Atlassian acquisition drives dream of AI-powered ChromeOS challenger

'A cross-platform browser as an OS is now closer than ever,' claims $610M richer cofounders of The Browser Company

Atlassian today revealed it has purchased New York startup The Browser Company, and it appears the pair have plans to reinvent the ChromeOS wheel with added... AI.

The $610 million all-cash deal is expected to close in the second quarter of Atlassian's FY 2026, which ends in December.

According to Browser Company founders Josh Miller and Hersh Agrawal, their six-year-old biz will retain independence within Atlassian, and it intends to continue developing Dia, its "AI"-driven web browser that was talked up in May. 

Arc, The Browser Company's prior product that offered a fresh UI take on a web browser, was put into maintenance mode earlier this year after Miller predicted AI interfaces would replace traditional browsers within the next five years. Dia's main selling point appears to be that it simply adds a layer of AI abstraction between users and web pages. Instead of browsing content like a plebeian, Dia users are meant to think of web content as "tool calls with AI chat interfaces."

While Miller and Agrawal said Dia will remain their focus as an Atlassian subsidiary - and Arc won't be permanently put out to pasture - it appears the larger goal of the Atlassian-Browser Company union is to compete with Google to build what can only be described as a version of ChromeOS that's heavy on AI and designed for knowledge workers. 

According to The Browser Company's founders, handing the keys to Atlassian means "our largest vision, a cross-platform browser as an OS, is now closer than ever." 

Given both Arc and Dia are Chromium-powered, it sounds a lot like we're talking about a new version of ChromeOS.

"Like us, [Atlassian] believe the browser is becoming the new operating system," Miller and Agrawal wrote. "Together, Dia has a real shot at becoming central to the next great platform shift." 

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said much the same in his statement about the purcahse, describing the merged pair's plans as a bid to reinvent the browser for the SaaS and AI era. 

"Your current browser isn't designed to help you … it's a bystander in your workflow, treating every tab the same, with no awareness of your work context, no understanding of your priorities, and no help connecting the dots between your tools," Cannon-Brookes wrote.

An Atlassian spokesperson told us our belief that the deal would result in an AI-powered ChromeOS competitor for the enterprise was "a fair take."

"Atlassian and The Browser Company intend to reimagine the browser for knowledge work in the AI era," Atlassian head of product Sanchan Saxena told The Register in an email. "That means Dia will be optimized for the SaaS apps where [knowledge workers] spend their day; packed with AI skills and personal work memory to connect the dots between apps, tabs, and tasks; and built securely so they can bring it to the office."

That revolution is going to take at least a few years, as Atlassian doesn't predict its buy of The Browser Company will have any material impact on its bottom line until at least 2028. 

The Browser Company didn't respond to questions before publication. ®