As June comes to a close and the impact of Apple's WWDC event starts to leave its mark, there's a lingering feeling surrounding Apple's AI approach.
I've been using the iOS 26 developer beta on my iPhone for a couple of weeks now, and while it's still missing some of the upcoming Apple Intelligence features like Live Translation, it's clear (pun intended) that the primary focus of Apple's upcoming software updates is in the Liquid Glass redesign, not AI.
Last week, top insider Mark Gurman reported that Apple execs had "held internal discussions about potentially bidding for artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI." He followed up that report with an excellent edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that went into the nitty gritty of how Apple could afford to spend big bucks on an AI company, rather than rely on sorting out its internal turmoil to get the iPhone's AI up to speed.
As a Perplexity Pro subscriber and someone who uses the AI search engine regularly, this got me thinking about how Apple acquiring the startup and implementing its capabilities into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS could completely turn its AI strategy around.
It all adds up
Perplexity AI was one of the first companies to launch an AI search engine, and to this day provides one of the best user experiences when replacing traditional Google Search with AI.
For nearly two decades, Apple and Google have had a partnership in place, solidifying Google as the default search engine for iPhone users. That could all be about to change, however, an antitrust lawsuit puts that in jeopardy, and as such, Apple might need to look at providing its own search solution.
Suppose Google's antitrust suit does come into play. What better way for Apple to solve its massive search engine hole than to implement Perplexity, a product that not only provides a search solution but also addresses Apple's biggest AI woes.
Apple has long been rumored to be working on an Apple-branded search engine, and yet nothing has ever materialized. Perplexity is a ready-made offering, with an incredibly smooth interface and user experience, that at this moment in time, provides one of the best consumer AI products on the market.
Gurman estimates Apple has around $300 billion in cash at its disposal, and Perplexity, unlike some other AI products on the market like OpenAI's ChatGPT, would be available for a fraction of that chunk.
Apple could, in theory, purchase Perplexity tomorrow and roll it out to users within just a couple of months, following a rebrand. This wouldn't be new territory for Apple either; the company has made similar acquisitions in the past, most notably when it purchased Dark Sky, the popular weather app, implementing some of its best features into the stock Weather app.
Waiting for Apple Intelligence
Gurman, in his newsletter, emphasized four other reasons besides Google's antitrust lawsuit as to why buying Perplexity AI makes sense for Apple. Valued at around $14 billion, Gurman says Perplexity's reasonable valuation and ability to fill a clear need, Apple's lack of "strong search layer and conversational interface for everyday tasks" makes Perplexity a standout opportunity for a company like Apple, which is looking to make a mark on the AI landscape.
He also claims that the 250-strong team would be the perfect size to incorporate into Cupertino, and like I said above, a consumer-ready product makes perfect sense for Apple at this moment in time.
I've been using Perplexity connected to my iPhone 16 Pro's Action button for months now, and AI search has quickly become my go-to when it comes to finding out information. At the moment, Apple Intelligence's lack of improved Siri and a true functional chatbot completely undermines its AI capabilities, and no matter how good Apple's hardware is for AI, its lack of first-party prowess makes Apple Intelligence feel like an incredibly weak proposition.
With murmurings of Apple looking to Perplexity, it now seems so obvious that an acquisition would seriously boost the Apple Intelligence moniker. Earlier this year, Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Services, spoke during Google's antitrust trial. He said, "We’ve been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we’ve started some discussions with them about what they’re doing."
Now, months later, there seems to be some more potential to these discussions, and while it might not excite you yet, I guarantee that if a deal were to come to fruition, it would massively increase the AI potential of the iPhone and Apple's other hero products.
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