Apple's M4 chips are coming this year with a big focus on AI

Apple is currently hard at work on the next generation of its in-house developed chips, the M4 - expected to come in three main varieties. The M4 chips will power upcoming Macs - in fact, Apple wants to overhaul the entire Mac line with the M4 family of chips.

The M4 will be designed to "highlight artificial intelligence", according to a new report from Bloomberg today, penned by the usually very reliable about all things Apple Mark Gurman.

Mac sales fell 27% in the last fiscal year, which ended last September, after having peaked all the way back in 2022. Even the holiday season last year didn't help, as the sales stayed flat. The M3 Macs launched last October were supposed to help push sales up, but didn't since the M3 didn't have any huge performance improvements compared to the M2.

The M4 chips will be part of a broader push "to weave AI capabilities" into all of Apple's products, the report says. The first new M4-powered Macs will arrive late this year, and others will follow early next year.

Before the end of this year we should apparently expect new iMacs, a low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14" and 16" MacBook Pros, and Mac minis. This would mean the iMac and MacBook Pro lines would be refreshed around a year after the previous iterative upgrades, putting them on par with smartphone refresh cycles out of Apple's sales-related concern.

In 2025, Apple should also release M4-powered 13" and 15" MacBook Air (in spring), Mac Studio (around the middle of the year), and Mac Pro "later in 2025".

Apple plans to highlight the AI processing capabilities of the M4 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, when it will showcase the next version of macOS. The lowest-tier M4 will power the entry-level MacBook Pro, the new MacBook Air devices, and a low-end version of the Mac mini. The mid-tier option will be in the high-end MacBook Pros and a higher-end Mac mini, while the top tier chip will be created for the Mac Pro.

As part of the upgrades, Apple is reportedly "considering" allowing people to spec its highest-end Mac desktops with up to 512GB of RAM (up from the current limit of 192GB).