Apple’s AI struggle has stretched beyond one year since its AI features were showcased at the WWDC 2024 last year. And it seems the company is looking at exterior solutions to get its ambitions off the tracks which could involve buying another company which has readymade AI tools available from day one. Reports this week suggest Apple has internally considered bidding for Perplexity which is another AI company vying for a spot amongst Google and OpenAI. 

Bloomberg has quoted sources in its report which clearly highlights the situation over at the Apple Park in Cupertino. These talks have mostly gone through internally, and an actual bid or discussion with the AI company has not happened. 

Apple’s AI Push: Buy Big 

The report claims Adrian Perica has discussed the deal with Eddy Cue at Apple along with other senior decision makers. It also says that Apple might eventually decide against making an offer but these details are showing us the company’s intent to get started maybe using existing platforms rather than invest in building a new one. 

After all, Perplexity already has an AI assistant, a search engine and plans to build more effective AI tools. The AI company already offers some of these features for iPhone users, which Siri can only dream of right now. 

Apple is a trillion dollar valued tech giant, which means buying any company will come easy at least with regards to the money. But even if Apple decides to formalise its interest in buying Perplexity, how much would it possibly cost? The AI company will be aware of the desperation at Apple and decide to get the highest price possible, which could be well over $50 billion if not more. 

This is unlikely to be the last time we hear rumours about Apple strolling the cart looking for a solid product to buy. The company’s senior executives were recently grilled in an interview by the Wall Street Journal and you can feel the uneasiness in their body language when Siri AI is brought up and how the AI race has become a tough nut to crack for the iPhone maker in the last 2 years. 

There is a reason why Apple decided to deal with both OpenAI and Google to bring their ChatGPT and Gemini AI tools to iPhone users, now it is time to see the company make a serious move for its own future in this battle.