Apple has unveiled its latest custom silicon, the M5 chip, its most aggressive leap yet in artificial intelligence processing as it seeks to keep pace with rivals Nvidia and Qualcomm in the rapidly intensifying AI hardware race.
Built on third-generation 3-nanometer technology, the Apple M5 chip delivers over four times the GPU compute performance for AI workloads compared with its predecessor, the M4, and integrates a Neural Accelerator into each GPU core — a first for Apple. The new chip powers the refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Vision Pro, all available for pre-order beginning today.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, called the chip “the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon,” highlighting its role in enabling on-device intelligence, real-time rendering, and large-model processing without the cloud.
The M5’s 10-core GPU and up to 10-core CPU deliver up to 15% faster multithreaded performance and up to 45% better graphics performance than the M4. It also features an improved 16-core Neural Engine and 153GB/s unified memory bandwidth, nearly 30% higher than the previous generation, enabling faster local execution of large AI models.
The new silicon further enhances Apple’s Apple Intelligence platform, boosting the performance of on-device generative AI tools such as Image Playground and Genmoji, while optimizing third-party apps using frameworks like Core ML and Metal 4.
Apple’s push into AI hardware comes amid a broader industry transition toward on-device AI to improve privacy, latency, and efficiency. The company continues to emphasize energy efficiency — a key pillar of its Apple 2030 carbon-neutral plan — noting that M5-powered devices meet its strictest environmental standards to date.
The launch positions Apple to compete more directly in the AI computing segment that has become central to the valuation of major chipmakers. As the company integrates M5 across its hardware lineup, investors will be watching whether the AI capabilities drive another upgrade cycle — particularly for Macs and iPads, where growth has slowed.
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