How Apple Developed an Nvidia Allergy
For years, Apple has had a bumpy relationship with Nvidia. But the iPhone maker’s AI ambitions are testing how completely it can shun investments in Nvidia’s products.
Like most big tech companies with artificial intelligence ambitions, Apple has little choice but to use chips from Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are practically a de facto standard in the development and running of AI software. But Apple is working on ways to spend less on Nvidia chips without undermining its success in AI.
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 AI chips designed in-house by Google rather than Nvidia. And in its boldest move yet to avoid relying on Nvidia, Apple is working with Broadcom to design an AI server chip expected to be ready for mass production by 2026, news of which The Information first reported earlier this month.
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. 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, according to 10 former Apple and Nvidia employees with direct knowledge of the relationship.