An OpenAI exec said the company would consider acquiring Chrome if Google is forced to sell it.
The DOJ had asked a judge to force Google to divest Chrome as part of its antitrust case.
Integrating ChatGPT with Chrome “could offer a really incredible experience,” said ChatGPT’s product head.
OpenAI would be interested in buying Google’s Chrome browser if antitrust regulators force the tech giant to sell it, a company executive said in testimony during Google’s antitrust trial in Washington on Tuesday.
Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of product for ChatGPT, was asked whether the company would consider acquiring Chrome.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” Turley said, Bloomberg reported.
In the landmark antitrust case against Google, the Department of Justice is seeking remedies to address what it says is the company’s illegal monopoly in online search and advertising markets.
Last year, the DOJ asked the judge in the case to force the company to sell its Chrome browser. Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had violated antitrust laws. Google has not offered Chrome for sale and it plans to appeal the ruling.
Chrome is a hugely popular Google product that the company relies on to grow and maintain its search-advertising empire. Mehta’s August ruling cited data from StatCounter, which analyses web traffic, that said Chrome held 61% of the US browser market share, while 20% of general search queries came through user-downloaded Chrome browsers.
Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University, told Business Insider it’s a “toss up” on whether Mehta would force Google to divest Chrome. The DOJ is leaning on competitors like OpenAI to strengthen its case.
According to Bloomberg, Turley said an integration between ChatGPT and Chrome “could offer a really incredible experience.” OpenAI would “have the ability to introduce users into what an AI first experience looks like,” he added.
Turley also said that dominant tech players like Google could lock OpenAI out of key distribution channels, Bloomberg reported.
OpenAI has powerful competitors “who control the access points for how people discover products, including our product. People discover via a browser or an app store,” Turley said. “Real choice drives competition. Users should be able to pick.”
Industry experts told Business Insider last year that a forced sale of Chrome would be a major blow to Google, but a potential win for competitors. Advertisers and search rivals would likely cheer the news.
Ben Thompson, a tech blogger, wrote last year that it was “unlikely” regulators would allow Meta to acquire Chrome, leaving companies like OpenAI as potential buyers. The “distribution Chrome brings would certainly be welcome, and perhaps Chrome could help bootstrap OpenAI’s inevitable advertising business,” he wrote.
Read the original article on Business Insider
