Google survives breakup, gets to keep Chrome, thanks to rise of ChatGPT, Perplexity AI

Google avoided a breakup after a US judge ruled against the government’s most onerous proposals, including a forced sale of its Chrome browser, in another court victory for Big Tech in the biggest antitrust case in three decades. The shares jumped.

AI models represent a long-term threat to the search industry as chatbots and other Generative AI technologies become more advanced and behave more like search engines, Judge Amit Mehta said on Tuesday. Still, the Alphabet Inc. company will have to make some concessions, including sharing online search data with rivals and ending exclusive contracts for distribution.