Microsoft is Reportedly Designing Its Own ARM-Based Chips to Take on Apple

The recently released Apple’s M1 chip might be the reason why many companies are considering developing their own ARM-based chips. As per a report, Microsoft is one of the many companies.

surface windows 8 pro1

Currently, the majority of Microsoft’s Surface models feature Intel processors except the Surface Laptop 3, which features an AMD chip. Moreover, Microsoft also tried to switch to ARM-based chips; they partnered up with Qualcomm and made the SQ1 to release a portable and powerful Surface Pro X. Unfortunately, it failed as the Surface Pro X proved to be an overpriced and underperforming device.

We can expect something good in the future as Bloomberg states that Microsoft is working to develop a new chip for its Surface division, but it remains unclear that what the chip will be named and with whom the company will partner up to achieve its goal. The ARM chip will also be used for their servers.

Currently, Microsoft’s Azure cloud services depend on Intel processors; hence this report reveals that Microsoft is willing to reduce its dependency on Intel by creating ARM-based chips. Bloomberg’s report did not provide an event timeline for the launch date, but we can expect it soon as with the release of Apple’s M1 chip, a lot of companies are really serious about making their own hardware.

apple silicon

As per the previous benchmarks of Apple’s M1 chips, the chip offers both performance and power efficiency. In fact, the chip was able to outperform the 16-inch MacBook Pro that features an 8-core Intel chip. This performance proves that these chips are the revolution and even Qualcomm’s president called Apple’s chip-making efforts a sign of great things for the future of computing.

Due to this, Microsoft and Qualcomm will put in more effort to develop an ARM-Based chip that competes with Apple’s ARM chips.

Update:

Intel provided the following statement after Bloomberg’s report was published:

“The incredible demand for computing fueled by new workloads like AI is driving more silicon experimentation in the cloud. Building on decades of x86 ecosystem innovation, we are committed to providing customers the world’s best CPUs and new products from GPUs to AI chips. In this expanding market, we expect to gain share in many areas like AI training, 5G networks, graphics, and autonomous driving.”

Via Bloomberg