Apple is thinking about buying AI startup Perplexity. Why the deal will provide growth for the stock

Apple shares could get a new impetus for growth if the company does decide to buy one of the largest startups in the field of artificial intelligence - Perplexity AI, Bank of America said. This would allow the iPhone maker to close the AI development gap and reduce its reliance on Google search. That Apple is mulling such a deal was reported by Bloomberg sources. Perplexity was valued in May at $14 billion.

Any positive news related to Apple's artificial intelligence initiatives will have a positive impact on the company's stock in the near-term: this includes the possible purchase of a major artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI. This was written by Bank of America analyst Vamsi Moen in a note that is quoted by CNBC.

"Any such deal (we have no direct data on the likelihood of such a deal) is likely to be viewed positively, as Apple's stock is currently overshadowed by its reputation as an 'AI laggard' as the integration of third-party artificial intelligence into [voice assistant] Siri has been delayed and the company has no advanced models of its own," Moen noted.

Analyst BofA reiterated a Buy recommendation on Apple shares (Buy rating) with a target price of $235, CNBC reported. This is more than 17% higher than the closing price on June 24.

Should the iPhone maker actually buy the Perplexity AI startup, it could solve a number of key problems, according to a BofA analyst. For example, Apple will provide quick access to a voice assistant (better than Siri), as well as get insurance against dependence on Google as the default search engine, he noted;

But if the deal goes through, it would be the largest acquisition in Apple's history, which itself carries risks, Moen writes. Among other things, the company could face regulatory hurdles, difficulties in retaining its AI development team, and obstacles in integrating the technology.

A less radical scenario - partnering with Perplexity AI instead of buying it - is also possible, according to the analyst. This could be a more "balanced approach," but such a move is unlikely to cause a similarly strong revaluation of the stock, Mohan added.

Mohan's comments come after Bloomberg, citing sources reported on June 20 that Apple executives were discussing internally the possibility of buying Perplexity AI. However, as the agency notes, there have been no talks with Perplexity itself.

Perplexity AI was founded in August 2022 in San Francisco by four engineers with experience at OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT), Google Brain, DeepMind (Google's AI lab) and Meta. One of the company's founders and its CTO is Belorussian Denis Yarats.

The company positions itself primarily as an Internet search tool and competes primarily with Google. That said, Perplexity's chatbot responds to user responses in a dialog, much like ChatGPT or Gemini. As of June 2025, the startup, according to its own data, had about 30 million queries per day, growing at more than 20% per month.

In May, The Wall Street Journal and CNBC wrote, citing sources, that Perplexity was in talks to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation, an amount that corresponds to the lower end of the range Perplexity was targeting in March, the network noted. At the time, it and Bloomberg wrote that the startup was aiming to raise $500 million to $1 billion at a valuation of $18 billion.

Apple shares were down 0.6% at the end of trading on June 24, and are 20% cheaper than they were at the start of 2025. But the most popular recommendation of analysts is to buy the securities: they have only four recommendations to sell (Sell rating) and 14 recommendations to hold (Hold) out of a total of 50, shows MarketWatch.

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