11:48 AM EDT, 08/14/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google ( GOOG ) unit is unlikely to sell Chrome to Perplexity and said it plans to appeal an antitrust ruling regarding its dominance in online search, which could make its way to the Supreme Court and push the timeline to 2027, 2028 for a resolution on the potential divestment, UBS said in a note Wednesday.

Perplexity is looking to grow its user base from millions to billions by acquiring Google's ( GOOG ) Chrome browser with the recent $34.5 billion offer, the investment firm said.

The AI startup recently launched a browser called Comet for subscribers and testers, and its existing app has about 28 million monthly users, the report said, citing SensorTower.

Google's ( GOOG ) reported Chrome users hit the 2 billion threshold by May 2024, so owning it could help Perplexity quickly expand its AI-powered search products, according to UBS.

With that scale, Perplexity could also become an essential platform for advertisers instead of just an experimental one, UBS analysts said.

A sale would deliver instant scale to any buyer, so if Chrome goes on sale, other bidders such as Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed (MSFT) OpenAI may also be interested, UBS added.

UBS maintained a neutral rating on Alphabet with a $202 price target.

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