The U.S. government is probing Google.

The US government is currently in its fifth year of investigating the country's largest tech companies. Google, a digital ad and online search giant, is the first US tech company to face antitrust charges in federal court in decades. In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia declared that Google is a monopolist and has acted to maintain its monopoly, specifically in relation to its online search business.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department proposed recommendations for Google's search engine practices, hinting at the possibility of a breakup, but less drastic solutions are more probable.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, intends to challenge the verdict. The corporation declined to provide CNBC with a comment on the issue.

Google dominates the online search market with an estimated 88% market share, according to an August 2020 opinion from Judge Mehta. Despite years of effort, alternative web search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo have failed to make significant progress in challenging Google's dominance. Google is currently facing accusations of unfair conduct in the advertising technology market and was found guilty of business practices related to the Google Play app store in late 2023. Epic Games filed the initial challenge in 2020, and in September 2024, the company filed an additional antitrust lawsuit against Google and Samsung, alleging that the company continued to use its monopoly power to harm competition.

A U.S. judge issued a permanent injunction on Monday, forcing Google to offer alternatives to Google Play for downloading apps on Android phones. Assistant professor Nikolas Guggenberger at the University of Houston's law center believes that breaking up Google could lead to future innovation and ultimately benefit U.S. democracy. Although the idea of a Google breakup is unlikely, some on Wall Street believe it could unlock value for stockholders as the company competes in emerging technologies like cloud computing and generative AI. Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, believes that the sum of the parts will unlock value in this scenario. Watch the video above to learn more about the U.S. government's investigation into Google.