Apple’s journey with artificial intelligence has hit a few bumps. The new Siri, for example, is running behind schedule. It seems Apple’s own AI brainpower is still far from its best. This leaves the tech giant in a tight spot, trying to figure out how to catch up with its biggest rivals.
Recent whispers suggest that Apple is thinking about buying up smaller AI companies. Startups like Perplexity and Mistral AI are reportedly on their radar. But inside Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, there’s no clear agreement on whether to move forward with such big purchases.
An Internal Tug-of-War
According to a report from The Information, Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, is the strongest voice pushing for these acquisitions. He believes buying these companies is the quickest way forward. On the other side sits Craig Federighi, the company’s software chief. Federighi reportedly argues that Apple still has plenty of time to build its own top-tier AI models. He feels they can shine using their internal solutions.
This stance seems a little out of step with other rumors. There’s chatter that Apple is looking at outside tech from companies like Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT for the next version of Siri. This is supposedly because Apple’s own solutions are struggling to get good results. For now, it’s unclear if Apple has even spoken to Perplexity or Mistral AI. We also don’t know which startup they might prefer or how much money they’d be willing to spend.
This isn’t the first time Apple has been linked to AI startups. Eddy Cue himself admitted this year that Apple was working to add support for AI search engines like Perplexity to Safari. However, he noted it likely wouldn’t replace Google as the main option.
Cue’s History of Bold Moves
Rumors about Apple possibly buying Perplexity or Mistral AI have been floating around for a while. Still, their accuracy has never been proven. What The Information article also points out is that this isn’t the first time Cue has pushed for a major acquisition. He reportedly advocated for Apple to buy both Netflix and Tesla in the past. However, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, rejected both of those proposals.
If Apple does decide to pursue these companies, it could lead to some exciting new products. Mistral AI has quickly become a leader in European artificial intelligence. They boast their own language models and advanced tools for coding and thinking. These include Mistral Code for programming and Magistral for reasoning tasks.
Perplexity, on the other hand, has made a name for itself in AI-powered web browsers. Many of its features use AI from other companies, but their integration is very impressive. The company also just released its own browser, named Comet. They even made a bold proposal to acquire Google Chrome, showing their ambition.
The question remains: will Apple finally take the plunge and buy its way to AI dominance? Or will it stick to its usual path of building from within? The tech world is watching closely.
(Source: The Information)