Apple is shopping for AI hardware firms amid performance issues

Apple is reportedly exploring acquisitions of AI chip startups after experiencing significant performance bottlenecks with its current M2 Ultra-powered servers. The tech giant has approached several semiconductor makers and financial bankers to gauge potential takeovers in an effort to bolster its cloud infrastructure. According to reports, Apple's proprietary Mac-based chips were insufficient to run heavy workloads, such as Google's Gemini model for the revamped Siri, forcing the company to rely on Nvidia GPUs hosted on Google Cloud. To make matters worse, Apple's next-generation custom server chip, codenamed "Baltra," has faced developmental delays. While Apple is not typically known for massive acquisitions, it possesses over $45 billion in cash reserves to aggressively fund a strategic pivot into the server silicon market.

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