‘We believe having multiple partners, and in particular Google’s API, would enable us to provide a better product to users,’ OpenAI reportedly told Google in an earlier email that was unveiled this week during Google’s monopoly trial.
Google may be forced to sell off the most popular search browser in the world and Microsoft-backed OpenAI appears to be aiming to snatch up Chrome.
The U.S. Department of Justice has officially requested that Google be forced to sell Chrome and potentially its Android business, claiming that the $386 billion tech giant created a monopoly in general search services and search text advertising through anti-competitive practices.
At Google’s antitrust trial this week, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Head of Product Nick Turley testified that his company would seek to buy Google’s browser if it was available.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” said Turley, regarding whether OpenAI would try to buy Chrome during the trial being held in Washington, D.C.
[Related: Judge In Google Monopoly Ruling: Company ‘Willfully Engaged’ In ‘Anti-Competitive Acts’]
“We believe having multiple partners, and in particular Google’s API, would enable us to provide a better product to users,” OpenAI told Google in a prior email, according to a report by Reuters.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google is appealing to the DOJ’s ruling that it holds a monopoly with hopes to not have to put Chrome up for sale.
Google Previously Declined A Bid By OpenAI
According to court documents, Turley testified this week that Google declined a bid from his company to use Google’s search technology within ChatGPT.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT currently uses Microsoft’s search engine Bing for its search technology.
Turley said forcing Google to share its massive search data with competitors would help restore competition and improve ChatGPT.
The DOJ’s trial began this week with a focus on the official Google remedy phase of the case.
Google generated total sales of $96.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, up 12 percent year over year, bringing Google’s annual run rate to $386 billion.
The DOJ Vs. Google Case
Last year, U.S. District Court of Columbia Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had “unlawfully maintained” and protected its search monopoly through exclusive agreements with Samsung, Motorola and others to have Chrome installed on devices.
“Google has manipulated its control of Chrome and Android to benefit itself, while sharing monopoly profits under conditions to induce third parties across the ecosystem to help Google maintain its monopolies,” said the DOJ in its filing in November 2024. “The playing field is not level because of Google’s conduct, and Google’s quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired. … The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”
At the time, Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer for Google, called the DOJ proposal “staggering.”
“[The] DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership,” Walker said. “DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products—even beyond Search—that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.”
Google is set to report its first-quarter 2025 financial results on April 24.
