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India Today
4 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Perplexity move to buy Chrome is more bluster and less reality
If you look at tech headlines right now, you will see one news item dominating everything else: Perplexity AI wants to buy Google Chrome. What what? Yes, that is the right reaction to it, whether you don't know what this strange move is from Perplexity, which is helmed by CEO Arvind Srinivas, or whether you know about it all and are wondering what kind of magic trick Mr Srinivas is trying to pull here on Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The news in itself came out of the blue and caught people, even those who are in the know, by surprise. But the strangest part of the whole conversation is that it also seems totally are a number of reasons why the stunt from Perplexity is just that — a stunt. And probably a well-executed PR exercise. That is because Google Chrome is not on sale. Well, not yet. But the whole issue is also big enough, complete with a big figure of $34.5 billion on the table, to demand our attention. So, let's give it some. Is Google Chrome on sale? This is the first question we have to answer before we can talk about how the Perplexity bid to purchase Chrome for $34.5 billion is a bluster. On the face of it, Google Chrome is not for sale. Google Chrome is part of Google, and not a separate public company that can be acquired in a hostile takeover. If it has to be sold, then it will have to be sold by Google, and for now, Google has made no indication that it is going to offload its Chrome division. So, why at all is Perplexity making such a public offer? That is because of the antitrust ruling against Google, which forms the backdrop to this bid. According to The Wall Street Journal, US District Judge, Amit P Mehta — Srinivas, Pichai and Mehta, a lot of Indian-origin people are involved in this story — recently found that Google acted illegally to preserve its monopoly, mainly by paying billions of dollars to make its search engine the default on browsers and devices. The judge is now considering remedies, which could in theory include forcing Google to sell Chrome. Google, on its part, has said it will appeal. Until that appeal has been exhausted, there is little chance of an imminent forced but the chance is there. And it is this crack that Perplexity is exploiting as it makes its public bid. However, the ground realities also mean that it is nearly impossible for Perplexity to buy Chrome even if it were available. The key bit here is that Perplexity is just too small. The company has so far raised $1 billion from various sources, and its entire private valuation is estimated to be around $18 billion. In such a scenario, how it will fund a purchase of Chrome for $34.5 billion becomes an interesting question. The only way for the company to manage this would be with the help of borrowings or some sort of largesse from a bigger tech company. But that brings another question? Why would someone lend money to a (relatively) small company like Perplexity to purchase something like Chrome, which outside of Google, might not even be all that valuable? There are no good answers at the moment. A bluster and PR exerciseadvertisementInstead of being a serious bid, the move from Perplexity seems like a classic bluster that the Srinivas-led company makes from time to time. This three-year-old AI company is known for making bold public moves, and it is no stranger to headline-grabbing announcements. Earlier in late January, it wanted to buy TikTok's US operations. But that didn't go anywhere. More significantly, such announcements from Perplexity help it create a lot of buzz. One X user said that Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has essentially bought himself 'free press' by getting millions of people to search for what Perplexity is. In the process, the company sets a price floor for Chrome if any real negotiations ever occur. Even if it never comes close to raising the money, it has already achieved a marketing is a view also endorsed by M G Siegler, a tech blogger and former partner at Google Ventures. Siegler is well-connected in Silicon Valley. On his website, Siegler wrote, 'Perplexity's move is clearly a publicity stunt, and I respect the hustle to continually get (media) to write about your company. And it has the added benefit of adding pressure to the antitrust case, trying to showcase to the judge that others would be willing to buy Chrome from Google.'Yes, that impact on the antitrust case that Google is fighting is another valid angle. Several commentators, including Siegler, have highlighted this. 'The Perplexity offer could be an attempt to signal to the judge that there is an interested buyer, should he force a sale,' he wrote on his another user on social media suggests the offer is really a 'stalking horse bid' designed to influence the antitrust case. The idea is that Perplexity's public interest in Chrome could weaken Google's argument that no viable buyer exists, subtly increasing the odds of a forced divestiture — a result that would benefit Perplexity even without a there you have it. Although the tech circles are busy with buzz around Perplexity and Chrome, a sale is not going to be possible at the moment. But chances are that the sale was also not the aim of Aravind Srinivas when he wrote his letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Instead, the objective was likely to create buzz. And on that count, Perplexity has succeeded.- Ends
