The AI Chip Race with Apple’s Former Chief Chip Architect | Power On with Mark Gurman

NuvaCore Launch and Mission

• Gerard Williams III founded NuvaCore in early April 2024 to leverage the AI data center boom with a focus on high-performance CPUs.
• The company employs a "core first" philosophy, building clean-sheet CPU designs from first principles to ensure scalability and fundamental architectural soundness.
• NuvaCore designs are architecture-agnostic regarding Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs), intending to target x86, ARM, or RISC-V upon final optimization.
• The initial product roadmap targets a 2-to-3-year development cycle to reach full silicon production, though early modeling phases have been compressed to 2–3 months using AI tools.
• Long-term strategic goals include delivering chiplet-form silicon co-integrated with accelerators or full-scale blade-based data center compute devices.

Impact of AI on Silicon Development

• NuvaCore reports that AI tools have collapsed the "performance phase" of CPU design from a typical 7–12 month window down to 2–3 months.
• Williams projects that AI could compress the entire clean-sheet-to-endpoint design timeline from 2.5–3 years down to approximately 1.5–2 years.
• The company views AI models not as replacements for engineers, but as extensions of the design team that raise performance bars and force continuous learning.
• NuvaCore is using AI to accelerate verification, physical design, and security hardening processes during the chip development lifecycle.

Strategic Positioning vs. Industry Trends

• While the industry heavily favors GPU-centric AI infrastructure, Williams argues that high-performance CPUs are essential for orchestrating memory, security, and fundamental LLM workloads.
• NuvaCore aims to prove that power efficiency (milliwatts per core) remains a critical metric in data centers, where scaling millions of cores amplifies even minor efficiency gains.
• The company plans to integrate with various end customers to determine whether a CPU-centric approach or a full SoC approach best fits specific cloud and hyperscaler needs.

Apple Tenure and Leadership Insights

• Williams joined Apple in February 2010 as a Platform Architecture engineer and served as the Chief Architect for CPU development.
• His tenure spanned the design and execution of the A7 (Apple's first 64-bit chip) through the M1 series.
• He departed Apple in February 2019 to pursue the entrepreneurial challenges of founding Nuvia, noting the difficulty of leaving a company where he had invested years of product development.
• Williams declined to detail the origin of Apple's Neural Engine, citing confidentiality, but confirmed Apple's early focus on accelerators.
• Regarding leadership, Williams expressed support for current Apple CEO John Ternus and former VP Johnny Srouji, noting their engineering strengths and the respect he holds for their teams.

Nuvia, Qualcomm, and Litigation

• Williams founded Nuvia to build cloud silicon, which was acquired by Qualcomm, where he served as a Senior VP.
• Following his departure from Qualcomm in late January 2024, he cited personal reasons (painting his home) for the timing of the transition.
• Apple sued Nuvia over allegations of trade secret theft and inappropriate hiring; the courts largely dismissed Apple's claims as frivolous, allowing Nuvia to launch successfully at Qualcomm.
• Williams noted that investors backing NuvaCore are strategic silicon players who understand the long-term nature of the endeavor.

Future Hardware and AI Adoption

• Williams anticipates that over the next 3–5 years, AI and CPU advancements will enable everyday users to interact with large language models via ordinary devices like AR glasses and smartphones.
• He envisions a future where AI augments daily workflows rather than replacing human capability, allowing users to perform research and tasks previously requiring external resources.

Apple Trivia Answers

• Pro Chips: Exactly four Apple A-series chips have carried the "Pro" designation as of the recording: A17 Pro, A18 Pro, A19 Pro, and A20 Pro.
• Launch Year: The "Pro" branding for A-series chips began in 2023 with the A17 Pro.
• Favorite Colors: Mark Gurman identified the "Midnight Green" (iPhone 11 Pro) and "Pacific Blue" (iPhone 12 Pro) as historical favorites, and currently prefers "Night Sky" (iPhone 16 Pro).
• Tim Cook's Choice: Tim Cook previously stated his preference for the "Natural Titanium" color of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.