{"slug": "apple-private-cloud-compute", "name": "Apple Private Cloud Compute", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI tools and apps", "description": "", "recommenders": 12, "commenters": 19, "warners": 2, "score": 10.473, "rising": -1.6, "first": "2025-11-06", "latest": "2026-09-21", "why": "There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 13, "neutral": 5, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 7, 1, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Apple Private Cloud Compute", "Private Cloud Compute"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 796705265, "item_id": 49794079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49794079", "by": "mmooss", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence", "excerpt": "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence - including significant open source disclosure for public verification. If you trash them with the rest of the AI vendors, you deincentivize privacy for Apple and for the rest of them. They describe it in great technical detail here (Private Cloud Compute (PCC) seems to be the server side of Apple Intellig", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac"}, {"id": 796690016, "item_id": 49793126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793126", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute", "excerpt": "> Not sure if I want Siri to know my prescription medication. Using Shortcuts, a user can use the Cloud model via Private Cloud Compute, the Cloud Pro with \"world knowledge, and the on-device model. It occurred to me I probably don't need the Cloud; I switched to the on-device model, which worked fine. There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute: We designe", "context": "", "use_case": "private AI inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage"}, {"id": 785205248, "item_id": 49075328, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075328", "by": "btown", "date": "2026-07-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a well-thought-out system under those constraints", "excerpt": "The top threads here have commentary: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22private%20cloud%20compute%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story especially https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41937664 IMO - while nothing is a guarantee against a state-level actor that can compel both hardware-level bypasses and put such bypasses under a gag order, it's a well-thought-out system under those constrai", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI cloud inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Will 'Watch Everything Burn' When the AI Bubble Bursts"}, {"id": 775438624, "item_id": 48464914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464914", "by": "economistbob", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "\"Private Cloud Compute hardware security starts at manufacturing\" really stood out to me.", "excerpt": "Those articles provide some great details. \"Private Cloud Compute hardware security starts at manufacturing\" really stood out to me. The chips will likely come from Israel. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/by2yfnuekx Apple is giving the supply chain for it's AI to the people who compromise supply chains to blow up mobile devices in foreign lands", "context": "", "use_case": "AI cloud inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 775379168, "item_id": 48461198, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461198", "by": "e28eta", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s intended to allow cloud computation on data without making the data available to anyone.", "excerpt": "> Maybe you missed the 'or sent to private cloud' part of the announcement, it's not just local-llm only. I think you\u2019re unfamiliar with Apple\u2019s Private Compute Cloud. It\u2019s intended to allow cloud computation on data without making the data available to anyone. This is from https://security.apple.com/documentation/private-cloud-compute We designed Private Cloud Compute with core requirements that go beyond traditiona", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Siri AI"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 761957232, "item_id": 47622327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622327", "by": "strongpigeon", "date": "2026-04-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "They invested a ton in their Private Cloud Compute though, but are barely using their capacity.", "excerpt": "They invested a ton in their Private Cloud Compute though, but are barely using their capacity. https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/02/some-apple-ai-servers-are-reportedly-sitting-unused-on-warehouse-shelves-due-to-low-apple-intelligence-usage/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance"}, {"id": 738767841, "item_id": 46172990, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172990", "by": "seec", "date": "2025-12-06", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Private Cloud Compute push does not inspire great confidence", "excerpt": "I do understand, and I mostly agree with your perspective. But narrowing the problem to money isn't really helpful. Sure, Apple will be able to make a shitton of money regardless. For consumers, it would be more beneficial if Apple could actually use all the money they get to really build standalone products. It feels like Apple is not trying very hard (or has become too incompetent) to make a viable competitive prod", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Tested the M5 iPad Pro's Neural-Accelerated AI, and the Hype Is Real"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["private ai inference", "private ai cloud inference", "ai cloud inference", "private ai cloud processing", "private ai compute offload"], "compared": [{"slug": "apple-intelligence", "name": "Apple Intelligence", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48450142", "title": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45824243", "title": "Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46103078", "title": "I Tested the M5 iPad Pro's Neural-Accelerated AI, and the Hype Is Real", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790409", "title": "Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49787535", "title": "macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49070427", "title": "Apple Will 'Watch Everything Burn' When the AI Bubble Bursts", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 2}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 796705265, "item_id": 