In 2016, Microsoft granted Qualcomm exclusive rights to develop and produce Arm chips for Windows. With that deal expiring, and with a big push for Arm-based laptops that can run AI apps, other companies are developing their own chips.
According to an exclusive report from Reutersthat spoke to three sources familiar with the plans, Taiwanese chip design giant MediaTek will begin making 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 fit. Instead of creating its own CPU architecture based on the Arm instruction set, the chip will reportedly use Arm’s off-the-shelf designs.
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This approach can significantly accelerate development, Reuters explained.
“Arm executives have said that one of its customers used the off-the-shelf components to build a chip in about nine months for an already-completed design, which MediaTek’s is not. For experienced chip design companies, it typically takes significantly more than a year to build and test advanced chips, depending on complexity.”
Microsoft’s latest attempt to use Arm designs is no 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 these efforts, the Taiwanese company is reportedly working with Nvidia on its product, although details remain under wraps for now.
While it could be that MediaTek’s new chips will be used in the next generation of AI PCs, Reuters says 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.