Apple has unveiled a new M6 chip alongside an M5 Ultra, which it describes as its "most powerful chip ever" for demanding tasks such as 3D rendering and running large-scale AI models. The M6 marks Apple's first chip built on a 2-nanometre process, bringing gains in performance and power efficiency, while both chips feature enhanced Neural Engines aimed at boosting on-device AI capability. The announcement continues Apple's push to keep its custom silicon competitive for both everyday computing and increasingly demanding AI workloads.

The M6 has a 12-core CPU (up from 10 on the M5) and a 12-core GPU, and Apple claims it delivers the world's fastest single-threaded performance along with up to 1.2 times faster multithreaded performance than its predecessor; it supports up to 32GB of unified memory. The M5 Ultra, created by fusing two M5 Max chips via Apple's UltraFusion technology, offers up to a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, a 32-core Neural Engine and up to 512GB of unified memory, though this remains non-upgradeable after purchase. The M6 will power a new Mac Mini and the M5 Ultra a new Mac Studio, with both machines open for preorder from Tuesday ahead of release on 22 September.