In 2016, Microsoft granted Qualcomm exclusive rights to develop and produce Arm chips for Windows. With that deal set to expire and a big push for Arm-based laptops capable of running AI applications, other companies are developing their own chips.
According to an exclusive report from Reuterswho spoke to three sources familiar with the plans, Taiwanese chip design giant MediaTek will begin manufacturing its own Arm-based CPUs for release in 2025.
MediaTek has a long history of designing and developing a wide range of system-on-chip solutions for various electronic devices and is an obvious choice. Instead of creating its own CPU architecture based on Arm's instruction set, the chip will use Arm's ready-made designs.
Taking on Apple
This approach can significantly speed up development, Reuters explained.
“Arm executives have said that one of their customers used ready-made components to build a chip in about nine months for a design that is already complete, which MediaTek's is not. For companies with experience in chip design, advanced chips typically take much more than a year to build and test, depending on complexity.”
Microsoft's latest push to use Arm designs is not a surprise, as Apple has been making its own Arm-based chips for Mac computers with great success. However, the move towards Arm could threaten Intel's dominance in the PC market.
Reuters previously reported that both Nvidia and AMD are working on making Arm chips for Windows, and while this new MediaTek chip is separate from those efforts, the Taiwanese firm is reportedly collaborating with Nvidia on its product, although details remain under wraps. now.
While it could be that MediaTek's new chips will be used in the next generation of AI PCs, Reuters says that “it is not immediately clear whether Microsoft has approved MediaTek's PC chip for the Copilot+ Windows program.”
MediaTek and Microsoft declined to comment on the report.
