Apple in talks to acquire AI start-ups Mistral, Perplexity: Report
What's the story
Apple has been in talks about acquiring French artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Mistral and US-based Perplexity, The Information reported. The news comes after CEO Tim Cook hinted last month that the tech giant was open to larger AI-related acquisitions. This marks a departure from Apple's historically conservative approach to mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Market position
Apple's lag in AI integration
Despite being a tech giant, Apple has been lagging behind rivals like Google and Samsung in rolling out AI features on its devices. The internal discussions about acquiring Mistral and Perplexity could be part of an effort to catch up with these competitors. However, the exact details of these talks remain unclear as neither Apple nor the two start-ups have commented on them yet.
Financial standing
Mistral's valuation and funding history
Backed by NVIDIA, Mistral was valued at over $6 billion after its Series B funding round last year. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that the French company was in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $10 billion. Perplexity's valuation is $18 billion, following a $100 million funding round in July this year.