Apple is reportedly considering the acquisition of Mistral AI and Perplexity, two leading AI startups. However, according to Reuters, citing a report by The Information, Apple has not yet made a formal offer to the startups and is hesitant to spend "billions of dollars" on the deal.
So far, Apple, Mistral AI, and Perplexity have not provided any comments on the matter.
There are internal disagreements within Apple regarding the potential acquisition. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president, is a proponent of the deal, having previously suggested the company acquire Netflix and Tesla. In contrast, Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering, believes Apple does not need to buy AI startups and can instead develop its own technologies.
As noted by MacRumors, Apple rarely spends more than $100 million on acquisitions. The primary exception was the headphone manufacturer Beats, which the company bought for $3 billion.
For context, Mistral AI, the creator of the "Le Chat" chatbot, was valued at $6 billion in June 2024. In August 2025, the FT reported that the startup was discussing attracting investment at a valuation of $10 billion.
Meanwhile, Perplexity, the developer of the AI-powered search engine, was valued at $9 billion by investors in December 2024. Business Insider reported in August that the company planned to raise investment at a valuation of $20 billion.
