hearing in the ongoing US vs Google antitrust case, where ChatGPT’s head of product Nick Turley confirmed the AI firm’s interest in acquiring Chrome if it were put up for sale.
The Department of Justice has proposed the divestiture of Chrome as one potential remedy after a judge ruled last year that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in the online search market. Although the tech giant plans to appeal, the trial’s remedies phase is now underway, and significant changes to the company’s product portfolio could be on the horizon.
Turley testified that acquiring Chrome could allow OpenAI to explore “AI-first” experiences at the browser level. While users can already access ChatGPT through Chrome extensions, the firm believes owning the browser could enable more seamless and integrated interactions.
OpenAI has also been working on building its own search index but now expects that reaching substantial adoption will take years—delaying initial targets that aimed for ChatGPT to use its own index for 80 percent of queries by the end of 2025.
Turley adds that OpenAI has also been working on its own search index. While it originally wanted to have ChatGPT use it for 80 percent of searches by the end of 2025, the company now believes reaching that milestone will take years.
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