Artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity AI has made a surprise $34.5bn (£25.6bn) takeover bid for the world's most popular web browser, Google Chrome. The three-year-old firm, whose backers include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and chip maker Nvidia, is headed by a former Google and OpenAI employee.

Perplexity made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google's web browser and claims it has the backing to pull it off.

Perplexity made headlines this week when the artificial intelligence startup said it had offered to buy Google’s Chrome, the world’s largest internet browser, for a price amounting to nearly double its valuation.