Qualcomm has made a pretty big splash in the laptop market with its Snapdragon X series of chips. Though it is not the only company looking to make Arm-based chips for what is now dubbed Copilot Plus PCs, as fellow chipmaker MediaTek also wants a cut of the market. And the company has plans to ship its own Windows laptop chips by the end of 2025
Reuters reports that “the MediaTek PC chip is set to launch late next year”, as Qualcomm has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for the product category. These chips would also be based on ready-made designs by Arm, which will lead to faster development.
Last month, rumours emerged with pointed to MediaTek working with Nvidia for an Arm-based AI processor for PCs. That being said, this one looks to be more for the handheld gaming PC market, rather than Windows laptops specifically. Reuters also reports that this current arrangement is separate from a prior effort between the two companies to develop Arm-based chips for Windows.
Interestingly, the report notes that it’s “not immediately clear whether Microsoft has approved MediaTek’s PC chip for the Copilot Plus Windows program”. As there’s over a year to go before these chips even see the light of day, there’s probably more than plenty of time for the two companies to sort things out.
(Source: Reuters)