Indian Express
23-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why both Apple and Meta are interested in buying Perplexity AI
In Silicon Valley, what matters most is staying ahead of the competition. If you are Apple or Meta and find yourself short on talent or unable to build the technology in-house, the typical approach is to spend big. That usually means acquiring a successful company, bringing in the team behind the product, and either integrating it into your core offerings or giving the founders enough autonomy to continue innovating within your brand. It's an approach many Silicon Valley companies have embraced—some have made blockbuster acquisitions, while others have gotten burned. Last week, both Apple and Meta made headlines with news of their interest in acquiring Perplexity AI, a leading AI startup founded by Indian-origin computer scientist Arvind Srinivas. While major Silicon Valley players often work behind the scenes to quietly pursue companies they are interested in, this time two tech giants are eyeing Perplexity—at the same time. The timing makes it even more interesting, especially in the case of Apple, which typically avoids bringing in outside talent and prefers to build competing technologies in-house. Bloomberg first reported that Meta approached Perplexity about a potential takeover before the company recently invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI. Unsurprisingly, the San Francisco–based AI startup was also on Apple's radar, according to another Bloomberg report. It's not clear whether Perplexity is up for sale, whether Meta or Apple has held formal talks to acquire the company, or how close either might be to sealing a deal. We may not know until one of them makes an official announcement. While Meta has been on a shopping spree for months, Apple's name entering the mix is particularly interesting. It could signal a turning point in Cupertino's AI strategy—something many have been anticipating, especially after its underwhelming AI showing at the company's recent developers' conference. The interest from both Silicon Valley giants raises an important question: why are they eyeing a much smaller company like Perplexity? The answer may be that this rising AI darling holds the potential to supercharge their AI ambitions in the escalating battle against Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. When Perplexity was founded in 2022 by a team of AI researchers and machine learning experts—Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho—in San Francisco, the idea behind the startup was to 'democratise access to knowledge.' While the AI-driven search engine and chatbot rose quickly, Perplexity AI was initially mocked as little more than an 'AI wrapper.' Now, its greatest strength lies in allowing users to choose from a range of powerful large language models (LLMs), though it also has its own LLM called Sonar. The startup has built various services on top of these LLMs, giving consumers real choice and flexibility. This ability to rapidly develop and launch new features on top of popular LLMs is what helped Perplexity gain its user base and rise in popularity. As of mid-2024, it reportedly had around 15 million users. Perplexity's rise is especially unexpected in its emergence as a serious search engine contender. Both insiders and the general public have praised its search capabilities, with some calling it a potential challenger to Google's dominance in the space. Many have tried and failed to replicate Google over the years—Neeva, for instance, shut down in 2023 after struggling to gain traction. But Google itself appears to be on shaky ground. Users have increasingly complained that Google's search results are cluttered with low-quality, spammy websites gaining the rankings. As a result, many people have begun turning to platforms like Reddit and TikTok for more authentic answers. Neither Perplexity nor ChatGPT has replaced Google yet, but there are growing signs that user search behaviour is shifting—and new players are emerging. Even Google is trying to reinvent itself with a new feature in its search engine called AI Overviews, which offers summarised answers on the search page itself. While Perplexity is slowly gaining more users, it has also faced controversy. The company has been accused by major publishers of bypassing paywalls and plagiarizing content. That said, Perplexity has quickly become one of the most buzzing products in the tech world. The company is currently valued at over $14 billion. Cupertino took an early lead in artificial intelligence with Siri in the early 2010s, but the company is now virtually absent from the current AI race. In fact, Apple is lagging behind other FAANG — an acronym for the top tech companies: Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now Alphabet) — companies when it comes to AI. Its much-hyped Apple Intelligence has been underwhelming at best, and the promised Siri overhaul has been delayed—with no clear timeline in sight. Apple