Apple’s Baltra ASIC Can’t Come Soon Enough As The Vas…

With the hardware side of Apple’s AI strategy reportedly in an equal, if not greater, disarray than the software side, it is hardly a surprise that the Cupertino giant has been forced to rely on Google’s servers along with its very capable Gemini model to shi…

With the hardware side of Apple's AI strategy reportedly in an equal, if not greater, disarray than the software side, it is hardly a surprise that the Cupertino giant has been forced to rely on Google's servers, along with its very capable Gemini model, to ship the revamped Siri and the AI features that come with it. Against this backdrop, the bespoke Baltra ASIC might be Apple's only viable avenue of escaping Google's ensnaring clutches.

The Information is out with a scoop today, reporting that the current use of AI servers for Apple Intelligence features has fallen far short of Apple's original expectations, leading to an embarrassing situation where around 90 percent of the Cupertino giant's Private Cloud Compute capacity is sitting idle on warehouse shelves. As a refresher, under Apple's Private Cloud Compute framework, relatively simple AI tasks are performed by using on-device models and the computational resources of the device itself, while the more complex tasks are offloaded to Apple's private cloud servers using encrypted and stateless data for subsequent inference.

However, according to The Information's sources, the current uptake of Apple Intelligence features has fallen far short of Apple's original expectations, leading to a situation where just 10 percent of Apple's Private Cloud Compute capacity has been actively deployed within data centers. What's more, the prevailing situation has been aggravated by the fact that Apple's current AI infrastructure is very fragmented, with different teams utilizing disparate technology stacks rather than leveraging a single, unified server tech stack.

The current paradigm is chronically inefficient and regularly leads to cost overruns from duplicate infrastructure. It is for this reason that Apple has picked Google's servers to power the next-gen Chatbot Siri. As a refresher, Apple intends to launch a revamped version of Siri this year, bringing the much-delayed in-app actions, personal context awareness, and on-screen awareness to its bespoke voice assistant, thereby, enabling a wide variety of agentic actions across apps, based on personal data and on-screen content.

This revamped Siri would be powered by a 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini AI model, dubbed the Foundation Models version 10. Even so, with next year's iOS 27 update, Apple is planning to launch a dedicated Siri chatbot that will run on Google's own TPUs and cloud infrastructure, but owned by Apple. The iPhone manufacturer insists that the arrangement would not result in a change in Apple's stringent privacy-related safeguards.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Siri chatbot will be baked into Apple's software rather than debuting as a standalone app, allowing it to search the web, generate content, including images, provide coding assistance, summarize and analyze information, as well as upload files. It will be able to use personal data to complete tasks and sport a substantially improved search feature. Apple is also designing a feature that will let the ‌Siri‌ chatbot view open windows and on-screen content, as well as adjust device features and settings.

The chatbot Siri will reportedly leverage a much more advanced version of Google's Gemini model, known internally as Apple Foundation Models version 11. According to Gurman, "the model is expected to be competitive with Gemini 3 and significantly more capable" than the one supporting the revamped Siri. Back in Spring 2024, multiple reports emerged that Apple was working with Broadcom on its first AI server chip, bearing the internal codename "Baltra." Some reports at the time also suggested that the chip would leverage TSMC's 3nm 'N3E' process, and that the design process would conclude over the coming 12-month period.

According to the Information, The chip itself could sport various chiplets, with each of them designed for a specific function. Apple could later combine each of these chiplets into a single unit, with Broadcom possibly included to help with how each of these processors communicates with each other when simultaneously running in Apple Intelligence servers. This siloed approach would allow Apple to keep the overall design of the AI ASIC hidden even from its partners like Broadcom.

As for the actual servers, we previously reported that Foxconn has been tasked to produce them, with Apple’s assembling partner slated to receive some assistance from Lenovo and its subsidiary when it comes to the overall design. Given the long-standing server-related disarray at Apple, the Baltra-based servers might be the only avenue left for the Cupertino giant to rectify its chronic inefficiencies in this arena and to escape Google's clutches.

After all, Apple has previously indicated that its utilization of Google's Gemini models is likely to be a temporary arrangement. Do note that Baltra-based servers are currently expected to undergo mass deployment in 2027 or 2028.

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