OpenAI wants to buy Chrome and make it an "AI-first" experience

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Antitrust context and possibility of a sale

  • Commenters note Google has already been found to have abused its position; the trial is now in the “remedy” phase.
  • Some argue Google may be forced to divest Chrome regardless of its wishes; others point out appeals could drag this out and outcomes are uncertain.
  • There’s debate whether selling Chrome meaningfully addresses Google’s ad-tech monopoly, which many see rooted in acquisitions like DoubleClick and in Google’s broader ecosystem, not just the browser.

Why anyone (especially OpenAI) would want Chrome

  • Core value is seen as:
    • ~3.5–4 billion users and distribution, especially on Android and as the browser people think “is the internet.”
    • Direct control of the client to funnel traffic, gather behavior data, and train AI models.
  • Owning Chrome would instantly give OpenAI market share and a powerful “AI-first” gateway to the web, instead of slowly growing a new browser.

Forking Chromium vs buying Chrome

  • Many say OpenAI could just fork Chromium, as Edge, Brave and others do.
  • Counterpoint: the real asset is the brand, default status, update channel, and user momentum, not the code. A fork starts from near-zero users.
  • Some expect any non‑Google owner would either enshittify Chrome to make it profitable or cut development.

Privacy, surveillance, and AI training fears

  • Strong concern that an OpenAI‑owned Chrome would be a massive “spyware botnet,” sending all browsing to LLM training.
  • People worry that even login‑protected sites could be harvested via the browser itself, making current anti‑scraping defenses ineffective.
  • Several see AI data‑harvesting as just the next phase of the same surveillance capitalism that powered ad targeting.

Monetization and business models

  • Speculated models: AI-as-default search with ads; subscription-style “premium AI browser”; advertiser‑driven influence over AI training (“pay to emphasize truths”).
  • Some doubt inference costs and purchase price make the economics work; others think sheer scale of data and distribution could justify it.

Impact on competition and the wider web

  • Some hope an AI-bloated Chrome would push users to Firefox or alternative browsers; others note Firefox is already financially fragile and heavily dependent on Google search deals.
  • Fears that spinning Chrome out may just hand power to another “rapacious” giant (OpenAI, Oracle, Apple, even state-backed buyers), not fix systemic issues.
  • Proposals include putting Chrome/Chromium under a nonprofit or public/utility-style governance, though many doubt political and legal feasibility.

OpenAI’s broader ambitions and skepticism

  • Multiple comments connect this to rumors of OpenAI building a browser, social network, and IDE, seeing a pattern of trying to “eat everything on the table.”
  • Some see it as attention‑seeking clickbait; others as a rational push for distribution before competitors (Google Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, etc.) catch up.