Apple execs considered buying these companies to finally solve its AI struggles

Apple has been urged to make a major acquisition to prevent itself from falling behind in AI, and it appears that the company is listening. Rumors of Apple potentially buying Perplexity aren’t anything new, but it appears the company also had its eyes on another AI company.

A new report from The Information claims that Apple executives have discussed acquiring either Mistral AI or Perplexity. This report comes only a few weeks after Tim Cook signaled that the company was “very open” to big mergers and acquisitions that could boost its AI efforts. However, there might be some internal disagreements over it.

It appears that Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, is the most vocal supporter of the idea for big acquisitions. The report claims he was previously supportive of Apple buying Netflix and Tesla, but Apple CEO Tim Cook had turned down those ideas. On the other hand, Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi is said to believe that Apple can successfully develop its own AI technology and is hesitant to acquire AI companies.



Mistral AI is a Paris-based company that positions itself as a European competitor to OpenAI and ChatGPT. The company was recently rumored to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $10 billion. 

Perplexity is the better-known company, which develops an AI-powered search engine and has a $20 billion valuation. That’s not the first time we’re hearing about a potential acquisition of Perplexity by Apple. In June, there were reports that Apple was considering such a deal, but Perplexity said it didn’t know anything about it.

Samsung and Google are the companies that profit the most from Apple’s struggles with AI. Whoever wants to own a powerful smartphone with integrated AI features would most probably choose a Pixel 10 or Galaxy S25 instead of a “built for Apple Intelligence” iPhone 16. That’s also the most likely reason Apple may be considering using Gemini AI to power the remade version of Siri.

I won’t fight with Craig Federighi about Apple’s ability to develop its own AI, but I believe that an acquisition might be the quicker and smarter way out for Apple. The company cannot afford to release a subpar offering, so it needs a cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. That’s difficult to build, even if you have a lot of money, and there are smaller companies that could help Apple catch up to its competitors quickly enough.

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