At this year’s WWDC developer conference, many noticed an interesting phenomenon—while global tech giants are aggressively charging ahead on the AI battlefield, Apple appeared unusually “low-key,” seemingly focusing only on user interface (UI) design. Many assumed that Apple wasn’t interested in AI or was moving too slowly. But behind this lies a story of “wanting to but unable to.” Facing the reality that its own AI development is lagging behind competitors, Apple may be planning to quickly catch up through “buying its way” forward.

Apple’s Stealth Acquisition Plan: Setting Its Sights on Perplexity AI

According to well-known tech journalist Mark Gurman, Apple’s mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica has begun internal discussions about acquiring a promising AI startup—Perplexity AI. Although young (founded in 2022), this company has grown rapidly and become a rising star in the generative AI field.

The goal of this potential acquisition is clear: Apple wants to leverage Perplexity’s technology and talent to build its own AI search engine. Why the urgency? Because Apple’s long-standing search partnership with Google faces pressure from U.S. antitrust regulators. If this cooperation ends, Apple will need an immediate alternative; otherwise, the search capabilities of Safari and Siri will suffer greatly.

At present, Apple and Perplexity have not formally entered negotiations or reached an acquisition agreement. However, they have met secretly multiple times in recent months. Besides outright buying Perplexity, Apple is also considering integrating Perplexity’s AI search as an option within Safari and Siri to test the waters first.

Why Perplexity? “Affordable and Useful”

You might ask, why doesn’t Apple acquire big-name AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, or xAI? The simple answer is that these giants are backed by Microsoft, Amazon, and Elon Musk, making them “not for sale” and extremely difficult to buy even with big money. In contrast, Perplexity’s valuation—though still high (a $14 billion valuation after fundraising in May)—is comparatively more “affordable” and fits Apple’s “can buy” criteria.

More importantly, Perplexity’s technology and products suit Apple’s needs perfectly. Unlike OpenAI, which builds massive large language models from scratch, Perplexity excels at customizing and optimizing AI systems based on open-source models. Initially using OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, it later incorporated Meta’s open-source Llama model and independently trained several search-optimized models such as pplx-7b-online and Sonar. This ability to flexibly leverage open-source tech combined with search indexing to build dedicated AI models is exactly the “technical foundation” Apple urgently needs.

The AI Search Engine Gap: Apple’s “Lifeline”

Apple’s search partnership with Google generates about $20 billion annually—a huge cash flow. But this agreement is now precarious, heavily threatened by U.S. antitrust authorities. Losing Google Search would strip Apple’s browser and voice assistant of their core competitiveness.

Therefore, acquiring or partnering with Perplexity is an important backup plan to deal with regulatory risks. Perplexity’s AI search not only offers Apple advanced search engine technology but also can provide users with a smarter, trendier search experience powered by generative AI—exactly the shortcoming Apple wants to fill in the AI race.

Facing Fierce Competition from Samsung, Acquisition Won’t Be Easy

However, Apple’s plan to have Perplexity all to itself is not simple. Reports say Samsung is also negotiating deep cooperation with Perplexity and even plans to launch co-branded products. As Apple’s biggest smartphone rival, Samsung is also heavily betting on AI features, making competition in this field increasingly fierce.

Additionally, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) once attempted to acquire Perplexity to gain a foothold in AI. Unfortunately, talks between Meta and Perplexity fell through. Meta made efforts to bring Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, on board to be part of Mark Zuckerberg’s newly formed “Super Intelligence” division, underscoring the strong appeal and talent of Perplexity’s technical leadership. After negotiations ended, Meta quickly invested $14.3 billion in data labeling startup Scale AI by acquiring 49% of its shares, as reported by Wall Street Journal.

Although Apple’s steps in AI may seem slow, it hasn’t given up. Through a potential acquisition of Perplexity AI, Apple hopes to quickly patch up its AI search engine gap, reduce dependency on Google, and avoid future regulatory chokeholds.

Choosing Perplexity is not only because it has solid technical accumulation and is more attainable than the giants but also because its products and tech fit well with Apple’s ecosystem. Whether Apple will actually buy Perplexity or choose a cooperative path remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: Apple’s AI strategy is quietly shifting.

In this AI battle, Apple is no longer just focusing on surface-level UI—it is secretly laying the groundwork for the future. This is its true “secret weapon.”