Apple Considered Acquiring AI Search Startup Perplexity

Apple reportedly explored the possibility of acquiring Perplexity — one of the most prominent players in neural search.

According to Bloomberg, which cites people familiar with the matter. While internal talks don’t guarantee a deal, they highlight Apple’s growing interest in strengthening its AI efforts, particularly amid rising pressure on its long-standing partner Google.

A potential merger with Perplexity could serve as a strategic response if Apple is forced to end its search deal with Google — the agreement that makes Google the default engine on iPhones. In April 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to strike down such deals, calling them anti-competitive.

In response to the reports, Perplexity said it was unaware of any talks with Apple. Apple declined to comment. Meta (designated as an extremist organization) also reportedly showed interest in the startup, but no agreement was reached. Meta instead invested $14.3 billion in another AI startup, Scale AI, taking a nearly 50% stake. That deal later triggered reputational challenges for Scale AI, as clients began reassessing partnerships over concerns of potential conflicts of interest.

Perplexity now competes directly with Google, Bing, and OpenAI in the field of neural search and generative answers, offering fast, concise, and reliable results to complex queries. As competition in AI intensifies, acquiring Perplexity could help Apple strengthen its position in building proprietary search and assistant tools — especially if it finds itself needing a fast alternative to Google.