Apple latest bid to get ahead in the AI race could require M&A

Apple is reportedly considering bids for Perplexity and Mistral AI, Apple is now designing an AI search competitor, dubbed “World Knowledge Answers,” Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. “With all the cash they have, I can’t imagine why they don’t just buy a company, or multiple, and consolidate and win here,” said Ethan Batraski, GP at Venrock.

The iPhone-maker’s rollout of Apple Intelligence initiative hasn’t been smooth, and it has repeatedly delayed the release of an AI-enhanced version of its digital assistant, Siri. OpenAI even snagged Steve Jobs’ protégé and design maverick Jony Ive as it seeks to challenge Apple’s dominance in the personal device market. And unlike its peers, Apple hasn’t made splashy “acqui-hire” plays like Google did with Windsurf or Meta did with Scale AI.

I suspect Apple is not 100% convinced Apple AI is not something they can just build themselves. They said as much when they spoke with Joanna Stern of WSJ in June at WWDC.

61 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 8 Sep

I think (pending the price), Perplexity would make a great investment for Apple.

My own hot-take is I think Apple should stay away from model building and just buy the best front-end. At the end of the day, the front-ends may wind up being the best investment....as competition heats up with model providers, being able to seamlessly switch out the underlying models gives Apple plenty of options.