United Kingdom, Aug. 13 -- The artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Perplexity has made a shock $34.5 billion takeover bid for Google Chrome's internet browser.

Perplexity believes that moving Chrome to an independent operator committed to user safety would be beneficial for the public and have argued as much in a letter to Sundar Pichai - the boss of Google's owner Alphabet.

Google have not announced any plans to sell Chrome, which is the world's most popular web browser with more than three billion estimated users.

One investor in the tech industry has labelled the offer a "stunt" as it is considerably lower than Chrome's true value and expressed doubt as to whether the platform is actually for sale.

Google's dominance of the searc...