ChatGPT creator OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Yahoo would like to buy Google’s Chrome web browser if a federal judge orders a sale of the internet’s most popular gateway.
The interest of these companies emerged this week during a trial that will determine whether Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Google search empire will be broken up by federal judge Amit Mehta, who ruled last year that Google operated an illegal online search monopoly.
The Justice Department wants Google to sell its Chrome browser, and potentially its Android operating system, among other remedies.
Executives from OpenAI and Yahoo both disclosed in court that they would like their names in the mix if Chrome were to become available.
Brian Provost, Yahoo Search’s general manager, said so Thursday, noting it would cost tens of billions and that the company would be able to fund it with backing from its owner, Apollo Global Management (APO). (Disclosure: Yahoo, the parent company of Yahoo Finance, is owned by Apollo Global Management.)
He said Chrome would help boost Yahoo’s market share in search, according to The Verge. As of March 2025, Chrome dominated the browser market with a market share of about 66%. Apple’s (APPL) Safari held roughly 18%, and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Edge held 5%.
It is “arguably the most important strategic player on the web,” Provost said, according to Bloomberg.
Under questioning, he also said Yahoo had been working to develop its own prototype browser.
Executives from artificial intelligence-based search providers also took the stand and said they would have an interest in Chrome if it were up for sale.
One was Nick Turley, head of product for OpenAI’s artificial intelligence-based search platform ChatGPT.
Turley said integrating ChatGPT with Chrome could expand OpenAI’s distribution and boost the quality of its search, which currently relies on Microsoft’s Bing browser technology. Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest backer.
Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer for Perplexity AI, also testified that the AI-fueled search startup could effectively run Chrome and that Chrome could boost its growing business.
However, he cautioned that a buyer could shutter Google’s Chromium, the open-source technology that powers Chrome, which developers use to iterate and build new web browsers and other products.
For that and other reasons, Google has pushed back against the government’s divestiture proposal.
A Google representative told Yahoo Finance that forcing it to sell Chrome would jeopardize rival browser providers that rely on Chromium’s open-source code, including Microsoft’s Edge and others, and undermine privacy and security for consumers who use the search tools.
