Sooo the Justice Department just blinked. After months of chest-thumping about forcing Google to dump its AI investments, the DOJ has decided that maybe—just maybe—blowing up one of the biggest players in AI mid-race isn’t the best idea. So, Google gets to keep its multi-billion-dollar stake in Anthropic, the OpenAI competitor it’s been quietly backing.

(Source: Giphy) 

However, that’s about where the win for Google stops. Because Uncle Sam is still coming for Chrome—and if the DOJ gets its way, Google’s search monopoly is about to take a serious hit. In short, the DOJ and 38 states are still pushing for Google to sell Chrome, which would be the biggest forced divestiture in tech since the government took a chainsaw to AT&T in the ‘80s.

ICYMI, the feds argue that Google’s 90% dominance in search isn’t just because people love it—it’s because Google rigs the game by making sure it’s the default search engine everywhere. What’s more is that they also want to kill Google’s billion-dollar deals with Apple and Mozilla, which pay those companies to keep Google Search front and center. Oh, and they’d also like competitors to get more access to Google’s data, because right now, Google has a data Death Star that keeps it miles ahead in search and ads.

(Source: New York Post) 

Naturally, Google believes this is all a load of anti-capitalist BS. The company is already appealing the ruling that says its search dominance is illegal, claiming that people use Google because it’s the best, not because they’re forced to (Personally, whatever the alternative to Bing is, I’m in). 

But, but, but… while this divestiture is still up in the air, why did the DOJ back off from forcing Google to sell its AI investments? Simple: they realized it was a dumb idea. For instance, if Google had to dump Anthropic, it would basically be handing OpenAI (and Microsoft) a free win in the AI arms race. In fact, the DOJ even admitted that banning Google from AI investments could “cause unintended consequences”—which is legalese for “we didn’t think this sh*t through.”

(Source: Giphy) 

So instead, Google will have to notify the government before making any new AI investments—sounds legit. However, this is honestly a drop in a bucket compared to the real fight that starts in April. Because should Google be forced to sell off Chrome while ditching its Apple back-door deals—keeping Anthropic would feel like the worst consolation prize in history. 

Meaning, if the DOJ wins, it would shatter Google’s business model—resulting in Google's golden goose that funds literally everything else (AI investments) being obliterated. But if Google wins? It’s business as usual, and the government just wasted four years trying to take down a company that prints money faster than the Fed.

(Source: Giphy) 

In the end, there’s alot going on here, and honestly I’m just trying to decipher which way the Feds want to swing. In fact, it almost feels like anything Google does is blacklisted on their part—and they are trying to do everything they can to limit some part of the tech behemoth. 

Sure, Google literally holds the keys to everyone's dirty secrets and habits, but to me, killing Chrome may have way more unintended consequences than letting OpenAI win the AI race (read: a stock market sell-off that would make the panic of August 5th 2024 look like a friggin’ walk in the park). For now, we wait to see what the DOJ’s final verdict on Google is. In the meantime though, place your bets accordingly, and stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

P.S. $1.4 million, $1.02 million, $6.715 million and $25.3 million—these aren’t lottery winnings or Miami real estate prices… they’re all insider transactions that have gone down in the last week while retail investors were busy panic-selling everything. Want to track these corporate fat cats in real-time so you can pretend you're also an executive with material nonpublic information? (Legally, of course.) Click here to join Stocks.News premium while you still can…

Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft, Apple, Google, and AT&T as mentioned in the article.