On January 14, Apple joined the Ultra Accelerator Link Alliance to develop next-generation technology to accelerate the linking of chips in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
The alliance is reportedly developing a standard, called UALink, that would connect AI accelerator chips that are increasingly used in server farms.
Since its incorporation in late October 2024, the Ultra Accelerator Link alliance has grown to include more than 65 member companies, including leading technology corporations such as Intel, AMD, Google, AWS, Alibaba, Synopsys, Microsoft, and Meta.
In a recent statement, Becky Loop - Apple's director of platform architecture said that UALink shows great promise in solving connectivity challenges and creating new opportunities to expand AI capabilities and needs.
UALink aims to connect chips from GPUs to custom-designed solutions to accelerate the training, tuning, and running of AI models. The first UALink products are expected to launch in the next few years.
Apple’s involvement in UALink comes as the company plans to increase its investment in infrastructure to support its suite of AI product features called Apple Intelligence. Apple was previously reported to be developing a new server chip to improve the efficiency of AI data centers.
