A year after unveiling Apple Intelligence at WWDC with fanfare around its "on-device processing," "personalized assistant," and "privacy protection" features, Apple's AI momentum has faltered. Initial enthusiasm from users and developers gave way to disappointment as core capabilities—including the revamped Siri—faced repeated delays. At this year's WWDC, Apple Intelligence remained incomplete, with the new Siri pushed to 2026. Yet seismic shifts may be imminent. Multiple reports indicate Apple is internally debating a bid for AI unicorn Perplexity while seriously considering acquiring European counterpart Mistral. Valued at $14 billion, Perplexity would mark Apple's largest-ever acquisition, dwarfing its $3 billion Beats purchase in 2014. Mistral, though smaller, commands a €6 billion valuation. Together, they represent a staggering 150 billion yuan target—an uncharacteristic splurge for a company renowned for acquisition restraint. Since Beats, Apple shunned major deals, preferring modest startups over headline-grabbing takeovers. Now targeting two AI frontrunners simultaneously signals a strategic pivot. Can these acquisitions truly patch Apple's AI gaps? More crucially, can Apple integrate external expertise to address structural flaws in its AI strategy?

Perplexity and Mistral offer divergent solutions. Founded days after ChatGPT's 2022 debut by ex-OpenAI and Meta engineers, Perplexity challenges Google with its generative search engine that prioritizes verified sources and rapid responses. Its user base surpassed 10 million early this year, processing 780 million queries in May alone. Recently launched browser Comet expands its AI agent capabilities. For Apple, acquiring Perplexity could immediately supercharge Siri, Spotlight, and Safari with ChatGPT-like interactions—transforming Siri's notoriously clunky responses through enhanced contextual understanding and real-time accuracy. Crucially, Perplexity doesn't train foundation models but fine-tunes existing ones (like OpenAI's and Anthropic's), letting Apple merge its front-end prowess with Apple Intelligence's backend while amplifying privacy and system integration. This plug-and-play compatibility aligns perfectly with Apple's integration-driven innovation model.

Mistral, conversely, operates at the infrastructure layer. The Paris-based firm, founded by DeepMind and Meta alumni, specializes in compact, high-performance open-source models like 7B and Mixtral 8x7B. Dominating benchmarks on Hugging Face and LM-Eval, its resource-efficient architecture dovetails with Apple's on-device processing dogma. Acquiring Mistral would grant Apple an "engine core" for long-term AI autonomy—reducing reliance on external models across iPhones, iPads, and Vision Pro while enabling deeper customization.

Apple's urgency stems from strategic missteps. While rivals embedded AI across products, Apple's disjointed internal structure—with Siri under Craig Federighi, AI models under John Giannandrea, and services under Eddy Cue—created bureaucratic inertia. The company's rigid "local-first, privacy-centric" approach left it stranded between undercooked in-house models and half-hearted external partnerships like its ChatGPT integration. Recent leadership shuffles—Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell reportedly replacing Giannandrea on Siri, and Federighi advocating third-party models—highlight escalating pressure. Compounding this, Apple lags in critical AI competencies: model training, inference optimization, and task generalization. Even its signature on-device deployment suffers from inadequate model compression and multimodal limitations.

Acquiring Perplexity could bridge front-end interaction gaps overnight, while Mistral would accelerate backend capabilities. Yet formidable obstacles remain. Perplexity's valuation invites shareholder scrutiny and regulatory hurdles; Mistral's French roots and open-source ethos risk EU intervention. Beyond financials, cultural assimilation poses existential questions: Can Apple's siloed teams harmonize with external innovators? In an AI race measured in weeks, not years, acquisitions offer shortcuts—not guarantees. For Apple, catching up requires not just buying technology, but fundamentally rewiring its DNA.