Apple plans to use Nvidia’s NVLink interconnect technology in future AI servers, according to a Reuters report published September 16. The move is notable because Apple designs much of its own computing hardware and increasingly relies on custom silicon across iPhone, Mac and its data-center ambitions.
Reuters reports that Apple is targeting servers using the technology around 2029. That is far enough away that product plans can change, but it provides an unusually early glimpse into how Apple may scale the infrastructure needed for more demanding AI services.
What is NVLink?
NVLink is Nvidia technology designed to let processors and accelerators exchange data at very high speeds. In large AI systems, connecting many chips efficiently is critical because modern models can be too large or computationally demanding for a single processor.
Think of it less as buying one faster chip and more as building a faster highway between many powerful chips. The better those connections work, the more effectively a server can behave like one large computing system.
Why would Apple need it?
Generative AI and advanced machine-learning services require enormous amounts of computation. Apple has emphasized privacy and on-device processing for many consumer features, but some workloads still need powerful cloud infrastructure.
As models grow more capable, the servers behind them need faster networking, larger memory pools and better ways to connect accelerators. NVLink addresses part of that problem.
This does not necessarily mean Apple is abandoning its own chips
Using Nvidia interconnect technology is different from handing over the entire server architecture to Nvidia. Apple can continue developing custom silicon while incorporating outside technology where it provides an advantage.
That hybrid approach is common in complex computing systems. No single company has to design every processor, networking component, memory technology and software layer internally.
AI is changing data-center design
The bigger story is how quickly AI is reshaping infrastructure. Companies once focused primarily on buying individual CPUs and GPUs. Increasingly, performance depends on the entire system: accelerators, memory, networking, power delivery and cooling all have to work together.
This is why technologies such as NVLink have become strategically important. Faster individual chips are useful, but a huge AI cluster can still underperform if communication between those chips becomes a bottleneck.
What this could mean for Apple users
Consumers should not expect an immediate visible change. The reported timeline extends to 2029, and Apple has not announced a consumer product tied directly to this infrastructure.
Longer term, however, more powerful server infrastructure could support more capable Siri and Apple Intelligence services, larger AI models and features that combine private on-device processing with cloud computation.
Source: Reuters, September 16, 2026. The reported server plans concern future infrastructure and may change before deployment.