Apple to Bring Custom Chips to Macs by 2020 or 2021: Ming-Chi Kuo

Apple might be planning to ditch Intel chips and opt for in-house chips for its Mac lineup as early as 2020 or 2021. This comes from reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who claims Apple will work with its biggest chip manufacturer, Taiwan-based TSMC, to incorporate custom processing chips into its upcoming notebook lineup. This follows a Bloomberg report earlier this year which said Apple plans to ditch Intel chips by 2020. Additionally, Kuo also claims that an autonomous Apple Car system and that might also run on Apple's chips by 2023.

Kuo reportedly says Apple will introduce the first Mac device with its custom ARM-based chips sometime in 2020 or 2021. He adds that the switch from Intel chips to its own will help Apple have more control over the product release schedule, have higher profit margins, and possibly hit new price points on future Macs.

Other than that, Apple is also predicted to work with TSMC to produce custom chips for the upcoming ambitious Apple Car Advanced Driver Assistance Systems project. Kuo believes that Apple's chips will power a solution that will bring Level 4 or even Level 5 full autonomous driving to the industry. According to him, only TSMC's 3nm or 5nm chips can enable that level of autonomous driving.

Kuo believes that TSMC will continue to remain the core chip manufacturer for Apple's chips over the next few years. He also goes on to state that Apple will become more dependent on TSMC due to the supplier's “high quality design and production” compared to other suppliers. There is also no conflict of interest between the two companies, unlike with Samsung, which has in the past been a manufacturer for some of Apple's chips. Kuo notes that TSMC will remain the sole supplier for the upcoming A13 and A14 chips in 2019 and 2020 respectively.