April 17 Reuters Alphabet Inc shares fell as much as 4 on Monday following a report South Korea39;s Samsung Electronics was considering replacing Google with Microsoftowned Bing as the default search engine on its devices.

The report, published by the New York Times over the weekend, underscores the growing challenges Google39;s 162billionayear search engine business face from Bing a minor player that has risen in prominence recently after the integration of the artificial intelligence tech behind ChatGPT.

Google39;s reaction to the threat was panic as the company earns an estimated 3 billion in annual revenue from the Samsung contract, the report said, citing internal messages.

Another 20 billion is tied to a similar Apple contract that will be up for renewal this year, the report added.

In a response to Reuters, Google said it was working to bring new AIpowered features to Search without commenting on its association with Samsung. The South Korean consumer electronics major did not respond to a request for comment.

Google has for decades dominated the search market with a share of over 80, but Wall Street fears the company could be falling behind Microsoft in a fastmoving AI race.

Parent firm Alphabet lost 100 billion in value on Feb. 8 after its new chatbot, Bard, shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle.

On Monday, the stock fell to 104.90 and erased nearly 50 billion from Alphabet39;s market capitalization….