49794079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49794079", "by": "mmooss", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence", "excerpt": "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence - including significant open source disclosure for public verification. If you trash them with the rest of the AI vendors, you deincentivize privacy for Apple and for the rest of them. They describe it in great technical detail here (Private Cloud Compute (PCC) seems to be the server side of Apple Intellig", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac"}, {"id": 796690016, "item_id": 49793126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793126", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2026-09-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute", "excerpt": "> Not sure if I want Siri to know my prescription medication. Using Shortcuts, a user can use the Cloud model via Private Cloud Compute, the Cloud Pro with \"world knowledge, and the on-device model. It occurred to me I probably don't need the Cloud; I switched to the on-device model, which worked fine. There's no way for Siri or anybody else to know anything about a transaction using Private Cloud Compute: We designe", "context": "", "use_case": "private AI inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage"}, {"id": 785205248, "item_id": 49075328, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075328", "by": "btown", "date": "2026-07-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's a well-thought-out system under those constraints", "excerpt": "The top threads here have commentary: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22private%20cloud%20compute%22&sort=byPopularity&type=story especially https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41937664 IMO - while nothing is a guarantee against a state-level actor that can compel both hardware-level bypasses and put such bypasses under a gag order, it's a well-thought-out system under those constrai", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI cloud inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Will 'Watch Everything Burn' When the AI Bubble Bursts"}, {"id": 775440208, "item_id": 48465013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48465013", "by": "benoau", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "so it would probably run on just about anything", "excerpt": "They've just announced PCC for Google Cloud using Nvidia GPUs and Intel CPUs so it would probably run on just about anything - https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption"}, {"id": 775438624, "item_id": 48464914, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464914", "by": "economistbob", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "\"Private Cloud Compute hardware security starts at manufacturing\" really stood out to me.", "excerpt": "Those articles provide some great details. \"Private Cloud Compute hardware security starts at manufacturing\" really stood out to me. The chips will likely come from Israel. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/by2yfnuekx Apple is giving the supply chain for it's AI to the people who compromise supply chains to blow up mobile devices in foreign lands", "context": "", "use_case": "AI cloud inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 775392160, "item_id": 48462010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48462010", "by": "throwfaraway4", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc/", "excerpt": "https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple says its AI is still private, even when it's running on Google's servers"}, {"id": 775379168, "item_id": 48461198, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48461198", "by": "e28eta", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s intended to allow cloud computation on data without making the data available to anyone.", "excerpt": "> Maybe you missed the 'or sent to private cloud' part of the announcement, it's not just local-llm only. I think you\u2019re unfamiliar with Apple\u2019s Private Compute Cloud. It\u2019s intended to allow cloud computation on data without making the data available to anyone. This is from https://security.apple.com/documentation/private-cloud-compute We designed Private Cloud Compute with core requirements that go beyond traditiona", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Siri AI"}, {"id": 775374976, "item_id": 48460936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460936", "by": "brianmcnulty", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "That seems to conflict with the recent security blog that says they are using Google Cloud infra and NVIDIA GPUs with PCC now [0]. They are allowing it to run on Intel and NVIDIA and Google chips meeting certain requirements now too instead of just Apple silicon because they think they\u2019re secure enough now, but I suspect this decision might have been pushed by the need for Siri to be useful. I still definitely think ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 775367776, "item_id": 48460486, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460486", "by": "PrairieFire", "date": "2026-06-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think their approach is fascinating.", "excerpt": "It does, I agree. That said, they've published some Apple Research docs/papers & core documentation where they outline the architecture and how it works. Personally I think their approach is fascinating. https://security.apple.com/documentation/private-cloud-compute/corerequirements https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc/ https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 775312752, "item_id": 48457047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48457047", "by": "JimDabell", "date": "2026-06-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The whole point of it is that nobody can access the data, not even the people running the servers.", "excerpt": "> Wouldn't it be more accurate to call Apple's architecture data protection rather than privacy? As an European citizen in a post Snowden world I would be surprised if any of my data on Apple services was actually kept private from the US government, and Apple certainly wants to own a lot of data/metadata about you. Your conception doesn\u2019t seem to match PCC at all. The whole point of it is that nobody can access the ", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI cloud processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 775300880, "item_id": 48456305, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456305", "by": "scosman", "date": "2026-06-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hopefully