Apple eyes semiconductor startups to accelerate AI chip development
Apple is reportedly eyeing semiconductor startups to speed up its AI chip development and rely less on NVIDIA's hardware.
Right now, Apple uses its own chips for some AI tasks in data centers, but still depends on NVIDIA GPUs (via Google Cloud) for bigger jobs, like running Google Gemini models in Siri.
Apple bought Q.ai for nearly $2B
Slow progress on Apple's own server chip, "Baltra," has made the search for outside talent more urgent.
The company is also interested in startups making smaller AI models for iPhones as it aims to bring smarter features across all its devices.
After buying Israeli startup Q.ai for nearly $2 billion in January, its biggest deal since Beats, Apple seems ready for even bigger moves, especially with leadership changes like John Ternus set to become CEO and Johny Srouji taking on a larger role.