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3h ago

Apple Weighs Acquisitions of Perplexity and Mistral AI

A looming ruling on Apple's Google search pact is sharpening the company's AI deal calculus.

Apple AI Strategy Perplexity Acquisition
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Apple AI acquisition strategy
Apple may turn to Mistral & Perplexity if Google deal collapses

Overview

  • The Information reported that Apple has internally discussed potential purchases of Perplexity and Paris-based Mistral AI, with no formal offers made.
  • Services chief Eddy Cue is the most vocal proponent of buying an AI firm, while software chief Craig Federighi prefers in‑house development, according to the report.
  • Despite exploring larger options, Apple has told bankers it plans to prioritize smaller AI deals for now.
  • Perplexity, backed by Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, is viewed as a possible search alternative for Apple, while Mistral builds compact large language models and has been valued from over $6 billion to around $10 billion in recent reports.
  • The deliberations are taking place as a federal decision could disrupt Google's default-search payments to Apple, which may heighten the need for a proprietary search or model strategy.