An Apple research paper published on Monday revealed that Apple will rely on chips designed by Google rather than industry leader Nvidia to build two key components of the artificial intelligence software infrastructure for its upcoming AI devices and features.
Apple’s decision to rely on Google’s cloud infrastructure is notable, as Nvidia produces some of the most sought-after AI processors.
Nvidia controls about 80% of the market, including chips made by Google, Amazon.com and other cloud computing companies.
Apple did not explicitly say in the research paper that it did not use Nvidia chips, but there was no mention of Nvidia hardware in the description of the hardware and software infrastructure of its AI tools and features.
Apple did not comment on Monday.
The iPhone maker said that to train its AI models, it used two types of Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs), which are arranged in large clusters of chips.
To build the AI models that run on iPhones and other devices, Apple used 2,048 TPUv5p chips. For its server AI models, Apple deployed 8,192 TPUv4 processors.
Nvidia does not design TPUs, instead focusing its efforts on so-called graphics processing units (GPUs), which are widely used for AI efforts.
Unlike Nvidia, which sells its chips and systems as standalone products, Google sells access to TPUs through its Google Cloud Platform. Customers interested in buying access must build software through Google’s Cloud Platform to use the chips.
Apple is releasing portions of Apple Intelligence to its beta users this week.
Reuters reported the use of TPU chips in June, but Apple did not reveal the full extent of its reliance on Google hardware until Monday’s research paper.
Google did not respond to a request for comment, while Nvidia declined to comment.
Apple engineers said in the paper that with Google’s chips it would be possible to build even larger, more sophisticated models than the two models discussed in the paper.
Apple unveiled a number of new AI features at its developer conference in June, including integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into its software.
Shares of the Cupertino, California-based company fell 0.1% to $218.24 in regular trading on Monday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
