Checking in on Perplexity

Apple has shown no interest in acquiring Perplexity AI, despite past speculation, as the startup has faded into an "afterthought" tier of AI companies. Perplexity now relies on attention-seeking stunts and continues to generate negative headlines, including a recent class-action lawsuit. The company's diminished standing has silenced earlier predictions that Apple might or should purchase the firm.

Yours truly, last August: I can’t see why Apple would want to get involved with a company like this though. Gurman’s report makes it sound like his sources are inside Apple, but man, this “Apple + Perplexity” thing feels more like something Perplexity would be seeding than one that Apple executives would be leaking. Perplexity is still occasionally in the news https://www.techmeme.com/search/query?q=perplexity&wm=false often not in good ways https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/04/perplexity-class-action-sham , but it seems to me they’ve slipped into the “afterthought” tier of AI startups — which is exactly why they started leaning into clownish stunts last year https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/12/perplexity-jumps-shark-stunt-offer-to-buy-chrome . Everyone who previously suggested Apple should — or even might — buy them has gone silent.