appears to be years behind the competition, painting a picture of weak leadership, flawed decision-making, and poor integration between teams. The company's recently concluded Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote included little to no mention of AI—a clear sign that Apple failed to anticipate the generative AI boom and was caught off guard. However, Apple has been developing a version of Siri that is entirely based on large language models (LLMs), aiming to make it more conversational and better at processing information. This new version is expected to eventually replace the current hybrid Siri that Apple is using, but we will have to wait until sometime next year to see how polished the new Siri actually is. A major difference between Apple and other companies in bringing AI to the masses is that Cupertino is more open to partnerships—such as the one it has with OpenAI. The idea is that Apple will combine its own machine learning models with generative AI technologies from partners to power features within Apple Intelligence. It's a smart way to deliver the best of AI through collaboration. And since Apple has some of the best hardware on the market—and billions of active users—it makes sense to work with various AI companies and build new features on top of their LLMs. But the real question is whether Apple's hardware-first business model puts it at a disadvantage in the AI age—or whether we are simply expecting Apple to behave like Google or OpenAI and invest billions in AI as a core product. What's often overlooked is that Apple's business model is fundamentally different from the major players in AI. Apple is not (yet) an AI-first company—though it could become one in the future if its devices and software are redesigned around AI. While Google and OpenAI aim to sell their AI technologies to others and monetise them directly, Apple's focus is on serving its own customers—those who buy iPhones, Macs, and other devices—by integrating AI features into its existing software ecosystem. Apple is also morally accountable to its users, which is why it maintains a strong emphasis on building a private, user-focused version of AI. If that approach takes more time to deliver, Apple is willing to wait—and that's okay, even if it takes longer than expected. Apple has made a choice, and its partnership-driven approach comes with both pros and cons. The company can either compete directly with OpenAI and Google by developing its own large language model (LLM) as advanced as theirs and integrating it into Apple Intelligence, or it can give consumers the option to choose between assistants—like Siri and Gemini, for example. However, taking the latter route risks complicating Apple's business model and could create a confusing user experience, such as having two voice assistants running on the same iPhone. For Apple, its current position in the AI age is a high-risk battle. The company could open its wallet to acquire a major AI company or poach the brightest software developers to build a team of AI experts. Apple might already be quietly doing this behind the scenes. Apple rumoured move to acquire Perplexity AI suggests a potential shift in its AI strategy. In some ways, Perplexity AI and Apple share similarities, and the long-term impact of integrating Perplexity's technology with Apple's hardware and software could be significant but in a positive way. Perplexity's search tool—with its text interface, voice controls, and Apple-like design—resonates more strongly on iOS than on Android. Perhaps the secret to Perplexity AI lies in how it is redefining the search engine experience. While traditional search engines like Google (built on crawling, indexing, and ranking) constantly scan and catalog the internet, Perplexity AI takes a different approach. Instead of relying solely on static results, its search engine transforms search into a natural conversation. Users can phrase questions as they would when speaking to another person, rather than using keyword strings. This conversational flow allows users to ask follow-up questions, refine queries, or explore related topics without starting over. Additionally, Perplexity AI's responses include numbered footnotes that link directly to original sources, improving transparency. It scans the web rapidly to find the latest information, and thanks to its multimodal capabilities—supporting text, speech, and more—users can even upload images to receive detailed explanations of visual content. The result is a more user-friendly, transparent, and informative search experience. Perhaps Cupertino is exploring the idea of creating its own AI-based search engine to reduce its long-term reliance on Google. While talk of Apple acquiring Perplexity AI may still be just a rumour, the reality is that Apple needs both top-tier AI talent and a clear long-term strategy for integrating AI into its products. Maybe Apple wants to move beyond its current partnership strategy and is now aiming for full control over the user experience. Gaining access to Perplexity AI's talented team and its ready-made alternative to Google Search could mark the beginning of what Apple has long envisioned as the core experience behind Apple Intelligence. In May, Apple's Senior Vice-President Eddy Cue revealed that