If the U.S. federal judge orders Google to sell Chrome, OpenAI would be willing to buy it. Nick Turley, the head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, revealed this during his testimony in the ongoing Google antitrust trial.
When asked if OpenAI would buy Chrome, he replied, “Yes, we would, and so would many other parties.”
OpenAI willing to buy Chrome from Google
Last year, federal judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google’s search business operates as a monopoly. As a remedy, it proposed that Google divest Chrome to another party and even sell off Android. Now, a three-week trial is underway, during which the federal judge will hear from Google and other parties regarding the proposed remedies.
As part of the trial, they asked Nick Turley, the head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, whether his company would show interest in buying Chrome. Unsurprisingly, he said yes.
“You could offer a really incredible experience” by integrating ChatGPT into Chrome, he said. We would “have the ability to introduce users into what an AI first experience looks like,” details a Bloomberg report.
Turley also revealed that OpenAI held negotiations with Samsung to preload ChatGPT on its Galaxy phones. But they could not make much headway. A Google executive disclosed earlier in the trial that, beginning in January 2024, the company began paying Samsung a fixed monthly fee to preinstall Gemini AI on its smartphones. The contract runs for two years.
During the hearing last year, Google revealed that it pays Apple billions of dollars to remain the default search engine on iPhones.
In recent times, though, the company made its contract with Samsung, Motorola, AT&T and Verizon more flexible. This allows them to preload rival search options on their devices.
OpenAI unable to strike a deal with Android manufacturers
Turley also acknowledged OpenAI’s struggles to strike a deal with Android manufacturers on integrating ChatGPT into their devices. This is despite Apple integrating ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence on iPhones with iOS 18.1.
Google’s deeper pockets likely play a role here, as it can pay Android manufacturers significantly more money than OpenAI to keep Gemini the default assistant on their devices.
