According to insiders familiar with the situation, Apple is allegedly building its own processor for artificial intelligence applications to run in data centers.
Targeting Apple’s server architecture, the effort, internally dubbed effort ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center), seeks to leverage Apple’s experience in chip design.
Apple Working On Its Own AI?
Although Apple has not formally responded to the report, its stock increased by 1% on Tuesday morning before the bell. Apple has emerged as a major force in chip design in recent years, thanks in large part to the success of the semiconductors it developed for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac laptops.
It is anticipated that Apple’s server processor will be more concerned with running AI models—in particular, inference tasks—than with training the Nvidia-dominant AI models.
In response to calls for a quicker rollout of AI services, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently made hints about the company’s intentions to release features driven by AI technology in the upcoming months.
As per Cook, “We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and we’re making significant investments.”
On Tuesday, Apple is scheduled to hold a virtual event where it might introduce new iPad models with a new chip meant to speed up AI operations.
ACDC Under Development For a Long Time
It’s said that Project ACDC has been under development for a number of years, but it’s unclear if or when the new chip will be made public. Although the outcome is still unknown, Apple and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) have been working closely together to design and perhaps create these chips.
The outcome of Project ACDC could have a big impact on Apple’s capacity to provide cutting-edge services and its ability to use AI in the future. Despite having its own chip design capabilities, Apple’s dependence on outside manufacturing partners for chip production is highlighted by its cooperation with TSMC.
