Apple will forgo the launch of the M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, opting instead to release an M6-powered MacBook Pro and move directly to the M7 Pro and M7 Max chips in 2027. This marks a significant departure from Apple’s typical chip release strategy, which since the debut of the M1 has included Pro and Max variants with each generation.
A Bloomberg report from late June 2026 indicated that the redesigned MacBook Pros will instead utilize existing M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. As part of this change in strategy, Apple has expedited the launch of the upcoming M7 chips.
Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter, stated that Apple is planning considerable upgrades to the Neural Engine for the M7 family of chips. The enhancements to the Neural Engine are critical for improving artificial intelligence (AI) performance, which is increasingly central to Apple’s strategy. As a result, the company decided to accelerate the release of the M7 chips.
Gurman noted that while exact performance improvements are not detailed, they are expected to be significant. Specifically, the M7 Ultra chip is anticipated to enhance AI performance “dramatically.” Such an upgrade could lead to the M7 Ultra being used to power Apple Intelligence servers as early as 2029.
In further details about the M7 Ultra, Gurman mentioned that it could support up to 1.5TB of RAM, which is double the capacity of the forthcoming M5 Ultra. This would align the RAM capacity with that of the 2019 Mac Pro.
However, there is uncertainty regarding whether the M7 Ultra models will be equipped with 1.5TB of RAM due to ongoing shortages of DRAM and NAND flash memory and rising prices in the memory market. The current M3 Ultra supports a maximum of 512GB of RAM, but users are limited to configuring it with only 96GB due to discontinued higher-end RAM options resulting from DRAM shortages.
