Perplexity may be on Apple’s acquisition list
Perhaps in an acquihire to boost search, or to improve Siri, Apple executives have reportedly recently discussed buying or partnering with AI startup Perplexity.
The two executives linked to discussions are said to be the company’s head of mergers Adrian Perica, and Eddy Cue. According to unnamed sources within Apple, internal discussions are in a very early stage, and there has not yet been an offer made.
Also a possibility is a team-up with Perplexity, rather than an outright buy. Any partnership would put Perplexity in Safari, and perhaps integrated into the long-delayed improved Siri project, that is now not expected to ship until 2026.
The report on Friday by Bloomberg discusses that the move may get made to help Apple develop an AI-powered search engine. Google pays Apple about $20 billion a year to be the primary search engine on the iPhone and Mac, but that deal is in danger after antitrust and regulatory discussions.
If a deal is reached to buy Perplexity, the deal would be the largest in Apple history, and not by a little. Perplexity is valued at about $14 billion. This far eclipses the deal that Apple made in 2014 for Beats, which cost the company $3 billion.
The news may not come as a giant surprise, if you’ve been following the Google antitrust trial. On the stand, Cue was clear that they had talked at least some with Perplexity.
“We’ve been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we’ve started some discussions with them about what they’re doing,” Cue said, while under oath.
Beyond even that, the report isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Previous rumors and Craig Federighi himself have said that Apple is looking at working with multiple partners to deliver an assortment of AI and search options for consumers.
The main name tied to Apple’s AI effort is obviously OpenAI. Before the Apple Intelligence rollout, Google and Meta were named as possible participants.
Anthropic and Perplexity were also mentioned, at least in passing.
To us, it seems more likely that Apple is dealing with AI providers the same way they handle hardware component suppliers. Having multiple providers on the hook, as it were, in this case may ultimately give users more choice, but will also keep costs down for Apple.
