Hi Synapticians!

As Silicon Valley buzzes about foundation models and autonomous “agents,” Apple now faces an equation that even 20 billion dollars may no longer solve.
For more than a decade, Google’s annual payment to remain the default search engine has financed almost one-fifth of Apple’s Services revenue. The antitrust hearing that now threatens to block that payment suddenly puts Cupertino in an unprecedented position: it must devise a plan B for online search ; an arena where its technological lead is anything but assured.

Perplexity: the unexpected wild card
Against this backdrop, internal discussions leaked on 20 June between Adrian Perica (M&A), Eddy Cue and Apple’s AI leaders about the possibility of bidding for Perplexity AI, the up-and-comer rattling Google Search with a real-time Q&A interface and proprietary index. No terms have been floated yet, but the mere fact that Apple is considering a deal that could eclipse the 3 billion dollars it paid for Beats in 2014 shows how urgent the situation feels inside the company.

An asset already in demand
Apple’s appetite is hardly unique: according to Bloomberg and CNBC, Meta sounded out Perplexity before channeling 14.3 billion dollars into Scale AI. Perplexity itself is discussing a 500-million-dollar fund-raise that would value it at 14 billion—far more than Neeva or You.com at their peak. In short, the window is closing fast and the price of entry is inflating by the day.

Apple Intelligence: necessary but not sufficient?
Apple has not stood still. At WWDC 25 it unveiled Apple Intelligence: in-house LLMs, partly executed on-device, coupled with a Foundation Models framework open to developers. The move fits Apple’s privacy-by-design DNA, but it sidesteps the real-time search-engine dimension; precisely where Perplexity excels.

The Siri syndrome
A more awkward reality remains: the promised smarter Siri overhaul, now postponed to 2026, is fueling a shareholder lawsuit and has already shaved hundreds of billions off Apple’s market cap. Critics cite limited cloud muscle and a “perfect or nothing” culture that slows Apple while rivals iterate in public.

Buying talent… or admitting lag?
Perplexity would give Apple an ultra-senior research team, a proprietary web index an, above all, a product culture that prizes cadence over perfectionism. But sealing the deal would also amount to admitting that, despite billions in R&D and the launch of Apple Silicon, the company is struggling to stay at the cutting edge of generative AI. With Google, Microsoft and even Meta already placing 10-billion-plus bets, can Apple still afford its incremental approach?

In short
Apple can easily sign the check, but will the acquisition truly fill the double void, technological and financial, that the potential end of the Google windfall would leave? The coming weeks will be worth watching: between the antitrust hearings and a possible formal offer, the AI dance is only just beginning.

Here’s the rest of the news about AI today:

• Mira Murati's AI Startup Raises $2 Billion Without Products

• Senate Moves Forward with AI Regulation Moratorium Proposal

• Cybercriminals Enhance WormGPT with Advanced AI Models

Top AI news

1. Apple Considers Acquiring AI Startup Perplexity Amid Google Deal Uncertainty
Apple is exploring the acquisition of AI startup Perplexity to prepare for a future without its $20 billion deal with Google. Internal discussions are ongoing, but no formal offer has been made. Meta also attempted to acquire Perplexity but failed to reach an agreement. Read online 🕶️

2. Mira Murati's AI Startup Raises $2 Billion Without Products
Mira Murati, former OpenAI CTO, has raised $2 billion for her AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, which is valued at $10 billion despite having no disclosed products or revenue. The startup focuses on human-AI collaboration and customizable AI, avoiding superintelligence goals. Murati's reputation is a key factor in the high valuation. Read online 🕶️

3. Senate Moves Forward with AI Regulation Moratorium Proposal
The U.S. Senate has advanced a proposal to prevent states from enforcing their own AI regulations for the next decade. This move, led by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, aims to create a unified national approach by withholding federal broadband funding from states that attempt independent AI regulation. The proposal has sparked debate over potential regulatory vacuums and state rights. Read online 🕶️

4. Cybercriminals Enhance WormGPT with Advanced AI Models
Apple's "The Illusion of Thinking" paper questions whether large language models can truly reason or merely mimic understanding. The research highlights their struggles with simple logic puzzles, suggesting a lack of generalizable reasoning. Experts are divided, with some arguing that the paper oversimplifies the issue, while others see it as confirmation of their doubts about AI's reasoning capabilities. Read online 🕶️

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