MacBook Neo demand forces Apple to make more A18 Pro chips, says report

The company is responding to unprecedented demand by making chips that were technically discontinued

(Credit: Apple)

• 💻 Apple is reportedly making more A18 Pro chips for the MacBook Neo

• 💾 The company originally relied on a supply of defunct chips that didn’t make it into the iPhone 16 Pro

• ⬇️ However, due to high demand, Apple’s running way lower on supply than it thought

• 💰 It’s unclear whether the new batch of chips will lead to a price increase

The MacBook Neo is performing better than Apple ever anticipated, and it’s led to a huge problem: the company doesn’t have enough chips for it. It’s been using a stockpile of A18 Pro chips (the ones found in the iPhone 16 Pro), and Apple’s inventory is starting to run dry thanks to the unprecedented success of the Neo. This is forcing the company to ramp up production of the old A18 Pro once again - but that could come at a cost.

Tim Culpin reports in his Culpium newsletter that Apple officially plans to start making new A18 Pro processors, following its initiative to double production of the MacBook Neo. TSMC, Apple’s primary chip manufacturer, will be the one kicking them out, which is said to be a costly process given that production of the chips was initially suspended after the A19 Pro-powered iPhone 17 Pro came out.

The Neo technically uses defunct versions of the A18 Pro, where one of the six GPUs couldn’t perform correctly, forcing Apple to switch it off in the software. However, the new A18 Pros would more than likely have six fully-functional GPUs, since they’d be brand-new chips built using the same specs as last time. Only a small portion would likely experience the same failed GPU fate, which likely means Apple will be disabling one of the GPU cores on every new A18 Pro to keep the experience consistent across MacBook Neo units.

But between the new chips and rising production costs, Apple’s margins on the Neo are quickly shrinking, leading many to speculate whether the company will raise the price of the $599 laptop. There’s a chance the company gets rid of the $599 model and only sells the 16GB RAM/512GB storage $699 model, similar to how it eliminated the base Mac mini and Mac Studio recently. There’s also a chance every version of the MacBook Neo gets a simple price jump, or perhaps Apple will eat the rising production costs and not touch pricing at all.

As of now, it’s unclear whether the MacBook Neo price will be affected by this development. It seems inevitable that some change will take place, but we’ll have to wait to find out.

• Up next: Nintendo Switch 2 prices are going up worldwide this September

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Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut and co-host of The Shortcut Live. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.