Apple Used Google Tensor Chips to Develop Apple Intelligence

Apple used Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) developed by Google instead of Nvidia's widely-used graphics processing units (GPUs) to construct two critical components of Apple Intelligence.

Apple Intelligence General Feature
The decision is detailed in a new research paper published by Apple that highlights its reliance on Google's cloud hardware (via CNBC). The paper reveals that Apple utilized 2,048 of Google's TPUv5p chips to build AI models and 8,192 TPUv4 processors for server AI models. The research paper does not mention Nvidia explicitly, but the absence of any reference to Nvidia's hardware in the description of Apple's AI infrastructure is telling and this omission suggests a deliberate choice to favor Google's technology.

The decision is noteworthy given Nvidia's dominance in the AI processor market and since Apple very rarely discloses its hardware choices for development purposes. Nvidia's GPUs are highly sought after for AI applications due to their performance and efficiency. Unlike Nvidia, which sells its chips and systems as standalone products, Google provides access to its TPUs through cloud services. Customers using Google's TPUs have to develop their software within Google's ecosystem, which offers integrated tools and services to streamline the development and deployment of AI models.

In the paper, Apple's engineers explain that the TPUs allowed them to train large, sophisticated AI models efficiently. They describe how Google's TPUs are organized into large clusters, enabling the processing power necessary for training Apple's AI models. Apple has announced plans to invest over $5 billion in AI server enhancements over the next two years, which should bolster its AI capabilities and reduce its dependence on external hardware providers.

In addition to detailing its use of Google's TPUs, the paper addresses ethical considerations in AI development. Apple emphasized its adherence to responsible data practices, claiming that no private user data was used in training its AI models. The company relied on a mix of publicly available, licensed, and open-sourced datasets for training purposes. Apple added that its training data set, which includes publicly available web data and licensed content, was curated to protect user privacy.

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Top Rated Comments

MacHelp_75 Avatar
15 months ago
There is a history between Apple and Nvidia. Lot's of bad blood over GPU's led them to AMD prior to Apple Silicon. If senior leaders are still around who lived through that it may have affected the choice. Speculation obviously, but one supported by history.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bigboy29 Avatar
15 months ago
Responses here are hilarious.

Apple partners with both Google and Microsoft for various cloud things. What they used (the hardware) has absolutely no bearing on the model or Apple's implementation of the model, no? That's kind of like saying "Apple sucks because they use HP in the data center (vs. Dell for example)".

Apple has an initiative called ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) which is how they are creating an infrastructure for AI training using their own (M) silicon.

Tensor Vs. Nvidia is kind of like arguing over the brand of shovel you use to dig a trench. It does not mean that Apple Intelligence is all of a sudden a Google Gemini AI rebranded.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bLackjackj Avatar
15 months ago

So not only was Apple reliant on Google services
Apple IS already reliant on Google services. Where do you think icloud resides?? Of course they are going to chose a partner they are already doing business with. Thats called business sense.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Contact_Feanor Avatar
15 months ago

So while Apple may not have used user attributed data, Google still knows exactly what Apple is doing in AI, exactly how their models perform, and can compare their own AI with Apple's AI since they have both.

Sounds like a win-win for Google, Apple not so much. I wonder how much intellectual property Apple is giving up just to say "We can do that too!"

This sounds like a pretty big failure at the executive level.
This isn't exactly true. Cloud based infrastructure usually has pretty good checks in place to protect customer privacy exactly because of this sort of thing. Microsoft can't/doesn't look at everything that's on azure, amazon doesn't look at everything on their web services exactly for this reason.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mystery hill Avatar
15 months ago

Tensor ... chips that are 2yrs behind the industry standard and using old Samsung Foundry manufacturing processes until next year!
Apple aren’t using phone chips found in the Pixels.

They are using Google’s Cloud TPU v5p.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/introducing-cloud-tpu-v5p-and-ai-hypercomputer
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cuiver Avatar
15 months ago

What an ABSOLUTE JOKE!

Tensor ... chips that are 2yrs behind the industry standard and using old Samsung Foundry manufacturing processes until next year!

This is a colossal failure of endeavor on Apple's part. The ONLY reason to use Tensor chips in 2024 is simply for being efficient in your code as the SoC is garbage! I'm not just talking out my arse here cause even Samsung's much hated SoC the Exynos 2400 outperforms on ALL measurements and in real world tasks and applications as well.

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s24_vs_google_pixel_8_review_battery_camera_price_compared-news-62189.php

Sorry ONLY in video playback minutes the Google Pixel 8 which is the tensor chip Apple supposedly used is 'SLIGHTLY' better by just a few minutes more.
They are using Tensor Processing Units (below), not the mobile SoC named Tensor.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)