In 2020, Apple debuted its first proprietary chip, the M1 chip. The ARM-based M1 chip was seen to be a strong competitor to chips made by competitors such as AMD and Intel. In more recent iterations, the M1 class of chips have grown to great fanfare, giving Macs a real strong edge in the high-end computing space (especially in benchmarks.)
Microsoft took note. Now they want that sweet, sweet proprietary performance for themselves. According to The Verge, the tech giant is reportedly developing a new chip based on ARM tech, specifically for servers and their Surface PC line. To elevate their chances of success, Microsoft shamelessly hired one of Apple’s key engineers, Mike Filippo, to head up the custom chip effort.
In 2019, the company worked with AMD and Qualcomm on custom chips for its Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X devices. Those partnerships have progressed through 2020, but might come to a conclusion if Microsoft develops its own in-house chip.
Ultimately, this pivot has strong echoes of Apple’s decision to part ways with Intel. And just like in the Apple case, Microsoft will be shading Intel in particular, who has historically benefited from their stronghold in both Mac and PC. However, big tech giants have newfound competition in each other, especially at the rate that they are pivoting to in-house ARM-based processors.
Google is developing its own ARM-based SoC for Chromebook, Amazon already has an ARM-based processor for its AWS server biz, Apple is mopping the floor with the M1 chipset, and it’s only fair that Microsoft has their own new playtoy. How that will fare for existing chip giants is untold. However, what is known is that companies like Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung, and NVIDIA (who will own ARM once their merger clears antitrust hurdles) will stand to benefit from the push.