Apple’s M6, M7 and M8 roadmap signals AI-first future

Apple’s new Mac chip road map represents the company’s latest move to rebuild its operations for the artificial intelligence world. Also: The company is readying new Apple Pencil styluses and preparing to make the iPhone’s tap-to-pay feature more prevalent in its retail stores.

When Apple Inc. canceled its self-driving car project in 2024, the move appeared to wipe out a decade of work. The effort had involved thousands of employees, the creation of hundreds of patents, specialized facilities and more than $10 billion in spending.

But even though an Apple vehicle never reached the market — and likely never will — the endeavor had an important legacy: helping lay the technological foundation for the company’s modern artificial intelligence hardware strategy. Without that push, Apple would probably be even further behind in AI than it is today.

Early on in the history of the car program, Apple decided that any vehicle it shipped would need to stand out from rivals by being fully autonomous — with Level 5 capabilities, the top classification for self-driving cars. That move necessitated one of the company’s first large-scale AI initiatives, requiring breakthroughs in machine learning and custom silicon chips.

Apple needed processors capable of handling enormous AI workloads in real time, and while it never completed the chip designed for its vehicle, the work on those components ultimately became the foundation for technologies far beyond the car. Most notably, that effort gave rise to its Neural Engine, the dedicated portion of Apple’s chips responsible for on-device AI processing.

That technology launched in the iPhone X in 2017, helping power features such as Face ID and the Animoji characters before expanding across the product lineup. Since the arrival of Apple’s in-house Mac processors in 2020, every new computer has included a Neural Engine. That helped turn the Mac into one of the strongest platforms for running AI locally, both for consumers and — increasingly — professionals.

The same work also influenced the company’s mighty Ultra-class Mac chips and the custom processors now running Apple Intelligence servers. Though AI today is largely synonymous with generative models and chatbots, Apple has spent more than a decade building the hardware foundation needed to power the technology.

That doesn’t mean Apple hasn’t struggled to create compelling software and services that can capitalize on that hardware. The company has certainly stumbled on that front, with upgrades to Apple Intelligence and the Siri digital assistant taking far longer than anticipated.

But those early hardware investments are beginning to pay dividends as AI applications expand, more processing is done on-device and Apple works to rebuild its software strategy with the new Siri AI assistant.

Since launching the M1 chip in 2020, Apple has steadily improved the Neural Engine, including significant gains with the M4. Those advances are now beginning to reshape Apple’s silicon road map itself.

As I recently reported, Apple has overhauled the next several years of its chip plans for the Mac. The next cycle should begin this fall with a familiar pattern: a base-level M6 chip. Under the traditional strategy, that processor would have been followed by M6 Pro and M6 Max variants — with an M6 Ultra eventually arriving for the company’s highest-end desktop computers.

For the first time, though, the company is skipping the high-end chips for a new generation. Instead of completing the M6 family with Pro, Max and Ultra variants, Apple is moving directly to M7. In fact, Apple started taping out the M7 — the stage where it finalizes a chip’s design — just six months after undertaking that process for the M6. That means that the M7 should arrive in the first half of 2027, followed by the M7 Pro and M7 Max at the end of 2027 and an M7 Ultra in 2028.

Though Apple has skipped Ultra chips before — such as with the M4 generation — forgoing all the higher-end versions of a new lineup is unprecedented.

The reason for this break with tradition: AI. Apple had been planning major neural-processing upgrades for the M7 family and ultimately decided those improvements were important enough to justify accelerating the next generation rather than completing the M6 lineup. Those changes go into high gear with the M7 Ultra. I’m told the processor dramatically upgrades AI performance, bringing it closer to the class of dedicated AI accelerators such as Nvidia Corp.’s Blackwell.

The chip may also ultimately be the basis of a coming overhaul to the AI server strategy. Apple plans to soon deploy a more powerful server based on the M5 Ultra under the internal code name J246, but engineers are already developing another new server chip for launch by 2029 that is built around the M7 Ultra’s capabilities.

The new Ultra is designed to support as much as 1.5 terabytes of memory — roughly double the capacity planned for the M5 Ultra — though whether Apple ultimately offers that configuration will depend on the state of the industry. Widespread memory-chip shortages have made the component harder to find and more expensive.

Beyond the M7, Apple is already developing M8 chips with even greater AI capabilities, including a processor code-named Soko arriving by 2028. There are also other new chips in the works for higher-end Macs under the name Cardinal. The 2028 generation processors are moving to a 1.4-nanometer manufacturing process, delivering another leap in efficiency.

The takeaway is that AI is no longer just another feature Apple’s chips need to support. It is now shaping how those products are designed and when they are shipped. That’s a shift from the days when the main concerns were things like processing speeds, graphics, battery life and thinner designs.

Looking back, the Apple car project probably shouldn’t be remembered as a futile exercise. Sure, the company abandoned the vehicle. But it kept the technology that may ultimately prove far more valuable.

The AI hardware effort originally intended to power a self-driving car is now shaping Macs and AI servers. In the end, one of Apple’s costliest failures may be seen as one of its most consequential technology investments.

New Apple Pencils are slated to be released next year alongside upcoming iPad Pro models. There are several new Apple products coming in the first half of next year, following this fall’s rollout of the iPhone 18 Pro, a foldable phone, refreshed Apple Watches and updated Macs. I’ve already reported on next spring’s redesigned entry-level MacBook Pro and new iPad Pro models. Now, here’s something else to expect during the same time period: Apple Pencil styluses for the iPad.

I’m told that Apple is preparing two new models. The first, code-named B582, is an updated version of the low-end Apple Pencil introduced a couple of years ago that charges with USB-C instead of wirelessly. The other, dubbed B632, is a refreshed version of the Apple Pencil Pro that arrived for the first time in 2024 alongside the M4 iPad Pro overhaul. The timing makes sense, given that Apple traditionally likes to roll out new Pencils around the same time it delivers fresh iPad models.

There is a lot of work going on inside Apple right now to satisfy upcoming European Union requirements around making batteries inside of consumer electronics more easily replaceable. One possibility is that these Pencils will offer new battery systems. The current (and prior) Apple Pencils are a nightmare to repair and filled with glued-together parts — so this would be a big change if it happens.

Apple will upgrade its in-store iPhone tap-to-pay systems to drop third-party payment terminals. A few years ago, Apple began transitioning its retail store payment terminals away from customized iPhones known as Isaacs to regular iPhones that could accept the company’s new tap-to-pay system. If you’ve been to an Apple retail location lately, chances are you’ve paid on a regular-looking iPhone 14. But many stores have continued to carry the customized versions with a Bluetooth credit card reader affixed to the back.

The reason: The tap-to-pay system in the iPhone 14 can sometimes be finicky and not support metal cards like American Express Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve. But Apple has found that the iPhone 16 does a better job and eliminates the need for store employees to carry around the specialized terminals. So, in the coming days and weeks, the company will reduce the number of dedicated readers and give more employees iPhone 16s. Shoppers can then pay directly by tapping their card — without a terminal attachment. Bloomberg