OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT testified in Google’s antitrust case that the company would be interested in buying the Chrome web browser if Alphabet is forced to spin it off. OpenAI has its own search product but has struggled with distribution; access to Chrome’s reach would be a boon for the company.
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT said the company would happily scoop up Chrome if it was spun off from Google as part of its ongoing antitrust suit.
Nick Turley, the ChatGPT chief, made his company’s intentions clear during his testimony as part of a three-week-long trial to determine how Google must change its business after it was deemed a search monopolist by a federal judge.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” Turley said in his testimony, responding to a question about whether OpenAI would consider buying Google Chrome, Bloomberg reported.
As of now, ChatGPT Search is available as a browser extension on Chrome, but if ChatGPT were fully integrated into the web browser, “you could offer a really incredible experience,” Turley added.
In October, OpenAI released ChatGPT Search, which blends the natural language of the LLM with the search functionality of a search engine like Google. ChatGPT search has three million users, according to the Chrome Web Store. Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s regular app on the Apple App Store was the most-downloaded app globally in March with 46 million downloads, TechCrunch reported.
Breaking into search is tough, as Google controls about 90% of the U.S. internet search market. OpenAI has also run into the pitfalls of trying to distribute its products within the walled gardens built by Apple and Google.
OpenAI has already struck a deal with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into the company’s flagship iPhone. But it hasn’t been able to reach agreements with Android smartphone makers. Since January, Google has been paying to pre-install its AI model, Gemini, on Samsung phones, Bloomberg reported. Turley said ChatGPT hasn’t been able to strike a deal with Samsung because Google can outspend OpenAI.
ChatGPT’s powerful competitors “control the access points for how people discover products, including our product. People discover via a browser or via an app store,” Turley said.
Buying Chrome would be a boon for ChatGPT’s distribution, noted Brian Jackson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group.
“Owning Chrome, the most popular web browser globally, would instantly give it a huge customer footprint,” Jackson told Fortune. “In addition, it’d have new opportunities to harvest data from browser interactions, and it would effectively fend off Google’s marketplace advantage for Gemini.”
