To “offer an incredible experience”, Openai wants to buy Chrome and its 3 billion users
The antitrust trial that has been shaking Google for months may well give birth to an unexpected earthquake. The Mountain View firm, driven into its entrenchments, may have to sell its Chrome browser and 66 % market share. And among the candidates, a name is already cringing teeth: Openai. Yes, the artificial intelligence giant would like to recover the favorite fogger from the planet. What to redistribute the cards? Not sure that everyone wins.
Chrome, in the Openai starter: a future browser under the control of artificial intelligence?
The case has been dragging for years, but the verdict fell in August 2024: Google is guilty of locating the online research market. And in advanced proposals to make the digital ecosystem breathe, one draws attention: Force the sale of chrome. The judge slipped it on the table, almost as obvious. This is where Openai entered the dance.
The company, which is especially known for Chatgpt, officially expressed its interest. It already coveted Google’s search engine, without success. Chrome therefore becomes his new target. For what ? Because having the most used browser in the world, it is much more than a simple asset: it is direct access to the navigation habits of billions of individuals (in 2025, Google Chrome claims approximately 3 to 3.5 billion active users in the world, all platforms combined). It is also a perfect ground to deploy his assistants, his algorithms, his talkative AI.
A chrome in the colors of Openai is probably a metamorphosed chrome, where artificial intelligence would hold you by the hand with each click. Useful ? Maybe. Intrusive? Certainly. Because to give in Chrome to Openai is to change creditor, but not necessarily logic: that of a web controlled by massive interests, whether Californians or elsewhere. “An integration between Chatgpt and Chrome could offer a truly incredible experience” said Nick Turley, Chatgpt product manager, Bloomberg.
In this play that is played out, the question remains hot: do we really want to swap a monopoly against another, more discreet but just as ambitious? The future of Chrome is at stake and with him, that of a certain idea of free navigation.
