Apple 'Open' to Acquisition That Accelerates AI Roadmap

[MacRumors]

Apple is "open" to an acquisition that would accelerate its AI roadmap, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC today. Cook said that Apple sees AI as one of the "most profound technologies of our lifetime," and that the company is "significantly growing" its AI investments.

"We're embedding it across our devices, across our platforms and across the company," Cook said. Apple has already purchased seven companies in 2025. "We're open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap," Cook added.

Apple has been losing key members of its AI team to Meta in recent weeks, and the company is already far behind competitors in AI development.

There have been rumors that Apple is considering working with Anthropic or OpenAI to develop an LLM version of Siri rather than using its own AI technology, but Apple hasn't moved forward with a partnership as of yet.

Many of the high profile AI companies would not be feasible for Apple to purchase, but the company has considered purchasing Perplexity AI. Perplexity is valued at $18 billion, so if Apple did acquire the company, it would mark Apple's largest acquisition to date.

Article Link: Apple 'Open' to Acquisition That Accelerates AI Roadmap

 

[sniffies]

Before acquiring anything, how about teaching iCloud Mail how to auto-sync notification badges between iOS and macOS?

Or does that require quantum computing?

 

[cameltahoe]

There's no rush. Record sales prove customers aren't buying the AI hype train. The media and finance guys tell lies about AI popularity just to bump up their stocks. Go walk about the street and ask regular people about AI and they look at you like you are weird.

Get it right instead of shoehorning it in quickly.

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Two lines about AI that I think Wall Street is happy to hear (1) we are significantly growing our investments and (2) we’re open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap

 

[rotvaldi]

Cook has cooked his brain cause Perplexity uses another LLMs to work with

 

[TimCooked]

And after M&A, most AI talents from acquired companies would leave Apple.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Acquiring Perplexity would be wild and great for Apple. They badly need the help.

 

[Flojomojo]

I'm no expert and I haven't tried them all, but Perplexity has been more useful to me than Copilot or ChatGPT because it tries to prioritize accuracy, and it always shows its work. Like the others, it sometimes makes mistakes, but it doesn't lie confidently or hallucinate in my experience. I've paid for the $20/month plan and have been using it more than Google searches lately.

It could be a good fit for the Apple ecosystem if they don't screw it up.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Perplexity may not be good fit as they use underlying models from XAI, Open Ai and others. I am not sure if Apple is going to play nice with every one and depend on models from other companies.

 

[Sippincider]

Get it right instead of shoehorning it in quickly.

They're approaching 14 years with Siri. How much more time do they need?

Apple could purchase Perplexity with last quarter's profit, and have a few billion in change left over. If Cook truly sees AI as one of the "most profound technologies of our lifetime", why isn't his company leading it?

 

[canadianreader]

History repeating

Confirmed: Apple Buys Virtual Personal Assistant Startup Siri | TechCrunch

On the heels of the report that Apple purchased chip maker Intrinsity, Apple appears to have made another purchase: Siri, a personal assistant for the iPhone. According to a pre-merger notification released by the Federal Trade Commission, and first noticed by Robert Scoble, the transaction will...

techcrunch.com

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I don't see Tim buying Perplexity. They're on the shadier end of the shady bunch that is the AI industry.

 

[pdmpolishing]

After using Perplexity and ChatGPT, ChatGPT seems to do a better job answering correctly. Perplexity is like Siri is now, a bit hit or miss, meaning there’s not a lot of trust using it and just feel put off using it.

 

[Wx_Man]

Before acquiring anything, how about teaching iCloud Mail how to auto-sync notification badges between iOS and macOS?

Or does that require quantum computing?

I don’t even want something that sophisticated. I just want a better auto spell checker in Messages.

 

[rp2011]

Now is not the time for acquisitions. And Perplexity has NOTHING to offer. Hopefully they don't feel as panicked by Wall Street nonsense as they did last year with their AI roadmap.

