It’s no secret that Apple’s efforts in the AI space have been somewhat lackluster, to say the least. For one thing, the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence features are somewhat glaring. Second, Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT is proof in and of itself that Apple lacks the in-house AI muscle needed to compete in an increasingly competitive and sophisticated market. As a result, a new rumor suggests that Apple may try and leverage its cash hoard to immediately bolster its AI offerings.
A new rumor from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who is typically accurate when it comes to Apple rumors, relays that Apple executives have talked about potentially purchasing Perplexity AI. And speaking to the seriousness of the discussions, two of the named executives involved in the talks include Eddy Cue and Adrian Perica, Apple’s mergers and acquisitions chief. What’s more, representatives from the two companies have already engaged in preliminary discussions.
“Buying Perplexity would give Apple an infusion of AI talent, a known brand in the AI space and a consumer product,” Gurman notes. “A deal could also potentially assist with future recruiting efforts.”
What is Perplexity AI?
In a broad sense, Perplexity is similar to ChatGPT insofar that both platforms rely on AI to generate answers to user queries. The difference, though, is that ChatGPT is is more conversational while Perplexity is more of a traditional search engine, albeit on steroids.
What Apple is planning to do with Perplexity, assuming an acquisition actually happens, will be interesting to see. Perhaps it will be baked into Siri and ultimately replace ChatGPT for advanced queries.
It’s also worth noting that Apple and Google’s search deal, wherein Google pays Apple billions to make Google the default search engine on mobile Safari, might not be permitted to continue for much longer. Recall that Google is in the midst of a DOJ lawsuit regarding alleged monopolistic behavior in the search realm. Google was found to have improperly leveraged its search monopoly, and now it remains to be seen what the ramifications are. Some speculate that Apple’s search deal with Google may ultimately fall by the wayside. Consequently, Apple might want to make mobile search in Safari a bit more AI-friendly.
Perplexity AI is expensive
Apple is one of the richest companies on the planet, which will come in handy because Perplexity isn’t exactly cheap. The company currently has a valuation of $14 billion. If that’s even in the ballpark of what Apple would pay, it would easily be the company’s most expensive acquisition to date. As it stands now, Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats in 2014 remains its most expensive corporate acquisition.
Apple was relatively slow to embrace AI, but the company appears to be turning a corner. Not too long ago, a report surfaced indicating that Apple engineers, for the first time, were given the green light to rely on third-party LLMs to help develop new Siri features. And Apple executive Eddy Cue earlier this year flatly stated that AI represents a rare “technology shift” with the potential to fundamentally change how we use and interact with our devices.
Lastly, this isn’t the first rumor we’ve seen regarding a potential suitor for Perplexity. Not too long ago, there were rumblings that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta might make a play for the company. Ultimately, though, Meta inked a massive $14.3 billion deal with Scale AI instead.
