Perplexity Offers $34.5 Billion to Buy Chrome 🤯!

Yes, that is more than Perplexity’s current valuation. Shocking? That’s not even the half of it 😅. 

Welcome to issue #120 of the Neural Frontier! 

As you can probably tell from the headlines, it’s been a really weird week. The good news? Weird equals exciting in the AI space (most times). 

Let’s dig in!

In a rush? Here's your quick byte: 

🤯 Perplexity offers $34.5 billion to buy Chrome!

🤖 OpenAI brings back ChatGPT’s model picker.

🧠 Sam Altman’s new startup looks to compete with Neuralink!

🎭 AI Reimagines: Flight Simulator, but it’s all paint!

🎯 Everything else you missed this week.  

⚡ The Neural Frontier’s weekly spotlight: 3 AI tools making the rounds this week.

🤯 Perplexity offers $34.5 billion to buy Chrome!

AI search startup Perplexity has made a bold, unsolicited offer to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion in cash, Reuters and TechCrunch report.

If accepted, the deal would include commitments to:

• Keep Chrome’s underlying engine, Chromium, open source.

• Invest $3 billion into Chromium over the next two years.

• Maintain user defaults, leaving Google as Chrome’s default search engine rather than replacing it with Perplexity’s AI-powered option.

Google has not commented, and it has previously vowed to fight court rulings requiring a sale of Chrome.

Here’s some more context: 

⚖️ DOJ Pressure and Legal Battles: The Department of Justice proposed in March that Google be forced to sell Chrome after a judge found the company illegally maintained a search monopoly. Google is also fighting a separate federal case over adtech, where the DOJ is proposing divestiture of two adtech products.

Perplexity’s spokesperson anticipates the court may set terms for remedies later this month. The startup is not alone in expressing interest—OpenAI also flagged interest if Chrome is divested. With Chrome holding 68% of browser market share, a court-ordered sale would likely draw multiple bidders globally.

💸 Valuation vs. Offer:  Perplexity’s bid is far above its own valuation. The startup has raised roughly $1.5 billion, with its last extension round in July valuing it at $18 billion. By contrast, rival search engine DuckDuckGo’s CEO testified that Chrome could be worth up to $50 billion, suggesting Perplexity’s offer could be a bargain.

🔥 Strategic Moves: Last month, Perplexity launched Comet, its own AI browser, signaling its intent to grow independently of Google. Additionally, the startup reportedly submitted a bid to merge with TikTok, demonstrating aggressive expansion ambitions in both AI search and social media.

Perplexity says multiple large investment funds are ready to fully finance the Chrome acquisition if Google accepts.

🤖 OpenAI brings back ChatGPT’s model picker.

OpenAI’s GPT-5 promised to simplify the ChatGPT experience with a unified AI model that automatically routes questions to the best-performing version. But with the return of the model picker, it’s clear that one-size-fits-all AI isn’t quite here yet.

Here’s what you need to know:

⚡ Model Picker Returns: GPT-5 introduced new “Auto,” “Fast,” and “Thinking” settings that all users can select from the model picker. While the Auto setting acts like GPT-5’s original router, users can bypass it to access fast- or slow-responding models directly. Paid users can also access legacy models like GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and o3.

🧠 Personality Updates: OpenAI is working on a warmer GPT-5 personality, aiming to strike a balance between friendliness and avoiding the quirks of GPT-4o. Altman emphasized that future updates will focus on per-user customization, allowing people to adjust AI personality to their preference.

🚧 Router Challenges: GPT-5’s model router struggled on launch day, leading some users to feel the AI underperformed compared to previous models. Routing prompts to the right AI model in real-time is complex, as it must account for both user preferences and the nature of the question.

Many users prefer certain AI models not just for speed, but for style, verbosity, or contrarian answers. OpenAI is still learning how to align models to these nuanced preferences, especially since human attachment to AI personalities is a new and evolving challenge.

OpenAI plans to keep refining model alignment, user customization, and personality features to make ChatGPT feel both powerful and personally tailored.

🧠 Sam Altman’s new startup looks to compete with Neuralink!

 Sam Altman is reportedly backing a startup aimed at taking on Elon Musk’s Neuralink, signaling not just an ongoing rivalry, but perhaps a new chapter in brain-computer interface technology.

Here’s the 411:

🧠 Merge Labs Emerges: Altman is co-founding a new brain-to-computer interface startup called Merge Labs, with early funding potentially coming from OpenAI’s ventures team. While the startup could be valued at $850 million, terms are still in flux, and OpenAI has not officially committed.

⚡ Competition with Neuralink: Merge Labs will compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which has been developing implantable chips that allow people with paralysis to control devices with their thoughts. Neuralink recently raised $600 million at a $9 billion valuation and continues human trials.

👁️ Merge Labs’ Vision: The startup is collaborating with Alex Blania, who runs Tools for Humanity (formerly World), Altman’s eye-scanning digital ID project. This partnership hints at ambitious plans for integrating humans with tech in ways that could rival or complement Neuralink’s work.

🌌 The Singularity and The Merge: Long before AGI became the tech world obsession, the idea of “the singularity”—merging humans and machines—captured Silicon Valley’s imagination. Altman has previously blogged about “The Merge,” envisioning humans designing their own descendants. Merge Labs appears poised to push that vision forward.

🎭 AI Reimagines: Flight Simulator, but it’s all paint!

Flight Simulator fans, you’re in for a treat with this week’s showcase ✈️!

We think the execution was pretty impressive, but as always, we encourage you to see for yourself!

🎯 Everything else you missed this week.

✈️ Google announces AI search tool to help travellers find flight deals.

🚶 Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI, has left the company.

🤯 Claude now has a 1 million token context window.

👨‍⚖️ Elon Musk says he’s suing Apple for allegedly rigging App Store rankings.

🧠 Claude can now remember your past conversations, if you ask it to.

⚡ The Neural Frontier’s weekly spotlight: 3 AI tools making the rounds this week. 

1. 📅 Clockwise: Clockwise is an AI-powered calendar assistant designed to help busy professionals and teams optimize their schedules for both meetings and deep work.

2. 🎬 Airpost: Airpost is an enterprise-grade AI video ad creation platform that combines artificial intelligence with human creative strategists to produce user-generated content (UGC) style video advertisements at scale. 

3. 🤖 Asteroid: Asteroid is an AI-powered browser automation platform designed to help businesses automate repetitive web-based tasks without requiring technical expertise. 

Wrapping up…

Perplexity with the offer, OpenAI with a topsy-turvy week, and Sam Altman gearing up to compete with Neuralink; it’s definitely a mixed bag of a week 😅. 

At this rate, who knows what next week will bring? 

Only one way to find out. See you then! 😊

PS: While you’re at it, remember to hit the Subscribe button if you haven’t already.