While Apple has joined the ranks of tech giants integrating AI features into its devices, the company is quietly pursuing a strategy to reduce its reliance on Nvidia, the dominant provider of GPUs crucial for AI development, a report has said. Despite currently depending on the chipmaker’s technology, like many others in the industry, Apple is taking steps to lessen its dependence on Nvidia because of an ‘allergy’.
According to a report by The Information, unlike other tech giants who are buying up Nvidia’s GPUs in bulk, Apple is primarily renting access to them through cloud providers.
“Instead of buying boatloads of Nvidia chips as its tech peers do, the iPhone maker mostly rents access to them from cloud providers like Amazon and Microsoft. In some cases-for example, to train its biggest models-Apple has rented Al chips designed in-house by Google rather than Nvidia,” the report said.
What is Apple’s ‘allergy’ with Nvidia
Apple’s move to break free from Nvidia appears to be rooted in both financial considerations and Apple’s desire for technological autonomy in its products, the report said.
“Apple’s Nvidia allergy appears to stem partly from its frugality and a desire to own and control the key technological ingredients for its products to avoid giving others leverage over its operations,” it added.
“But leaders within Apple have also quietly nursed grudges against Nvidia for nearly two decades, stemming from business disputes that originated during the era when Steve Jobs was Apple’s CEO,” the report noted, citing 10 former Apple and Nvidia employees with direct knowledge of the relationship.
Apple looking to partner with Broadcom to design AI chip
The report says that the most significant development in Apple’s quest for independence is a partnership with Broadcom to develop its own AI server chip.
“And in its boldest move yet to avoid relying on Nvidia, Apple is working with Broadcom to design an Al server chip expected to be ready for mass production by 2026,” it added.
The chip’s networking technology is said to be crucial for Al processing. If Apple succeeds with the Al chip, internally code-named Baltra, it would mark a significant milestone for the company’s silicon team, the publication said.
