Apple is reportedly contemplating its most formidable acquisition but: AI startup Perplexity, whose AI-driven search engine and chatbot are among the many main ChatGPT options with round 15 million customers.
Based on a brand new Bloomberg report this week, Apple’s head of mergers and acquisitions, Adrian Perica, has been in talks with companies SVP Eddy Cue and the corporate’s high executives a couple of potential provide. Discussions are nonetheless in a really early stage, and Apple has but to make a bid, however executives have met with Perplexity a number of instances over the previous few months, Bloomberg reviews.
One other chance is a team-up with Perplexity, fairly than an acquisition. The final word aim can be to combine Perplexity’s tech into an AI-based search engine or use it to make Siri smarter now that Apple’s deliberate AI revamp for its assistant has been pushed into 2026.
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Much like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity is a cross between a conventional search engine and an AI assistant. It makes use of giant language fashions to comb the online to reply consumer queries in a conversational manner, just like interacting with a knowledgable assistant. It is also constructed with cross-platform accessibility in thoughts, so customers can entry its AI-powered search and assistant options on a variety of gadgets.
A wise transfer on Apple’s half
Buying Perplexity might be a strategic fallback for Apple if regulators drive the corporate to finish its partnership with Google. With Perplexity underneath its belt, Apple might speed up the event of its personal AI-powered search engine throughout the perfect iPhones, serving to it shut the hole with rivals like Google and Meta within the AI race.
It could not come at a greater time too. Bloomberg reported on Friday that Meta tried to scoop up Perplexity first earlier this yr earlier than shifting forward with Scale AI. At WWDC 2025, Apple was cagey a couple of concrete timeline for the total rollout of Apple Intelligence upgrades for Siri. It is rapidly changing into clear that Apple wants some exterior assist bringing its supposed AI options to market, and Perplexity might fill that function.
If a deal is reached, it might be the biggest in Apple’s historical past. Perplexity is valued at round $14 billion, a determine that dwarfs Apple’s most vital deal up to now: shopping for Beats for $3 billion again in 2014.
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