Meta was considering acquiring artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI. CNBC reports that the companies held talks but no deal was reached. The talks ended “by mutual consent,” according to sources familiar with the matter, although one source said Perplexity AI itself walked away from the potential acquisition.
The Perplexity acquisition is another sign of Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive push to bolster Meta’s AI presence amid pressure from rivals such as OpenAI and Google. According to CNBC, Zuckerberg is keen to keep up with the pace of both basic AI models and end-user applications, and is willing to aggressively recruit top developers, even if it means aggressively poaching them, sources told CNBC.
Following the failure of Perplexity AI, Meta announced a multi-billion dollar deal with Scale AI. Meta took a 49% stake in Scale AI, albeit without voting rights, and its founder Alexander Wang and several other employees will join Meta’s team to develop artificial intelligence.
Earlier this year, Meta also showed interest in Safe Superintelligence, a startup that was valued at $32 billion in its latest funding round. Following the talks, Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman joined Meta to develop new products. They will also remain as principals of their venture firm NFDG, in which Meta will take a stake.
In a parallel interview, OpenAI's Sam Altman said that Meta even tried to lure OpenAI employees by offering extremely attractive conditions, including bonuses of up to $100 million. In his opinion, Meta sees OpenAI as its main competitor and is willing to take big risks to strengthen its position in the market.
By the way, it was also recently reported that Apple is considering buying Perplexity AI to strengthen its AI development. Such a move could be a significant milestone in the development of Apple Intelligence and the improvement of the Siri voice assistant.