Apple Drops Five New Foundation Models for Apple Intelligence

Apple just pulled the curtain back on its next generation of foundation models. The lineup includes five models total — two running directly on-device and three living in the cloud.

The star of the show is AFM 3 Core Advanced, a 20-billion-parameter multimodal model designed to run locally on Apple hardware. That's a serious chunk of AI muscle sitting right in your pocket.

The new Apple Foundation Models are built to integrate deeply into Apple's operating systems, keeping users at the center of the experience. This tight OS-level integration has been Apple's consistent pitch for Apple Intelligence — AI that works seamlessly rather than bolted on.

The split between on-device and cloud models signals Apple's continued balancing act: keeping processing local for speed and privacy while tapping server-side power for heavier workloads. Five models. Two strategies. One ecosystem.