the company had discussed a possible Safari integration with Perplexity during Google's ongoing search antitrust case. Apple has been under increasing pressure to end its partnership with Google, which currently pays Cupertino billions of dollars each year to remain the default search engine on the iPhone. While that could mean the end of the billions Apple receives from Google if regulators apply pressure, Cupertino also needs an alternative—and a long-term bet on Perplexity AI makes a lot of sense. Though it remains to be seen whether Apple will invest in Perplexity AI or move to acquire the startup outright, one major hurdle could be regulatory approval. Apple has already faced accusations of creating a monopoly through its App Store and its dominant role as a gatekeeper—concerns that could intensify if it attempts a multi-billion dollar acquisition. However, Apple has generally avoided high-profile acquisitions. Its last major deal was the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014. Historically, the company prefers smaller acquisitions, usually aimed at bringing talented teams on board to kickstart new projects or to fill talent gaps in existing internal efforts. While Apple is rather cautious with acquisitions, Meta is known for large-scale deals. Meta has made a number of high-profile acquisitions in the past, and in many cases, it has allowed those brands to shine on their own. Take, for example, the photo-sharing platform Instagram or the messaging service WhatsApp—both highly successful deals that continue to pay dividends today. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now under pressure and must answer to shareholders about how the company plans to win the AI race against OpenAI and Google's parent company, Alphabet. That explains why Meta is on a spending spree and actively eyeing AI companies, even though the cost of acquiring them during the peak of the AI boom is astronomically high. Just recently, Meta made a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, gaining access to star developer and startup founder Alexandr Wang—a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout who founded the company at age 19. The 41-year-old Meta CEO has also reportedly attempted to acquire Perplexity AI and Safe Superintelligence, the latter launched a year ago by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Meta is now reportedly planning to hire former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and his business partner Daniel Gross, who had been leading the $32 billion AI startup Safe Superintelligence. In recent months, Meta has upped its spending on data centers investments and potential the added cost of AI hardware. Cash isn't a problem for Meta; what the company is focused on now is assembling a dream team to develop AI technology that aligns with Mark Zuckerberg's vision. Unlike Apple, which is a hardware-first company, Meta's business is more diversified—spanning its core advertising unit, Instagram's algorithm-driven content, as well as VR and smart glasses initiatives. Mark Zuckerberg often talks about the company's ambition to build a new computing platform that will one day replace smartphones, and to achieve that, Meta needs better AI models and the technology to power them. It's a massive undertaking, given Meta's presence across social media, advertising, and now hardware. It requires not only significant capital but also a long-term vision—and, more importantly, a 'superintelligence team.' But compared to OpenAI and Google, Meta has made slower progress in artificial intelligence, despite having vast resources and top-tier talent. The company's current AI strategy centers around an open-source approach built on its Llama family of models. In April, Meta announced the Llama 4 AI models, which were not well received by developers. So far, Meta has only released two smaller versions of Llama 4 and has stated it will eventually release a larger and more powerful 'Behemoth' model. This suggests that Meta remains behind Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic in the AI race. That leaves Meta with no choice but to speed up its efforts to hire the right talent. It's well known in Silicon Valley that star developers are few—and they come at a high cost. In the latest episode of the Uncapped podcast, hosted by his brother, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has attempted to recruit OpenAI employees by offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million, along with even larger annual compensation packages. This underscores just how desperate—Meta is to secure top-tier AI talent. Poaching is normalised in Silicon Valley – and certainly not new. With Perplexity AI reportedly on the radar of both Meta and Apple, it's clear that both companies are keen to acquire the Arvind Srinivas–led startup. Meta has previously been in talks to acquire the company, highlighting just how much it values Perplexity's potential. For Meta, the acquisition would be strategically important in improving its Meta AI assistant—which already serves over a billion monthly active users across the company's family of apps—by making it more personalised and better tuned for voice-based conversations. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
