Apple has officially entered the mergers and acquisitions market. The iPhone manufacturer is exploring potential semiconductor startup acquisitions. The company aims to strengthen server capacity for artificial intelligence. Apple seeks to close the gap in the highly competitive AI technology race. The Information reports on recent developments in this direction. Apple actively negotiated with investment bankers over recent months. Semiconductor startup acquisition options were also discussed. The main driver behind these efforts is an urgent need for computing power.

Apple uses its own M2 Ultra chips for AI tasks in data centers. However, the company faces performance limitations with internal servers. Resource-intensive tasks require more computational power. For example, running Google's Gemini model to support next-generation Siri. Apple was forced to use Google Cloud infrastructure. Nvidia chips handle query processing there. The situation is worsened by delays to Apple's next-gen server AI chip Baltra. This chip was supposed to launch this year. But sources indicate its release has been postponed.

Historically Apple avoided large acquisitions. The company preferred buying small startups for hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the rules of the game are changing now. Apple has already shown willingness to open its wallet. In January the company spent nearly $2 billion on Q.ai. This Israeli startup develops speech recognition via facial micro-movements. The deal became Apple's second-largest in history. It trails only the $3 billion Beats Electronics acquisition in 2014. Apple's semiconductor empire began with the PA Semi acquisition. The $278 million purchase in 2008 laid the foundation for iPhone processors. Nearly two decades later Apple appears ready to repeat this scenario. But now on a significantly larger scale.