Are Servers Next for Apple?

With the impressive performance and low power usage of the M1 chip, could Apple begin building chips for the server market? And if not, what is stopping them?

Mac Mini rack from MK1 Manufacturing

Okay, so we know that Apple’s M1 chips are really fast. What is stopping them from also taking over the server market in the future with their own chips? To answer this question I will cover a number of different topics:

• What makes a good server chip? Will a server make different demands on a microprocessor compared to a desktop computer?
• A comparison of ARM and x86 business models, to better understand how competitors in the ARM chip market operate in a fundamentally different way from x86 competitors.
• What does the ARM competition look like? We will look at some high profile ARM chip makers: Amazon and Amphere. What is their technology and business model? How do they stack up against Apple’s M1?
• A paradigm shift is ongoing in manufacturing. Chips are not made the same way anymore. In fact nothing is. How will this affect the development of the market over time?
• What advantages and disadvantages does Apple have entering the server market? We will discuss Apple’s unique vertical integration advantage.