Apple and Perplexity: Not a Search Story—A Shipping Story. $30B to “replace Google” Would Be Strategic Malpractice.
Apple’s rumoured interest in Perplexity isn’t about replacing Google Search—it’s about something far bigger. This isn’t a search deal. It’s a shipping one. If Apple wants to light up its AI stack in 2025, Perplexity may be the fabric it needs—already built, already live, already scaling. “All ready”
Apple holding internal talks to buy Perplexity
On Friday, June 20th 2025—multiple news outlets (Bloomberg, Reuters) reported that Apple executives have held internal discussions about a potential acquisition of Perplexity AI, allegedly to “enhance Safari search capabilities” and reduce reliance on Google. Perplexity declined to comment.
Now, while I fully believe these discussions happened—Apple should be considering this—I find it incredibly hard to believe that replacing Google in Safari is the core objective. That’s far too narrow a use case to justify a ~$30B acquisition.
The article also suggests Apple is eyeing Perplexity’s “AI talent.” But if history’s any guide, Apple has a mixed track record with post-acquisition integration—often alienating or sidelining precisely the sort of nimble teams that made the product worth acquiring in the first place.
So what makes sense?
Only this: Apple is not looking for a search engine. It’s looking for a brain. A living, shipping orchestration layer that can slot directly into the FMF + LLM stack it’s already building—and bring it to life now, not in 2026.
Anything less would be strategic malpractice.
The report, states that Apple executives—including M&A chief Adrian Perica and services head Eddy Cue—have internally discussed acquiring Perplexity AI. No formal offer has been made, and neither Apple nor Perplexity has confirmed any active negotiations. Still, the story made headlines for two reasons:
The price tag—with Perplexity recently valued at ~$14B, any real deal could exceed $20–30B, making it Apple’s largest acquisition ever.
The suggested rationale—to replace Google as the default Safari search engine.
Let’s pause right there.
That Logic Doesn’t Track
Replacing Google Search in Safari is a multi-billion-dollar revenue stream for Apple, with estimates as high as $20B/year paid by Google to remain the iPhone’s default.
Even if Apple wanted to distance itself from Google—perhaps in anticipation of DOJ regulation—that wouldn’t justify spending $30B on a startup that doesn’t even operate a general-purpose search index like Google’s.
Perplexity is not a Google rival in that sense.
It doesn’t crawl and index the web. It’s a wrapper, a real-time orchestrator, built to sit on top of multiple LLMs and APIs—including OpenAI, Claude, Gemini—returning trust-layered, citation-backed summaries rather than ten blue links.
Which is exactly why the real story isn’t about Safari.
It’s about what I called my SenseOS concept, published before WWDC 2025, and anticipating a fabric needed to bring all of Apple’s AI efforts and devices and data feeds under one roof - one AI OS to rule them all if you like, including coordinating genAI and LLM needs with whichever model (or models) Apple chooses to use.
Tommo_UK
My concept of the AI OS Apple should have shipped, published before WWDC 2025
What Apple Would Be Buying
If Apple buys Perplexity, it wouldn’t be buying a search engine. It would be buying:
• A working FMF-like orchestration layer, already deployed at scale.
• A modular platform with LLM-agnostic logic, ready for drop-in use.
• A UX and information philosophy that mirrors Apple’s own: minimal, private, calm, structured.
• A lean, proven engineering team who can build quietly and deliver fast.
That’s why my 10,000 word ”deep dive” lead article for tomorrow frames this possibility more like a repeat of the acquisition of NeXT in 1997. In other words, a paradigm shift. The “OS X” moment of 2025—a strategic airlift, not a bolt-on. It echoes Apple’s 1997 acquisition of NeXT, not an App Store app swap.
Apple needs to ship. Because as I wrote last week, quoting Steve Jobs losing patience with his 1984 Macintosh team leader Bud Tribble, “Real Artists Ship.”
Tommo_UK
The Mistake of Misframing
If mainstream media (and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, obviously, who latched onto this story two days later and called it “Breaking News,”) continues to frame this rumour in terms of browser search, they’re missing the point—and investors will, too. Or if it’s as simple as it’s being portrayed, Apple have not just missed the point, but lost the plot, and I don’t think that’s what’s going on.
Apple isn’t trying to win “search.” It’s trying to build a context-aware, privacy-respecting, multi-modal interface layer for the AI era. Siri isn’t that. FMF might be—but FMF isn’t live.
Perplexity is. Right now.
And with Apple’s infrastructure, developer base, and distribution power, Perplexity doesn’t have to replace Google. It could render it irrelevant.
Tomorrow, Sunday 22nd June 2025, I’ll be publishing a full lead article on why Apple should make a bid for Perplexity, and why that could boost the stock to $400. Free, for all readers, no paywall, no Bloomberg $300 subscription for late breaking recycled news, without context.
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Good conversation (behind paywall) going on at Apple 3.0
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
- tommo_uk on .fyi - 21st June 2025
