At an estimated 3.45 billion Chrome users across virtually all platforms, that places the value of a Chrome user at $10.

Anyone can fork a browser (and many unqualified or underfunded teams do), but acquiring control of the primary surface for Internet access of nearly half the planet? $34.5B seems pretty cheap.

If they buy Chrome, they can change the default search on a web browser used by half the planet.

Chrome has a slightly higher installed base than comet.

The same reason Elon bought twitter for $40B or whatever. The tech isn't worth that - the audience is(or, might be)

The users and data is what everyone wants. Which is scary because Google at least doesn't sell data (they just match contextual ads to users), whereas any company that purchases Chrome no doubt will.