More or Less · Topics · Episode #164
Apple Silicon Was the Strategic Decision of the Era
Clip from the full recording, 48:18–51:58 · download mp4 · watch at this point on YouTube
Apple's new Mac mini ad is claymation with no AI, and Jess still finds it odd when Cook talks AI. Dave argues Apple is two companies, and the hardware one made the SoC bet that will let it run agentic workloads better than anyone.
Apple announced a new Mac mini pitched for AI workloads, with a claymation commercial that Sam notes contains no AI at all, which the internet panned given the product is fundamentally about AI. Jess says it still feels weird when Tim Cook talks about AI: Apple Intelligence largely didn’t land, and the company took such a different tack from everyone else. She adds that the last few years of AI conversation were co-opted by large language models and a handful of apps, when AI has always been bigger than that.
Dave makes the bull case. AI is matrix multiplication, a compute operation that requires real hardware engineering. Apple has always been two companies: a hardware-engineering company and a design-and-software company, and everyone interprets Apple through the software because that’s what they touch. The system-on-a-chip decision made under Cook, with integrated CPU, GPU and large amounts of high-bandwidth RAM, will go down as one of the most strategically important technology decisions in Silicon Valley in this era because it makes running agentic AI workloads locally extremely good. That happened because the hardware side understands atoms, heat and energy. Sam adds that Apple is also a supply-chain company and holds his fire: we’ll see.
Key points
- New Mac mini marketed for AI workloads with a claymation ad that uses no AI; Sam and the internet found the disconnect odd.
- Jess: it still feels weird when Cook talks AI after Apple Intelligence underdelivered; the AI conversation has been too LLM-centric anyway.
- Dave: Apple is a hardware company and a software company; the world judges it by the software and misses the hardware bet.
- Dave: the SoC decision (integrated CPU, GPU, high-bandwidth RAM) is the most important strategic tech decision of the era for running agentic AI locally.
- Sam: Apple is also a supply-chain company; reserve judgment.
Where they landed
Quotes
“How do you not use AI in a product that is fundamentally about AI?”— Sam
“The system-on-a-chip decision will go down as one of the most strategically important technology decisions that happened in Silicon Valley in this era.”— Dave
“On the hardware side of the house, they understand atoms and heat and energy and how to make boxes filled with the right stuff.”— Dave
Suggested tweets
Apple’s new Mac mini ad: pure claymation, zero AI — for a chip built to run AI locally. Jess and the internet both found that weird
Tweet this →“The system-on-a-chip decision will go down as one of the most important strategic bets of this era.” — Dave Morin on Apple Silicon
Tweet this →Dave’s case: Apple is two companies. Everyone judges the software one. The hardware one just made the smartest agentic-AI bet in tech
Tweet this →All topics · Full episode #164 + transcript · Subscribe on YouTube · Spotify