Apple executives are reportedly discussing the acquisition of a high-profile AI startup as the company’s in-house AI efforts have yet to match the cadence of its competitors. The Information is reporting today that Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, is the biggest supporter of an acquisition, with the discussions currently being focused on Perplixity AI and Mistral AI.
Apple CEO Tim Cook previously said during a call with investors that the company is “very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap.” If you ignore Apple’s $3 billion deal to acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics back in 2014, the company rarely spends billions of dollars on acquisitions, but that may eventually change. Perplexity AI was recently valued at $20 billion following new funding talks, while the French startup Mistral AI is seeking a $10 billion valuation thanks to a new funding round.
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Perplexity, which recently proposed to acquire Chrome from Google for $34.5 billion with the help of outside investors, would probably be a safer choice for Apple. The company would likely face resistance from the French government and the EU Commission willing to protect a local AI jewel. However, the report from the Information reveals that Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, believes that Apple can manage to catch up in the AI race without spending billions of dollars on an AI startup.
A recent report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed that Apple was working with Google on a custom Gemini-based AI model for its Siri assistant. Gurman also reported that Apple had also explored partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI to potentially use their AI models for Siri.
While Apple is said to be still working on its own AI models to power a more conversational version of Siri, the company has been losing top AI talent following Meta’s aggressive hiring spree. The US Department of Justice also seeking to end Apple’s $20 billion search deal with Google may also push the company to “think different.”