On Tuesday, The Information reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Apple has engaged in internal discussions regarding the potential acquisition of French AI startup Mistral and Perplexity. Apple, widely regarded as having missed the generative AI revolution, has fallen significantly behind competitors in integrating AI features into its devices.
Reuters:
Perplexity, which is backed by Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said it is unaware of any merger conversations including the company, aside from its own acquisitions.
Apple and Mistral did not immediately respond to Reuters‘ requests for comment.
Mistral, backed by Nvidia, was valued at more than $6 billion after its Series B funding round last year and the Financial Times reported this month that the French company was in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $10 billion.
Executives at the iPhone maker have held internal talks about potentially bidding for Perplexity, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s CEO blew it on both Netflix and Tesla, so the odds of him summoning up the courage to pull the trigger on a timely major acquisition (of any sort), despite sitting on a cash mountain of $133 billion, are slim.
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