Apple may skip high-end M6 chips amid soaring memory costs
What's the story
Apple is said to be rethinking its Apple Silicon strategy in the wake of skyrocketing memory prices. The company intends to launch the base M6 chip later this year, but may skip higher-end variants like the Pro, Max, and Ultra. Instead, it could focus on the upcoming M7 family and AI-ready Macs. The shift comes as Apple grapples with unprecedented memory cost increases driven by AI infrastructure demand.
Chip details
What to expect from the base M6 chip
The M6 chip will be Apple's first to use a 2nm process (TSMC's N2), a significant upgrade from the 3nm process used in the last few generations. The chip will also feature a redesigned Neural Engine and improved graphics performance for AI workloads. The M6 is likely to offer a memory bandwidth of up to 200GB per second, a significant jump from the M5's 153GB per second. It is expected to debut with a 14-inch MacBook Pro later this year.
Variant changes
Apple to jump straight to M7 family for high-performance Macs
Unlike previous generations of Apple Silicon, the M6 chip may not have Pro, Max, or Ultra variants. Instead, Apple plans to jump straight to the M7 family for high-performance Macs. The base M7 processor could launch in H1 2027, with its Pro and Max versions arriving by year-end. These next-gen chips are expected to focus more on AI tasks with higher memory bandwidths.
Price hike
Apple raises prices of Mac, iPad, and home entertainment products
Apple recently raised the prices of several Mac, iPad, and home entertainment products. The company attributed the decision to a massive jump in memory and storage costs. Apple said that the rapid growth of AI data centers has created unprecedented demand for high-performance memory, forcing it to pass some of those higher costs on to consumers.
Configuration changes
Mac Studio loses high-memory configurations amid memory crisis
The ongoing memory crisis has also affected Apple's flagship desktop computer, the Mac Studio. When it debuted with the M3 Ultra chip, customers could configure it with up to 512GB of unified memory. However, Apple has now silently removed many high-memory configurations and only offers 96GB as a standard option for buyers opting for the M3 Ultra variant.