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.

Many see Perplexity’s bid to buy Google’s Chrome browser as a strategic statement rather than a likely transaction.

The browser is slated to launch in the coming weeks and aims to use artificial intelligence to fundamentally change how consumers browse the web.