Technology companies often catch their big break by identifying a niche and succeeding in it. Globally recognised technology companies are continuously able to tap into this reservoir of ideas, and this is often the main factor that sets them apart from their competition. Apple, of course, nailed the smartphone industry, which was the catalyst that turned it into one of the biggest companies ever.
However, to continue asserting dominance, they had to find innovation in other areas - hence the creation of iPads, AirPods and even Apple Music, which have all continued to provide valuable returns and growth for the colossal Californian tech giant.
As the world continues to turn, technology's relentless innovation is now laser focussed on artificial intelligence (AI). This has meant that Microsoft, Apple and many of the other dominant names in the industry have started diverting billions of dollars into the research and development of AI. Apple's big play is set to be its ACDC chip, but how will it work and will it propel them back to the top of the tech sector?
How do AI chips work?
It's a huge, fast-growing industry, but in a nutshell, AI chips are specifically designed for parallel processing, which allows them to handle several operations at the same time. Neural network training and inference are the two areas that require such rapid processing power, resulting in thousands of matrix and vector operations that can all be performed at the same time.
It's important to have the basics of AI chips explained to you simply so that you have a base from which to work. Once you grasp the general premise and how they operate, you can start to build a bigger picture. As they are incredibly innovative and complicated, you must do plenty of research if you want to truly understand how they work and how they're changing the world.
Apple's ACDC chip: Will it send them back to the top?
As of Q2 2024, Microsoft has made up a lot of ground on Apple. While Microsoft may have played second fiddle to Apple for much of the 2010s, it has beaten them to the punch with AI investment, which has added hundreds of billions to its company valuation and increased its share price.
ACDC stands for Apple Chips in Data Center, and as the project nears completion, many industries are eagerly waiting to see what this latest Apple project has in store. With their smartphone sales dropping and Nvidia quickly closing ground on their market cap, Apple has their back to the wall for once, and many of the executives are hoping the ACDC project will be their ticket back to the top.
Following a recent announcement that they'll be fusing AI technology to refine Siri, we know that ACDC will play a significant role in data storage, enacting smart searches tailored to users and providing more precise outcomes. How this will look in real-time is where the real challenges and big questions lie. There's still much more to come, with the prospective launch date set to be Q2 of 2025 at the earliest.
Their strategy includes patenting and operating their own hardware so that they have monolithic oversight over security. Ultimately, this allows them to be more flexible with their approach to AI and custom models. This is an ethos that has served them well. Although it has drawn criticism from some in the industry who complain that they've essentially created their own monopoly as many of their competitors rely on cloud-based services, Apple is optimistic that their ACDC project will bring them a lot more relevance in the tech sector and help close the gap on Microsoft.
Final thoughts
As is often the case in the cutthroat world of technology and global conglomerates, beating your opponents to the punch is half the battle. Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI continues to make the company as relevant as it was in the 1990s, when PCs, laptops and their groundbreaking operating system first came onto the scene.
In the eyes of some in the tech sector, Apple's products are less innovative and are becoming subpar in an industry where they have set the standard for so long. Of course, this is objective, and these conditions can transform quickly given the appropriate investments and strategies, which is ultimately what Apple will be hoping for when the ACDC project is rolled out in full at some point within the next 12 to 18 months. We expect to see and hear a lot more about their plans for this project throughout 2024 and into next year.
Post
