Next-gen Xbox confirmed to have AI chip with neural rendering, part of a unified platform

Xbox hardware VP Jason Ronald reveals new details about Microsoft's next-gen console plans, including confirmation that Xbox will become a unified platform.

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Today, the official Xbox Podcast released a hefty 33-minute episode that discussed a few interesting details about new hardware. Xbox president Sarah Bond has already confirmed that a new console is in the works via a new AI-centric partnership with AMD.

Exact details on the next-gen Xbox are still light, but hardware exec Jason Ronald did confirm that Microsoft is investing in neural rendering tech, and it's likely the new Xbox will utilize new AMD silicon with NPUs (neural processing units) built in.

Check below for a transcript of what Vice President, Xbox Gaming Devices & Ecosystem Jason Ronald said about the next-gen Xbox:

Xbox and AMD have had a decades-long partnership really innovating and driving the next generation of gaming. We're excited to continue that relationship as we look forward to the future of Xbox.

Last month, we announced a multi-year strategic partnership that spans multiple products across console, cloud, PC, and handheld. We're deeply focused on hardware and silicon innovation and how we can push the boundaries beyond the current generation of devices.

But this is really all grounded in the work we're doing to create a unified platform that allows players to play across devices and in entirely new ways.

It's really about ensuring gameplay is not locked to an individual device or an individual storefront, and it's really just the recognition of players having built their libraries across a whole set of different services.

We want to put that entire library front and center no matter where you choose to play.

Together with AMD, we're designing dedicated silicon and hardware to enable the next generation of gaming experiences.

That means we're investing deeply into the next generation of rendering technologies, such as neural rendering, which will bring a new level of fidelity to the quality of the games that you're having. It's really about deepening the immersion between you and the gameplay experience that you have.

We're also investing into dedicated silicon to enable the next generation of AI capabilities, which will be transformative in how you actually experience the gameplay. It also provides a new surface that developers can take advantage of to deliver experiences that they've never been able to deliver before.

All of this actually starts this year with the Xbox Ally X, because it has a dedicated NPU. This allows us to start experimenting and trying some of these AI-powered experiences well before our next generation console.

When I think about it, this really reminds me of the early days of the original Xbox. We had a vision of where console gaming could go, and we believed in this notion of being able to connect gamers all across the world. Ultimately that became Xbox LIVE, but from a hardware perspective we knew early on that we had to invest in things like a hard drive and ethernet port.

We believed in our vision, and for us it's really about betting on the future as opposed to betting against the future. We're really focused on where players are going and where the industry is going, and we want to deliver the right platform to allow developers to deliver on their creative vision.

It's unclear when Microsoft plans to release its next-gen Xbox, but based on the way the tech is being talked about in the video, we probably won't see it until 2027 or thereabouts.