Apple Reportedly Building M2 Ultra and M4-Powered AI Servers
Apple has started building its own AI servers that use the M2 Ultra chip, Haitong analyst Jeff Pu reports.
Pu provided the analysis based on supply chain checks in a new note to investors seen by MacRumors. Foxconn is said to currently be assembling Apple AI servers that contain the M2 Ultra, with plans to assemble AI servers powered by the M4 chip in late 2025. Last month, a reputable source on Weibo said that Apple was working on processors for its own AI servers made with TSMC's 3nm process, targeting mass production by the second half of 2025, which may line up with this report about M4-powered AI servers.
Apple's decision to build its own AI server is reflective of the company's ongoing strategy to vertically integrate its supply chain. Apple will likely use its own chips to enhance the performance of its data centers and future AI tools that rely on the cloud.
While Apple is rumored to be prioritizing on-device processing for many of its upcoming AI tools, it is inevitable that some operations will have to occur in the cloud. By the time M4-based servers could be operational in data centers, Apple's new AI strategy should be well underway.
In line with broader industry expectations, Pu also expects Apple to announce on-device AI features at WWDC in June, such as audio recording summarization, photo and video editing, and live translation. While the iPhone 16 lineup will tout a range of AI features, 2025's iPhone 17 models will apparently be more focused AI devices.
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Top Rated Comments
And I do not expect Apple to offer these servers at retail, so this is not the "return of the Xserve".
So what's the point of the AI server?
1. Generating those models takes a LOT of GPU power for a long period of time. This is what all these companies are paying the big bucks for.
2. Those snapshots get stale quickly, so they need to run a new model every so often. It can cost billions to generate a new model so you don't want to do it too often.
3. As they improved their code, they need to regenerate parts or all of those models.
So does that mean if the snapshot is from Jan 1 I won't get any recent data?
Yes.
To fix that, a lot of the GPTs will leverage the internet to get more up-to-date results. That's slower and the results aren't as good. This part will not be handled on-device obviously.
This is why Apple is trying to strike a deal with Gemini and OpenAI. It's also possible that Apple is looking to handle the fresh data on their own, which would require more servers.