pple might be eyeing acquisitions to catch up in the AI race.
CEO Tim Cook noted this week during the company’s earnings call that Apple is still open to acquisitions and partnerships as it navigates its place in the AI picture. Cook also told CNBC that the company expects to announce more partnerships in the coming months, noting that the “intention is to integrate with more people over time.”
Cook noted that Apple continues to “surveil the market on M&A and are open to pursuing M&A if we think that it will advance our road map.”
Cook’s remarks aren’t the first time we’ve heard rumblings of acquisition and partnerships from Apple.
- Apple has reportedly internally discussed acquiring both Mistral AI and Perplexity, though neither deal came to fruition.
- And in October, the company was also reportedly in talks to acquire the engineers and technology from computer vision startup Prompt AI.
The CEO noted that Apple is making “good progress” with AI-powered Siri, and is on track to launch in 2026, and he said he’s “bullish” on Apple Intelligence becoming a major deciding factor in consumers’ decisions to purchase Apple products.
Despite its plans to spend $500 billion on developing AI over the next four years, the company has struggled to make a true name for itself in the AI space, losing talent to more aggressive tech giants like Meta and OpenAI.
Apple keeping an open mind about AI M&A opportunities could signal that it's shifting from its longstanding strategy of waiting out tech trends before developing its own, Apple-branded versions of them.