Apple is behind in AI — maybe it can buy its way to the top?

Apple hasn’t taken AI as seriously as some of its peers, and now, it seems that the company’s top brass are considering writing a very large check to catch up in the space.

Though the company is yet to formally discuss a deal with Perplexity, some of Apple’s top decision-makers, including head of mergers and acquisitions Adrian Perica and Services chief Eddy Cue, have reportedly held internal discussions about making a bid for search engine Perplexity AI, according to Bloomberg News on Friday. 

The consideration comes as the tech giant awaits the final ruling for Google’s antitrust trial, which will decide if Apple’s long-standing search partnership with Google — which was revealed to be worth $20 billion in 2022 — will be allowed to continue in any form.

Amid a recent series of Apple Intelligence failures and delays in Siri upgrades, the company is clearly keen to explore all options on the table, and Perplexity, which received 780 million queries in May, is growing at light speed. (It’s also racking up lawsuits at a pretty remarkable clip.)

But any potential deal would represent a major change to Apple’s M&A strategy. Unlike some of its more acquisitive peers, like Alphabet, Apple has typically preferred to make smaller acquisitions and grow products and teams organically. The company has made only three publicly reported transactions worth more than a billion dollars in its history.

With Perplexity recently completing a funding round that valued it at $14 billion — a figure that would likely only be a floor for any price negotiations — Apple would have to be willing to splurge. Of course, if any company can afford it, it’s Apple: the iPhone maker spent nearly $50 billion buying back its own stock over the past two quarters.

Note: A previous version of this article stated that Apple had spent nearly $50 billion buying back its own stock in the last quarter. This has been corrected. We regret the error.