The car-building plan that was once regarded by the outside world as Apple's "biggest failure" is now reshaping its artificial intelligence strategy in an unexpected way. Although this ten-year, tens-billion-dollar project has been terminated in 2024, according to the latest reports, Apple is deeply integrating the research results accumulated from the project into the design of its future processors, the M7 and M8 chips.
Industry analysts point out that Apple’s focus has shifted significantly when planning its next-generation M7 and M8 processors. Rather than simply pursuing improvements in processor speed and power consumption efficiency, Apple is currently shifting more R&D resources to artificial intelligence support. The design architecture of these core chips used in Mac computers and "Apple Intelligence" servers directly inherits the company's technical heritage accumulated in the research and development of autonomous driving systems.
Looking back on the past, although Apple’s car-building project has been kept secret for a long time, Apple executives have repeatedly hinted that its core lies in AI technology. As early as June 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly stated that the company was focusing on "autonomous driving systems" and described it as "the mother of all AI projects." Cook emphasized at the time that autonomous driving is a very challenging AI topic and is not limited to the automotive field.
With the car-building project coming to an abrupt end, Apple quickly redeployed relevant technical talents and resources to the AI team headed by John Giannandrea. Although there has been public opinion in the industry that Apple has lagged behind in responding to the AI wave, this "non-radical" investment strategy is gradually showing its robust side. In the current context of high capital expenditures in the AI industry, and even companies such as OpenAI facing huge losses, Apple is regaining the favor of the capital market by virtue of its accumulation in chip architecture, software and hardware ecosystem, and long-term AI layout, and is expected to occupy the core advantage in the future terminal-side AI competition.