Only Google Can Operate Chrome at Its Current Level, Company Tells Court Amid Antitrust Battle

Chrome’s Deep Integration with Google Infrastructure Central to Defense

Washington, D.C. — Google is defending its hold over the Chrome browser in a landmark antitrust hearing, arguing that only it can operate Chrome at its current level of functionality due to deep “interdependencies” with other parts of the company. Parisa Tabriz, Chrome’s general manager, testified Friday in federal court that Chrome is the result of 17 years of collaboration within Google and is too tightly integrated with the broader Alphabet infrastructure to be easily separated.

“Trying to disentangle that is unprecedented,” Tabriz said during her testimony before Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing a three-week hearing on remedies following the court’s finding that Google illegally monopolized the search market.

Chrome’s Unique Features Tied to Google’s Ecosystem

Tabriz highlighted key Chrome features, such as Safe Browsing and password breach alerts, which rely on systems developed and maintained across multiple divisions of Google, not just the Chrome team. She asserted that replicating the browser independently would be virtually impossible, stating, “I don’t think it could be recreated.”

Google’s Chrome is the most popular web browser globally, commanding approximately 66% of the market as of March 2025, according to Statcounter. Though based on the open-source Chromium project, Tabriz noted that Google contributes over 90% of Chromium’s code and invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually into its maintenance and development.

Divestiture Feasible, DOJ Expert Argues

In contrast, James Mickens, a computer science professor at Harvard and expert witness for the Justice Department, testified that the divestiture of Chrome is technically feasible. Mickens argued that transferring Chrome’s ownership would not “break too much” and emphasized that Google would still have strong incentives to maintain Chromium’s quality to support its Android operating system.

Mickens further pointed out that companies like Meta, Microsoft, and others already contribute to the Chromium project, suggesting a path forward without Google’s sole control.

AI Integration: The Future of Chrome

The hearing also revealed Google’s ambitions for the future of Chrome, which increasingly involves deep AI integration. Tabriz discussed how Chrome now supports extensions from AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity AI. She acknowledged that Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, is currently set as the default within Chrome.

Internal documents presented in court outlined plans for Chrome to evolve into an “agentic browser,” integrating multiple AI agents capable of automating tasks like form-filling, research, and online shopping.

“We envision a future where Chrome integrates deeply with Gemini as a primary agent while enabling users to engage with multiple third-party agents,” Tabriz wrote in a 2024 internal email.

The case’s outcome could have sweeping implications for how Google operates Chrome, its AI products, and the broader search and browser markets.