Apple has hinted at the possibility of a major purchase. Who could we be talking about?

Apple after a report on Thursday, April 30, announced a change in its financial policy: this could be a hint of the tech giant's plans to make a major purchase in the AI field, MarketWatch believes. One likely target could be AI startup Perplexity, the publication suggests. This company was suddenly praised by Apple during its conference call after the report. Dan Ives, a well-known Wedbush analyst and "techno-optimist" on Wall Street, also considers the startup a possible candidate for a deal.

Apple announced at a conference call on April 30 that it is changing its financial policy and will now evaluate cash and debt separately. According to CFO Kevan Parekh, this should help the company make better decisions about how to use its debt and cash portfolios to support the business.

Prior to that, since 2018, Apple had been reducing its huge cash hoard in an effort to bring it down to debt levels over time. This financial policy was called net-cash-neutral position. To do this, the company increased its share buybacks from the market and began raising dividend payments.

For investors, the reversal of that policy signaled that Apple could gain more flexibility for large investments - primarily in AI, MarketWatch writes.

Apple is facing the challenge of strengthening its artificial intelligence as it lags behind its competitors in this area. The company has partnered with Google to use its Gemini AI to power its revamped Siri voice assistant. At the same time, the company is developing its own basic models. Balancing the two initiatives will require more investment, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday.

Rumors of a potential takeover by a third-party AI company have been swirling for months, MarketWatch notes. Last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple was in internal discussions about buying AI startup Perplexity. It's known for its agent-based solutions.

The startup was suddenly honored with a mention in Apple's management conference call following its April 30 earnings release: "With Apple processors and their powerful federated memory architecture, leading AI developers like Perplexity are choosing [Macs] as the preferred platform for building enterprise AI assistants that enable autonomous agents and improve workplace productivity," said Apple CFO Kevan Parekh (quoted in MarketWatch).

Apple has already announced a surprise takeover earlier this year, buying closed-source AI audio startup Q.ai. The price of the deal was not disclosed, but the Financial Times reported that it was valued at $2 billion, which would make it the second largest purchase in Apple's history after the $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics in 2014, MarketWatch writes.

Apple's M&A strategy "will likely include AI companies, Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, told MarketWatch. "We think the change in leadership at Apple and the arrival of a new CEO hints at future acquisitions, and that's a relief for investors. [...] Perplexity, in our view, could be a possible candidate," he said.

"We see concrete signs that demand for AI is impacting Apple's business, including particularly strong demand for products like the Mac mini and Mac Studio, which are increasingly being used for AI and agent-based workloads," Charles Rinehart, chief investment officer at Johnson Investment Council, said in correspondence with MarketWatch. He believes this likely influenced Apple's decision to change its financial policy.

Apple's cash strategy has led the company to become "structurally under-leveraged financially," meaning it can afford to raise more debt to support this investment cycle, Bank of America analyst Vamsi Mohan wrote in a Friday note. Still, Mohan believes Apple's costs will remain lower than its hyperscale rivals as the company continues to pursue a hybrid AI strategy, MarketWatch wrote.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor