Apple exec touts Amazon’s AI chips in rare endorsement – report

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is using the custom artificial intelligence chips from Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) cloud computing unit and is evaluating its latest AI chip for pre-training models, CNBC reported, citing an executive that touted Amazon Web Services in a surprise endorsement.

“We have a strong relationship, and the infrastructure is both reliable and able to serve our customers worldwide,” Benoit Dupin, Apple’s (AAPL) senior director of machine learning and AI, said at the annual AWS Reinvent conference on Tuesday.

He noted that Apple (AAPL) has been using AWS for over a decade in its products and services including iPads, Siri, and App Store.

The company has also used AWS’ Inferentia and Graviton chips for search services, which have led to around 40% efficiency gains in machine learning workloads.

Apple (AAPL) is also exploring using Amazon’s (AMZN) new AI chip Trainium 2 for pre-training its models, and expects to see up to 50% improvement in efficiency.

Dupin’s statements are seen as a strong endorsement for AWS’ chips as it competes with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Azure and Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Cloud. Apple also uses these cloud services.

AWS CEO Matt Garman told CNBC that Apple (AAPL) had been an early adopter and beta-tester for Trainium chips.