Tech

Apple Is Reportedly Working on Its Own AI Hardware

  • Reading time: 2 min
ai hardware, ai, apple, ai chips, data center, project acdc

Apple is reportedly developing its own AI chips customized for data center servers, as per The Wall Street Journal.

  • Project ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) has been in development for several years.
  • Apple’s strategy reportedly focuses on leveraging existing AI models for data center optimization.

The AI race heats up as Apple is developing its own AI chips customized for data center servers, reports The Wall Street Journal (The WSJ).

Since its inception, Apple has designed its own chips for its devices, including iPads, iPhones, and Macs. So, it comes as no surprise that Apple has decided to extend its expertise to data center servers.

Details are still unknown, but a source familiar with the matter has indicated to the WSJ that the tech giant has been working on the project, internally dubbed Project ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center), for several years now.

Most of the companies that rival Apple have already either come out with their AI hardware or have been testing theirs for quite some time now. By the time they announced them in 2016, Google had been using its AI accelerators, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), internally for over a year. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been designing and building its own custom chips and accelerators for over a decade. The only one late to the party is Microsoft as it wasn’t until late last year that they announced their own AI chips. So, what’s Apple’s AI hang-up?

Apple’s approach is speculated to focus on using existing AI models, rather than developing entirely new ones from scratch. This shift in focus allows the tech giant to tailor its data centers for tasks that require quick AI responses. In an AI-powered future, efficiency is key. Energy-efficient AI chips are crucial for reducing operational costs and environmental impacts. Companies with efficient AI chips will have a significant edge in the market. So, while its rivals are currently putting their effort into making the best AI to win the race, Apple is taking a different approach. An approach that would place it in direct competition with the current chip-making beast, Nvidia.

Apple’s AI hardware is an aggressive entry into the heated competition, placing them directly in the ring with established players like Google and Nvidia. The company teased major AI-related announcements at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June. So, we’ll see what’s up their sleeve then.

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