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.

The unsolicited bid was sent to Alphabet’s Google ahead of a US court decision that could force the giant search group to sell the browser.

Perplexity, the fast-growing AI search start-up, has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion cash offer to acquire Google's Chrome browser.