A forced sale of Google Chrome might sound like a clean fix for the Big Tech firm’s search monopoly, but a closer look shows that it’s far more complicated.
As part of its proposed remedies in the ongoing search monopoly case against Google, the Justice Department is angling to force a sale of Chrome and its open-source technology Chromium—one that insiders say would be as technically fraught as it is historically unprecedented. Other remedies include requiring Google to share data, offer greater transparency to advertisers, and unwind exclusive $20 billion deals with phone makers.
Even critics of Google’s market dominance admit Chrome’s scale—installed on more than 4 billion devices—and its integration with Google’s tech stack, make it uniquely difficult to disentangle. With near-total reliance on Google’s infrastructure, any sale could trigger new antitrust concerns, fracture the user experience, and threaten a key part of the web.
“It’s definitely a complicated and unprecedented [remedy],” said Vidushi Dyall, director of legal analysis, Chamber of Progress, who attended the ongoing trial.
Companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Yahoo have reportedly expressed interest in buying Chrome. Meanwhile the DOJ appears determined to move forward, but here’s what complicates the potential sale.
1. Trading one monopoly for another
If the DOJ forces Chrome to market, any buyer big enough to afford it could face immediate antitrust scrutiny, sources said. With 4 billion users, acquiring Chrome would give one company control over nearly 67% of global internet browsing.
“Anyone big enough to acquire [Chrome] is going to come up with their own antitrust issues,” said Andrew Buckman, vice president of marketing and investor relations at Azerion.
While Microsoft hasn’t officially pitched to buy Chrome, its size, financial muscle, and existing search engine business make it a top contender—one that Judge Amit Mehta has acknowledged could be the only company capable of buying Chrome, according to Dyall.
However, Microsoft already has exclusive syndication deals with smaller search engines like DuckDuckGo. If it acquired Chrome, it could gain access to default search traffic and block rivals from leveraging the browser’s scale, defying the very purpose of the existing search trial.
