Overview
- Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported Sunday that Apple plans an M5 Ultra Mac Studio due later in 2026 and a separate M7 Ultra model targeted for 2028, with the company reportedly skipping higher‑end M6 Ultra steps for professional Macs.
- Sources say the near‑term update will focus on a chip and thermal boost rather than an exterior redesign, with Apple adding a better heatsink to keep CPU and GPU performance steady during long AI inference and training tasks.
- Reported testing shows very large M5 Ultra configurations were tried, including builds with up to about 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and as much as 768 GB of unified memory to serve demanding pro workflows and local AI models.
- Supply and component pressures, especially global memory constraints and a recent base price increase to $2,499, are said to be influencing Apple’s timing, availability and the choice to prioritize select chip tiers.
- If true, the changes could let developers and studios run larger AI workloads on local machines, and the rollout timing will be worth watching for effects on Mac Studio wait times, pricing and workstation competition.