Apple Discussed Acquisition of Mistral AI and Perplexity

According to reports from The Information, Apple management has discussed the possibility of acquiring Mistral AI and Perplexity. Eddie Cue, head of services, is one of the most active proponents of this strategy, aiming to strengthen the company's offerings in the field of artificial intelligence. Previously, he supported ideas for Apple to acquire Netflix and Tesla, but these proposals were rejected by Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. Other executives, including software chief Craig Federighi, express doubts about the feasibility of acquiring AI startups, believing that Apple can develop the necessary technologies in-house.

Mistral AI is a French company founded in 2023 that creates open-weight artificial intelligence models. Its technologies are designed to be smaller, faster, and easier to implement compared to competitors, while demonstrating high performance in logical reasoning and coding tasks. The company positions itself as a European alternative player in the market, competing with OpenAI and Anthropic.

Perplexity is an American company that develops an AI-based search platform. It combines large language models with real web indexing to provide cited and conversational answers. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity focuses on transparency, showing sources alongside answers and offering an alternative to Google for information retrieval.

Reports indicate that Apple is hesitant about making such a large deal, which could cost billions of dollars. The company rarely spends more than one hundred million dollars on acquisitions, except for the purchase of Beats for 3 billion and Intel's wireless modem business for 1 billion dollars. If the Federal Commission approves a 20 billion dollar deal between Apple and Alphabet, making Google the default search engine on their devices, Apple may be compelled to acquire an AI search startup to fill this gap.

At this time, the company has informed bankers that it plans to maintain its strategy, focusing on smaller deals in the field of artificial intelligence.