Apple intends to make a significant departure from its established chip roadmap, bypassing high-end variants of its upcoming M6 processor in order to accelerate a next-generation AI-oriented chip family, according to a new report Thursday.
Apple will skip M6 Pro and Max chips
Most likely later this year, Apple will release a base M6 chip for entry-level Macs, including a refreshed MacBook Pro. But unlike every previous chip generation from M1 through M5, Apple will not follow with M6 Pro or M6 Max variants, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported. Instead, it will jump directly to M7 Pro and M7 Max chips, targeting a 2027 release, with the M7 Ultra arriving in 2028.
The decision lets Apple fast-track technologies it had originally planned for later, with the goal of keeping pace with surging demand for on-device AI and more capable graphics performance, Gurman wrote.
What the M6 brings
The base M6 — codenamed Komodo — delivers a meaningful step up from the M5. Memory bandwidth climbs to around 200 GB/s, compared to 153 GB/s on its predecessor. That spec boost matters considerably for AI workloads, which depend on moving large volumes of data quickly.
Apple also redesigned the GPU, testing configurations with up to 12 graphics cores versus the M5’s 10, to handle AI rendering and other parallel tasks more efficiently. The chip also carries an upgraded Neural Engine and improvements to video encoding and decoding.
M7 takes center stage
Apple plans to introduce the base M7 as early as the first half of 2026. Pro and Max versions should follow by late 2027, Gurman said.
The entire M7 family centers on major AI processing advances, and the base chip alone targets around 240 GB/s of memory bandwidth — a further jump over the M6.
One more chip before the leap: M5 Ultra
Before the new roadmap kicks fully into gear, Apple still plans to release the M5 Ultra — its most powerful current-generation chip — as part of a new Mac Studio. The chip will pack around 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, putting it among the most capable processors in any mainstream computer, Gurman said.
Apple has tested configurations supporting up to 768 GB of unified memory. But ongoing chip and memory shortages may affect final specs and timing.
Why this matters for Mac users
For professionals who rely on Mac Studio or MacBook Pro for demanding work — video editing, 3D rendering, machine learning — the near-term picture means waiting longer for a Pro or Max chip upgrade. The M5 Pro and Max remain the top options until the M7 generation arrives. But the upside is that when Apple does release those chips, they should represent a more substantial leap than a standard iterative update.
The shift also reflects broader pressures Apple faces alongside the rest of the industry: component shortages have driven up costs, constrained supply and forced the company to rethink its planning timelines.
Apple did not comment on its chip plans.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
