After Qualcomm, Intel and AMD, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek is about to join the bandwagon of the AI PC race with its own AI chips. According to a report from Reuters, three people familiar with the matter have revealed that MediaTek is developing an ARM-based personal computer chip that will run Microsoft’s AI laptops, which are labelled as Copilot+ PCs.
Last year, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X series of chips for Copilot+ PCs running on Windows operating system. The first wave of these Qualcomm-powered AI Copilot+ PCs will hit the market starting from June 18. However, MediaTek’s AI PC chips are reported to launch late next year, after Qualcomm’s exclusive deal to supply chips for laptops expires.
In 2016, Microsoft enrolled American chipmaker Qualcomm to spearhead the transition of the Windows operating system to Arm’s underlying processor architecture, which has traditionally powered smartphones and their small batteries. Qualcomm was granted an exclusivity arrangement by Microsoft to develop Arm-based Windows-compatible chips until 2024.
Executives at ARM have informed that one of its customers used the ready-made components to build a chip in roughly nine months for a design that is already complete. For experienced chip design businesses, advanced chips typically take considerably more than a year to construct and test, depending on the complexity.
Based on ARM’s ready-made designs, this MediaTek chip can significantly increase development as these chips will need less design work due to their ready-made, tested components. Windows PCs have relied on chip architecture made by Intel and AMD for decades. Now, with Microsoft’s transition to ARM architecture with Copilot+ PCs, and also with their deal with Qualcomm expiring soon, this will open the market for other chip makers like Intel, AMD, and MediaTek to participate as well.
