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.

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri
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.

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...

Top Rated Comments

CWallace Avatar
12 months ago
Makes sense for them to leverage their own hardware, especially if their AI implementation is designed around their neural engine and GPU designs as opposed to "commodity / off-the-shelf" hardware.

And I do not expect Apple to offer these servers at retail, so this is not the "return of the Xserve".
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
257Loner Avatar
12 months ago
There is only one reason Apple is making their own AI servers: to avoid paying Nvidia billions of dollars!
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Think|Different Avatar
12 months ago
Cannot wait to see what they do in this space! WWDC is gonna be a good one.

Attachment Image
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gank41 Avatar
12 months ago
Would be amazing if Apple started offering a newer version of their Xserve lineup again.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
5097842 Avatar
12 months ago
If they're using M2 Ultras, I hope that means they're saving the M4 Ultras for a Mac Studio / Pro release at WWDC 24 (and not WWDC 2025).
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tkaravou Avatar
12 months ago

What's the point of AI servers if apple users have on device AI?
For GPT, they need something called a LLM (Large Language Model). Think of this as a massive snapshot of the internet at a given point in time. Once that snapshot is generated, they can copy it locally to the user. So when you ask it something, it checks the local LLM (on device) and gets you the answer.

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.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)