Apple (AAPL, Financial) has quietly kicked off talks with two buzzy AI startups as it scrambles to bolster its lagging generative-AI chops.
First up, former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, just wrapped a $2 billion fundraising at a $10 billion valuation—and Apple held initial meetings to explore a potential tie-up, though those discussions never advanced past the preliminary stage.
Around the same time, senior vice president Eddy Cue revealed that Apple's services team has begun exploring an acquisition or partnership with Perplexity AI to infuse generative search into Safari and cut its hefty reliance on Google's (GOOG, Financial) search-ad deal.
Thinking Machines Lab boasts reasoning models that rival top U.S. competitors while running at a fraction of the cost, a claim that has lit up investor interest even without a public product.
Perplexity AI, meanwhile, has caught Apple's eye with its conversational search interface and might offer Apple a way to deliver more natural, chat-driven results directly within its browser.
Neither path is locked in—Apple's famously cautious M&A culture means both options could stall or pivot—but both moves signal a clear shift in strategy: instead of waiting for a homegrown breakthrough, Apple is hunting for ready-made solutions that can plug into its ecosystem.
As every major platform jockeys for an AI edge, Apple's ability to bolt on or buy innovative startups could decide whether Siri and Safari stay relevant or fall further behind.
