Apple Plans $14B Bid for Perplexity AI

Apple is reportedly in early internal discussions about acquiring AI startup Perplexity for over $14 billion, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter.

The talks are preliminary, and no official offer has been made to Perplexity’s management. In a statement to Reuters, Perplexity responded, “We have no knowledge of any current or future M&A discussions involving Perplexity.” Apple declined to comment.

This potential acquisition aligns with Apple’s broader AI strategy, as major tech firms escalate investments in AI-powered services to meet growing user demand. Meta Platforms reportedly made an earlier attempt to acquire Perplexity, and just last week, the company committed $14.8 billion to Scale AI, naming its CEO Alexandr Wang to lead its new superintelligence division.

Per Bloomberg, Adrian Perica, Apple’s head of mergers and acquisitions, has explored the idea with Eddy Cue (head of services) and top AI leaders at the company.

The strategic implications are significant. Apple is rumored to be developing AI-driven search tools for Safari, which could lessen its dependence on Google. Currently, Google pays Apple an estimated $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine on Safari—a deal now under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of broader antitrust actions against Google’s dominance.

If completed, the deal would be Apple’s largest acquisition to date, valuing Perplexity at $14 billion, consistent with its latest funding round. The Nvidia-backed company provides AI search solutions that generate real-time, summarized responses—similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

As AI-native search tools gain adoption, especially among younger users, Apple’s move could position it to compete not only in the chatbot space, but to redefine how users access information across its ecosystem of over two billion devices.