Apple could launch an updated 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M6 chip as early as this year, reports Bloomberg. There could also be updates to the M6 chip for the Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Air, but Apple is testing an M6 MacBook Pro.
Apple plans to introduce the M6 in late 2026, and for the first time it will be a standalone chip. Apple is not working on M6 Pro or M6 Max chips and will wait for high-end chip options until the M7 series launches in 2027.
The M6 chip will be the first built on a 2-nanometer process instead of the 3-nanometer process that Apple has used in recent chip generations. Rumors suggest that Apple will use TSMC’s N2 process. Compared to the 3nm process, the 2nm process reduces the size of the transistors, allowing more of them to be integrated onto a chip. Decreases in node sizes generally result in improved processor speeds and better power efficiency.
TSMC’s new chips also move from the InFo (Integrated Fan-Out) package to the WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module). WMCM more closely integrates individual chip components such as the CPU, GPU, DRAM and Neural Engine, improving communication between components.
According to Bloombergthe M6 will be the most powerful in the industry for its category. The chip will have higher memory bandwidth at around 200 GB/s (compared to 153 GB/s in the M5). Increasing memory bandwidth will improve graphics performance and speed up AI tasks on the device.
The M6 will feature an updated memory architecture, an improved neural engine for AI processing, and improvements to video encoding and decoding. Performance will improve for all processing cores and the GPU will also get an update to optimize it for AI. Apple is testing versions of the chip with a 12-core GPU. The M5 chip is limited to a 10-core GPU.
Apple last updated the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip in October 2025, so an M6 update around a year out would make sense. The base Mac mini and iMac haven’t been updated since October 2024, but Bloomberg recently stated that these machines would receive M5 chips, not M6 chips, so Apple’s plans are unclear. Bloomberg‘s latest report on the M6 mentions several entry-level Macs getting the M6, but it only specifically references the MacBook Pro.
Apple added the M5 chip to the iPad Pro in October 2025, but it’s unclear if the device will receive an M6 chip this year, as previous rumors indicated that no 2026 refresh was planned. The MacBook Air was refreshed in March 2026, so it may not get a new chip until 2027.
