Apple and Perplexity allegedly in negotiations – through to takeover
Apple lacks its own AI expertise, products are delayed. According to a report, Perplexity is now set to help – and perhaps keep Google at a distance.
Apple Intelligence auf iPhone, iPad und Macbook.
(Image: Apple)
Since the announcement of Apple Intelligence, problems have been piling up for the iPhone makers: The technology is not considered to be up-to-date, and the once industry-leading assistant Siri has been delayed. For many functions, Apple uses ChatGPT instead of its own developments, as the company recently explained at its WWDC developer conference.
Instead of the sluggish in-house development, Apple is now said to be seeking close cooperation or a takeover of Perplexity. The AI company, which is best known for its search engine, is regarded as one of the technology leaders in the field of artificial intelligence. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, who is usually well-informed on Apple topics, claims to have learned about the talks from unnamed sources.
According to Gurman, Apple managers Adrian Perica and Eddy Cue are said to have been involved in the negotiations. However, the talks are said to be at an early stage and Apple has not yet made a concrete offer. Meta is also said to have been interested in acquiring Perplexity before its investment in AI provider Scale. Perplexity denied the report, and Apple declined to comment.
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Independence from Google as a possible goal
In addition to Perplexity's technology, there could be another reason for Apple to look for a new search engine partner: Google's antitrust proceedings. This has been ongoing since 2020 and was initiated by the US Department of Justice to break up a possible Google monopoly on search functions on the internet. One of the remedies is said to be a compulsion to sell the Chrome browser, but payments by Google to other companies are also being investigated. As the trial revealed, Google pays Apple around 20 billion US dollars a year to be pre-installed as a search engine on the company's devices.
Following its latest financing round, Perplexity is now valued at around 14 billion US dollars. Should Apple really buy Perplexity, it would be the largest acquisition in the company's history. The most expensive acquisition to date was the headphone manufacturer Beats Electronics, which Apple acquired in 2014 for around 3 billion US dollars.
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