The MacBook Ultra just lost its chip as Apple skips M6 Pro and M6 Max entirely

Apple is reportedly making a significant change to its Apple Silicon roadmap. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company has canceled plans for M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, making the M6 the first Apple Silicon generation since 2020 to ship without higher-end variants. Instead of following the usual cadence, Apple is jumping straight to the M7, which is being designed primarily around on-device AI performance.

The base M6 chip is still on track for late 2026 and will appear in entry-level MacBook Pro models, the Mac mini, iMac, and potentially upcoming iPad Pro and iPad Air models. It brings meaningful improvements over the M5, including memory bandwidth up to 200GB/s compared to 153GB/s on the M5, an updated Neural Engine, a redesigned GPU with up to 12 cores, up from 10, and performance improvements across all processor cores. Prior rumors have also suggested that the M6 will be built on Apple's new 2nm process to reduce manufacturing costs.

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The M7 is expected to arrive in relatively quick succession, with the base chip targeting the first half of 2027. The M7 Pro and M7 Max are slated for the end of 2027, with the M7 Ultra following in 2028. Bloomberg reports that the M7 line is designed primarily around major advancements in on-device AI processing, with the base M7 expected to support around 240 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Before any of that, Apple is also planning to release an M5 Ultra chip as soon as late 2026 as part of a refreshed Mac Studio. The M5 Ultra is expected to feature around 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, with Apple having tested support for up to 768GB of unified memory in Mac Studio configurations.

The most immediate casualty of this roadmap shift is the high-end MacBook Ultra. The thinner, more expensive MacBook Pro with an OLED display and touchscreen was previously rumored for late 2026 or early 2027. With the M7 Pro and M7 Max chips not arriving until late 2027, the device will either launch with an M5 Pro, M5 Max, or M6 chip or face a significant delay. Higher-end Mac mini and Mac Studio models, which would typically use Pro and Max chips, are in a similar position.