Apple executives have internally discussed the possibility of acquiring French language-model specialist Mistral AI and U.S. search start-up Perplexity, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the talks. The discussions are preliminary and no offer has been made, according to the report, which was later summarized by Reuters. A deal for either company would mark an unusually large transaction for Apple, which has generally avoided multi-billion-dollar takeovers. Apple’s most expensive purchase to date is Beats Electronics for about $3 billion in 2014. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said last month that the company is now "very open" to acquisitions that could accelerate its artificial-intelligence roadmap. Mistral was valued at more than $6 billion after a Series B round last year and is reportedly seeking additional financing that could lift its valuation to roughly $10 billion. Perplexity, whose backers include Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been valued in private funding discussions at between $14 billion and $18 billion. Perplexity told Reuters it is unaware of any merger talks involving the company, while Apple and Mistral declined to comment.