Apple is ramping up research and development of its own AI chips to reduce its dependence on third-party developers, potentially ending its decades-long unhappy relationship with Nvidia for good.
In November 2020, Apple announced the M1 chip, its first foray into self-designed processors for the Mac lineup. The move effectively severed Apple’s relationship with Intel, which was responsible for previous processors in Apple’s computers.
Now, Apple appears to be preparing to reduce its dependence on another third-party developer, Nvidia. Apple is currently working with Nvidia to power many of the capabilities behind Apple Intelligence.
Technology Magazine points out that NVIDIA currently controls between 70% and 95% of the market share for AI chips. Its position in the market has propelled Nvidia to the top of the most valuable companies. As CNBC pointed out, it also ousted Apple from the top spot, albeit briefly.
Interestingly, Apple isn’t buying Nvidia chips. Rather, it rents access from cloud services operated by Amazon and Microsoft. However, Apple is likely preparing for a further severance after reportedly partnering with Broadcom to design its own AI server chips.
long and unhappy relationship
Apple’s relationship with Nvidia began in the early 2000s, when the company began using Nvidia chips in Macs to improve graphics performance. However, relations between the two companies were still strained.
During a meeting with NVIDIA senior executives, then-CEO Steve Jobs reportedly said that NVIDIA products contained technology copied from Pixar sources, The Information reported. spoke. At the time, Jobs had control of an animation studio. The executive pushed back on the idea, but Jobs ignored him for the rest of the meeting.
Meanwhile, Nvidia doesn’t seem to be enjoying working with Apple either. Apple views Nvidia as being overly demanding, especially of companies that aren’t consistently in its top 10 customers.
According to former employees, Apple found it very difficult to work with Nvidia. Nvidia’s standard chips aren’t very energy efficient and generate a lot of heat, both of which are undesirable qualities in a laptop. When Apple approached Nvidia about the possibility of designing a custom chip for the MacBook, Nvidia balked at the idea.
Tensions escalated in 2008 when defective graphics chips designed by Nvidia found their way into Apple computers, as well as those made by Dell and HP. This event, known as “bumpgate,” was the driving force behind Apple’s switch to AMD, and ultimately helped Apple develop Apple Silicon.
In the 2010s, Nvidia began to suspect that Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm were using its patented technology to render graphics on smartphones. Nvidia will continue to charge license fees to suspected violators.
In 2019, Apple stopped working with Nvidia on drivers for macOS Mojave. This not only cut off most future support, but also prevented modern cards from working with PCI-E Macs or Macs with eGPUs due to a lack of driver functionality.
Neither company was particularly reluctant to collaborate with the other, at least on a development level. Apple developers told AppleInsider that support for Nvidia’s higher-end cards would be welcomed, and even praised Nvidia engineers.
This change was reportedly because someone at the top of the company didn’t want Nvidia’s support. At this point, many acknowledged the discord between the two companies, but no one was sure who was responsible for pulling out driver support.
Apple has no intention of ending the feud
Now, NVIDIA executives claim the battle is largely one-sided. Nvidia told The Information that the company remains open to working with Apple.
For now, it appears Apple is aiming to release its own AI processor, codenamed Baltra, in 2026. Baltra is expected to be manufactured by TSMC using the N3P process. Announced in April 2024, the technology is expected to first appear in the iPhone 17 Pro’s processor.