A short while ago, leakers reported that Apple was developing its own chip for AI servers, but the Wall Street Journal has now reported more detailed and concrete information on this matter.

While Microsoft and Google lead the way in AI development, Apple has yet to reveal specifics about its own efforts in this area. Behind the scenes, however, the company has reportedly been investing heavily in AI, and it is expected to roll out its own AI services before long. This effort is said to include boosting processing power on the company's flagship consumer devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, but in addition to that, Apple also appears to be developing a new chip specifically for AI processing data centers.

According to the WSJ report, the company is manufacturing an "AI chip" for data centers that could potentially run some of the new AI-based features expected to be announced at WWDC 2024 next month.

"Apple is working on its own chip designed to run AI software on data center servers, a move that could give the company a significant edge in the AI arms race," the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The project is reportedly called "ACDC" (Apple Chips in Data Center). What Apple is developing is its own silicon designed specifically for server farms dedicated to AI processing, and the company aims to optimize AI applications within its data centers for future platform versions.

Given that Apple has long developed its own chips, the shift toward developing dedicated AI server chips can be seen as a natural extension of its expertise.

The company is expected to introduce a range of features based on generative AI with iOS 18 and other software updates set to be announced at WWDC 2024 in June. Apple is also reportedly developing its own language model capable of running offline.

However, it has also been reported that Apple is in talks with both OpenAI and Google about using their AI technologies in iOS 18. It remains unclear whether Apple still intends to sign deals with third parties, or whether it will instead rely solely on its own servers.

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