they scale this up to all apps in time", "excerpt": "Free server-size model access for apps with <2M downloads, getting the same privacy guarantees. Hopefully they scale this up to all apps in time (I assume hardware/cost constrained, but larger devs would pay). https://developer.apple.com/private-cloud-compute/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Core AI Framework"}, {"id": 775250704, "item_id": 48453169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48453169", "by": "nl", "date": "2026-06-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple's PCC is the best option for this kind of offload that exists.", "excerpt": "Apple's PCC is the best option for this kind of offload that exists. However the PCC root keys are still signed by Apple which requires you to trust Apple and the laws in the jurisdiction Apple operates in. Edit: for this update they seems to be running Gemini on Nvidia GPUs in Google's cloud[0]. How key management works for this part is unknown, but the standard setup for this is that Nvidia and Google would have ke", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI compute offload", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"}, {"id": 761957232, "item_id": 47622327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622327", "by": "strongpigeon", "date": "2026-04-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "They invested a ton in their Private Cloud Compute though, but are barely using their capacity.", "excerpt": "They invested a ton in their Private Cloud Compute though, but are barely using their capacity. https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/02/some-apple-ai-servers-are-reportedly-sitting-unused-on-warehouse-shelves-due-to-low-apple-intelligence-usage/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance"}, {"id": 752462288, "item_id": 47028893, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47028893", "by": "eutropia", "date": "2026-02-15", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "is this marketing or is just relating what they did to keep things secure?", "excerpt": "is this marketing or is just relating what they did to keep things secure? https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenClaw, OpenAI and the Future"}, {"id": 740011216, "item_id": 46250701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250701", "by": "wmf", "date": "2025-12-12", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "That exists but it's only for iUsers running Apple models", "excerpt": "That exists but it's only for iUsers running Apple models. https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 26.2 enables fast AI clusters with RDMA over Thunderbolt"}, {"id": 738767841, "item_id": 46172990, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172990", "by": "seec", "date": "2025-12-06", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Private Cloud Compute push does not inspire great confidence", "excerpt": "I do understand, and I mostly agree with your perspective. But narrowing the problem to money isn't really helpful. Sure, Apple will be able to make a shitton of money regardless. For consumers, it would be more beneficial if Apple could actually use all the money they get to really build standalone products. It feels like Apple is not trying very hard (or has become too incompetent) to make a viable competitive prod", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Tested the M5 iPad Pro's Neural-Accelerated AI, and the Hype Is Real"}, {"id": 738615825, "item_id": 46163489, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46163489", "by": "alwillis", "date": "2025-12-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it won't be mined for ads, etc.", "excerpt": "You know Google pays Apple ~$20 billion a year to be the default search engine, right? The rumored deal with Google is $1 billion, so Apple is still up $19 billion. There's only three frontier model makers: OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. So everyone that's using a frontier model behind the scenes is using one of these three. It's likely whatever happens, it'll be running on Apple's Private Compute Cloud [1]\u2014it won't b", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Tested the M5 iPad Pro's Neural-Accelerated AI, and the Hype Is Real"}, {"id": 733519808, "item_id": 45844988, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844988", "by": "comex", "date": "2025-11-07", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "has an explicit design goal to mitigate your point 1", "excerpt": "Apple\u2019s PCC has an explicit design goal to mitigate your point 1, by designing the protocol such that the load balancer has to decide which physical server to route a request to without knowing which user made the request. If you compromise a single physical server, you will get a random sample of requests, but you can\u2019t target any particular user, not even if you also compromise the load balancer. At least that\u2019s th", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud"}, {"id": 733491744, "item_id": 45843234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45843234", "by": "brookst", "date": "2025-11-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the system is very carefully designed to give Apple themselves no avenue to exploit without detection", "excerpt": "You should read the PCC paper: https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/ You are not in fact trusting Apple at all. You are trusting some limited number of independent security researchers, which is not perfect, but the system is very carefully designed to give Apple themselves no avenue to exploit without detection.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud"}, {"id": 733363696, "item_id": 45835231, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45835231", "by": "Terretta", "date": "2025-11-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple's approach, and certain other systems such as AWS's Nitro Enclaves, aim at this last step of the problem", "excerpt": "> the inference provider still has the ability to access the prompt and response plaintext Folks may underestimate the difficulty of providing compute that the provider \u201ccannot\u201d* access to reveal even at gunpoint. BYOK does cover most of it, but oh look, you brought me and my code your key, thanks\u2026 Apple's approach, and certain other systems such as AWS's Nitro Enclaves, aim at this last step of the problem: - https:", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Source Implementation of Apple's Private Compute Cloud"}]}