In terms of public perception, it’s difficult to argue that Apple is quite behind in the AI race. After all, its own Apple Intelligence had multiple stumbles before it even began its gradual rollout. So it’s probably not surprising to hear that the bitten fruit brand is open to mergers and acquisition in the field of AI.
CNBC cites company CEO Tim Cook as saying that “we’re open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap”. The report also notes that the fruit brand has already acquired “around” seven companies so far in the year. It’s just that they have not been “huge in terms of dollar amount”. While no qualifiers were included, Cook does say that the company is “significantly growing our investments” in the field of AI.
On that note, Apple was previously reported to be considering acquiring Perplexity, an NVIDIA-backed startup. The company has recently launched its own AI-powered browser called Comet. It is also in talks with smartphone makers to make it the default browser there, replacing Google’s Chrome.
Bloomberg reported last month that Perplexity was valued at US$18 billion (~RM76.99 billion). That would probably qualify as a huge acquisition in terms of dollar amount, should the acquisition happen.
