TECH NEWS – Apple’s quarterly financial report revealed that the Cupertino-based company pocketed huge profits.

The company posted a profit of $23.4 billion on revenue of $94.04 billion, leaving it with a substantial cash reserve. These funds are typically allocated toward acquisitions, but given the California giant’s lack of progress in generative artificial intelligence, this substantial sum could address several issues. There has been talk of acquiring Perplexity, which could give Apple an advantage over OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, but Apple is currently focusing on smaller companies.

During the business report, we learned that Apple had $133 billion in cash in June. However, the company has yet to show significant results in AI. Fortunately, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated that investments will increase significantly, but Apple has no experience in spending on acquisitions to advance its AI goals. The company has acquired about seven companies this year, none of which were expensive. The most expensive acquisition to date was Beats for $3 billion. Analysts estimate that Apple would have to pay more than $40 billion to acquire Perplexity, which would give Apple an advantage in generative AI. Why would Apple change its long-term strategy of acquiring smaller companies immediately?

It is unclear whether any of the companies acquired this year focused on generative AI. However, many industry skeptics are convinced that Apple’s internal team is unable to overcome the necessary obstacles to introduce competitive chatbot services, products, or features like ChatGPT.

Currently, it does not appear that Apple will acquire Perplexity; however, we may see a huge surprise in the coming months. In any case, the company has enough cash to acquire three similar companies, so it could afford to acquire Perplexity. Perhaps we will see what the Tim Cook–led company ultimately does.

Source: WCCFTech, CNBC