Right now Meta has already taken all the top AI talent willing to leave their employers, Zuck has lured the Top AI researchers with huge signing bonuses as their own in-house attempts had failed. And if not already at Open AI, Anthropic or Google they are with Ilya Sutskever at his start up. Buying any AI company right now is futile right now as it's about the top talent, and they will surely leave if any company if Apple acquires as they are already leaving in droves if not for money for glory with companies they are aligned with.

Apple needs to wait for the dust to settle before they buy.

 

[GrassShark]

Doesn't Perplexity rely on models from other companies? Even setting aside their terrible reputation as a company, how would buying them even be helpful to Apple?

 

[rp2011]

Doesn't Perplexity rely on models from other companies? Even setting aside their terrible reputation as a company, how would buying them even be helpful to Apple?

Exactly. It would be a huge waste of money.

 

[Wx_Man]

They're approaching 14 years with Siri. How much more time do they need?

Apple could purchase Perplexity with last quarter's profit, and have a few billion in change left over. If Cook truly sees AI as one of the "most profound technologies of our lifetime", why isn't his company leading it?

It’s because all LLMs are made and continuously trained on scraped data from every known source. None of the AI companies, not OpenAI, not Anthropic, not Meta, not Google, not DeepSeek, not Musk-Grok, etc give a rip for privacy or safety. The very reason all these LLMs exist is totally antithetical to at least what Apple has been preaching and engineering for decades. It is impossible to make a LLM that is competent with ethical, private and safe means. To do so is to limit the LLMs evolution and potential competency. And even then every LLM out there is eventually an unsafe, gaslighting, hallucinating fabulist when it gets beyond a certain amount of tokens. Apple’s dilemma vis a vis AI is not that they can’t competently engineer an LLM in-house or even outright buy Perplexity or even Anthropic. It’s that by doing either Apple instantly stops being Apple. It can no longer claim to be the paragon of safe, private and ethical computing.

 

[nt5672]

And after M&A, most AI talents from acquired companies would leave Apple.

But, but, but, the current AI talents that Apple has are leaving Apple. Must be a really bad work environment for AI people to be leaving in droves. I guess it is not very appealing to work several years behind the state of the art. I'm looking at you Siri.

 

[Macalway]

Bottom feeding.

Pretty and fancy ain't gonna cut it.

 

[syklee26]

I don't understand all people bashing Perplexity. Sure, it might use other company's model, but I actually like overall experience with it. It doesn't gaslight users with wrong answers like ChatGPT sometimes does. I like the conciseness of the answers I ask.

Apple has to start somewhere. It's not like they can acquire OpenAI. No matter what Apple acquires, it is more important to get great people and make it better.

Apple has been uber conservative in an industry where speed and risk taking is crucial. That's how Steve Jobs became a legend. Apple's Board needs to "think differently" and replace Tim Cook or they will be back to Sculley days.

 

[richpjr]

There's no rush. Record sales prove customers aren't buying the AI hype train. The media and finance guys tell lies about AI popularity just to bump up their stocks. Go walk about the street and ask regular people about AI and they look at you like you are weird.

Get it right instead of shoehorning it in quickly.

They have demonstrated absolutely nothing to make anyone think they can get it right.

 

[DownUnderDan]

They're approaching 14 years with Siri. How much more time do they need?

Apple could purchase Perplexity with last quarter's profit, and have a few billion in change left over. If Cook truly sees AI as one of the "most profound technologies of our lifetime", why isn't his company leading it?

I asked Siri "How much time do you need before you really get it right?". The response was "I really couldn't say".

 

[gridlocked]

Perplexity isn't interested in selling according to it's founder.

 

[switz]

And we certainly do not need more lies about when Apple will have something AI or Siri related working. Trust in Apple speak got blown up badly last year at the iPhone 16 series announcement.

This year's improvements are apparently nothing to crow about. A new chip in last year's newspaper wrapping is not a new device - be it a laptop or iPhone or iPad.