Google’s AI future depends on Android – a DOJ threat to split it off is an existential crisis

A file photo of Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaking at a Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, US. The impact of a Google breakup would also be felt far beyond Mountain View, as Google and plenty of its peers are also embroiled in other antitrust cases that could theoretically lead to a similar outcome. — Bloomberg/Getty Images/The New York Times

Last week, a US judge ruled that Google was breaking antitrust law by paying the likes of Apple and Samsung tens of billions of dollars to shore up its illegal monopoly in web search by making Google Search the preinstalled default option in their devices and browsers.

However, Judge Amit Mehta has yet to rule what the solution – or “remedy” in antitrust-speak – to this lawbreaking should be. In theory, it could be something relatively mild, like making Google share its search data with rival providers. Mehta could order Google to stop paying device-makers like Apple. But according to Bloomberg’s sources, the Justice Department is also considering the nuclear option: breaking up Google.