On Monday, Apple said it relied on chips designed by Alphabet’s Google rather than industry leader Nvidia to build its new artificial-intelligence software infrastructure. This models by Google will power its forthcoming suite of AI tools and features, according to an Apple research paper it published on Monday.
Apple said on Monday that the artificial intelligence models underpinning Apple Intelligence, its AI system, were pretrained on processors designed by Google. This is a sign that Big Tech companies are looking for alternatives to Nvidia when it comes to the training of cutting-edge AI.
Apple AI models trained on Google
Apple’s choice of Google’s homegrown Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) for training was detailed in a technical paper just published by the company. Separately, Apple released a preview version of Apple Intelligence for some devices on Monday.
Apple AI training without Nvidia
Nvidia’s pricey graphics processing units (GPUs) dominate the market for high-end AI training chips, and have been in such high demand over the past couple years that they’ve been difficult to procure in the required quantities. OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic are all using Nvidia’s GPUs for their models, while other tech companies, including Google, Meta, Oracle and Tesla are snapping them up to build out their AI systems and offerings.
Apple’s decision to rely on Google’s cloud infrastructure is notable because Nvidia produces the most sought-after AI processors. Including the chips made by Google, Amazon.com and other cloud computing companies, Nvidia commands roughly 80% of the market.
Companies overinvesting in AI infrastructure
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai both made comments last week suggesting that their companies and others in the industry may be overinvesting in AI infrastructure, but acknowledged the business risk of doing otherwise was too high.
“The downside of being behind is that you’re out of position for like the most important technology for the next 10 to 15 years,” Zuckerberg said on a podcast with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.
Apple using Google chips for AI
Apple doesn’t name Google or Nvidia in its 47-page paper, but did note its Apple Foundation Model (AFM) and AFM server are trained on “Cloud TPU clusters.” That means Apple rented servers from a cloud provider to perform the calculations.
“This system allows us to train the AFM models efficiently and scalably, including AFM-on-device, AFM-server, and larger models,” Apple said in the paper.
Apple said that to train its AI models, it used two flavors of Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) that are organized in large clusters of chips. To build the AI model that will operate on iPhones and other devices, Apple used 2,048 of the TPUv5p chips. For its server AI model, Apple deployed 8,192 TPUv4 processors
Representatives for Apple and Google didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Apple Intelligence system
Apple was later to reveal its AI plans than many of its peers, which loudly embraced generative AI soon after OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. On Monday, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence. The system includes several new features, such as a refreshed look for Siri, better natural language processing and AI-generated summaries in text fields.
Over the next year, Apple plans to roll out functions based on generative AI, including image generation, emoji generation and a powered-up Siri that can access the user’s personal information and take actions inside of apps.
This is the second technical paper about Apple’s AI system, after a more general version was published in June. Apple said at the time that it was using TPUs as it developed its AI models.
Apple is scheduled to report quarterly results after the close of trading on Thursday.
Stock update
Apple share price was up at $218.24 but at closing it fell to $217.19. Nvidia share price closed at $110.77 down 0.73%. Google share price was up at $171.13 today but closed lower at $169.73.
