Chrome is worth around $50 billion, DuckDuckGo CEO guesstimates

Big quote: The ongoing antitrust trial against Google has placed the search giant's Chrome web browser at the center of a heated debate over the future of internet search and competition. During testimony on Wednesday, Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of rival (but much smaller) search engine DuckDuckGo, told the court that Chrome could fetch a sale price of up to $50 billion if regulators force Google to divest the popular browser.

Weinberg described his estimate as a "back-of-the-envelope" calculation, based on Chrome's vast user base and global reach – a figure that far exceeds previous estimates, such as the $20 billion valuation offered by Bloomberg analyst Mandeep Singh last November. Weinberg added that such a price tag would be well beyond DuckDuckGo's financial capabilities, remarking, "That's out of DuckDuckGo's price range."

Nevertheless, he confirmed that DuckDuckGo would be interested in acquiring Chrome if cost were not a ...