Silicon Valley giants like Apple & Meta buy companies to stay ahead when lacking talent/tech. They acquire firms, absorb teams, and integrate or grant autonomy—a high-stakes strategy with mixed results.
Here are 12 key points summarizing the news about Apple and Meta's interest in Perplexity AI:
Apple's pursuit is notable as it typically avoids acquisitions and prefers building tech internally.
Perplexity is valued at over $14 billion and has ~15 million users with strong AI search capabilities.
Perplexity offers conversational, source-cited search using multiple LLMs, challenging traditional engines like Google.
Its user-friendly, transparent search experience positions it as a potential competitor to Google Search dominance.
Acquiring Perplexity could signal a major shift in Apple's AI strategy and address its talent/speed gap.
The move suggests Apple may want more control than its current OpenAI partnership offers for AI integration.
Integrating Perplexity could help Apple reduce long-term reliance on Google for search on its devices.
For Apple, acquiring Perplexity represents a high-risk move crucial to regaining competitiveness in AI.