Apple Is Reportedly Skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max — Here’s What That Means for Buyers

If you have been holding out for a higher-spec MacBook Pro or Mac Studio refresh, the smart move is to plan around 2027, not this year. That is the takeaway from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who reports in his Power On newsletter that Apple will ship a regular M6 chip but has no plans to offer higher-end M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, and no M6 Ultra either. It is the first time in the Apple Silicon era that Apple would skip the higher-end versions of a Mac chip generation.

Why is Apple skipping the M6 Pro and M6 Max?

The reason, according to Gurman, is AI. He reports that Apple had been planning major neural-processing upgrades for the M7 family and decided those improvements were important enough to justify accelerating the next generation rather than completing the M6 line-up. As MacRumors summarised from the newsletter, the M7 Ultra in particular is said to “dramatically” upgrade AI performance, and it may power Apple Intelligence servers starting in 2029.

Gurman’s framing is that AI has stopped being a box Apple’s chips tick and started dictating the roadmap itself — shaping how the products are designed and when they ship. That is consistent with the direction we’ve already covered, where Apple’s on-device AI ambitions keep leaning on the silicon rather than the cloud. Skipping an entire Pro/Max tier to get there faster is an aggressive way to make the point.

What the chip roadmap now looks like

Here is the rumoured timeline as reported by Gurman. The base M6 arrives this year for entry-level machines, then the whole high-end tier waits for M7.

A new 14-inch MacBook Pro with a base M6 chip is reportedly due later this year, positioned at the entry level. Gurman also still expects an M5 Ultra Mac Studio to debut as early as this year. What is not coming, on this reporting, is any M6 Pro, M6 Max or M6 Ultra — those variants are described as cancelled rather than merely delayed. Coverage at Macworld and Cult of Mac reaches the same conclusion, framing the M7 line as being fast-tracked for on-device AI.

Should you wait, or buy now?

It depends on what you actually need from the machine. If you are chasing the next major leap in AI performance on a Pro-class Mac, the roadmap tells you to think 2027 or 2028, because TechTimes describes an 18-month gap in Pro-class chip refreshes created by skipping the M6 Pro and Max entirely. Waiting for M7 Pro/Max means waiting a while.

If you need a capable Mac for traditional heavy workloads — video, 3D, software development — there is nothing in this reporting that makes today’s hardware a bad buy. The current M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros are expected to stay the top tier until M7 Pro/Max lands, and Apple isn’t treating them as obsolete; the decision is about accelerating AI-specific gains in M7, not abandoning current silicon. Our own MacBook Pro M5 review covers where that machine already sits against the competition. Buyers who were specifically waiting for an M6 Pro or M6 Max, though, should reset their expectations: that upgrade path, as reported, no longer exists.

One caveat worth keeping in view: this is Gurman’s roadmap, not an Apple announcement, and chip timelines have a habit of moving. But when the same reporting is echoed across Bloomberg, MacRumors, Macworld and others, it is a solid enough basis to plan around — and the plan, for high-end buyers, points to 2027.