Global tech giant Apple is holding talks about possibly buying Perplexity AI, a fast-growing artificial intelligence company, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The acquisition is reportedly being considered to strengthen Apple’s AI capabilities and possibly develop its own search engine. Perplexity offers a chatbot-style tool that answers questions using internet-sourced information, similar to ChatGPT but with cited references.
The report says Adrian Perica, Apple’s head of mergers and acquisitions, has reportedly discussed the idea with Eddy Cue, who oversees Apple’s services, and other senior AI leaders. Apple already met with Perplexity several times in recent months, according to Bloomberg.
In court testimony this May, Cue said Apple talked about integrating Perplexity into the Safari browser. That came during a trial about Apple’s current search deal with Google, which pays Apple billions a year to remain the default search engine on iPhones. In 2021, the deal brought Apple $18 billion.
Perplexity says it does not know of any merger talks. “We have no knowledge of any current or future M&A discussions involving Perplexity,” Perplexity told Reuters.
According to Bloomberg, Meta also tried to buy Perplexity earlier this year.
Perplexity, which is based in San Francisco, raised $500 million in May, reaching a $14 billion valuation.
