AMD declares war on Apple and Nvidia with massive "Strix Halo" AI chips

The chipmaker just dropped a "nuclear option" on the laptop market: A single processor that allegedly beats the MacBook Pro and renders entry-level gaming graphics cards obsolete.

On January 5, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su took the stage at CES 2026 to unveil the Ryzen AI Max "Strix Halo" and Ryzen AI 400 "Krackan Point" series, a dual-pronged assault designed to break the industry's reliance on discrete graphics cards. The flagship Strix Halo chip isn't just an upgrade; it is a platform shift, boasting a massive 40-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory, a direct architectural clone of Apple's M-series silicon that aims to decapitate the low-end gaming laptop market.

The "Apple Killer" Architecture

For years, Windows laptops have been shackled by a split-memory architecture (separate RAM for CPU and GPU). Strix Halo changes the math. By unifying the memory pool, AMD claims its new chip can handle massive AI models and 4K gaming without needing a separate, power-hungry Nvidia graphics card.

The specs are aggressive:

1. 16 Zen 5 CPU Cores: Desktop-class processing power in a mobile chassis.
2. 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units: Integrated graphics that rival the PlayStation 5 in raw core count.
3. 128GB Unified Memory: Allowing the onboard NPU to run massive AI models (up to 70 billion parameters) locally, bypassing the cloud entirely.

"We are entering the era of yotta-scale computing," Dr. Lisa Su told the CES audience, positioning the new silicon not just for gamers, but for an AI workforce that needs to run local agents without latency.

The Mainstream Assault: Ryzen AI 400

While Strix Halo targets the $2,000+ "MacBook killer" segment, the new Ryzen AI 400 series (codenamed "Krackan Point") is the volume play. Shipping in laptops as early as January 2026, these chips feature a souped-up NPU capable of 60 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), comfortably exceeding Microsoft's Copilot+ requirement of 40 TOPS.

This is a critical number for investors. It ensures AMD's silicon will power the next wave of corporate fleet upgrades, a market Intel is desperately trying to defend with its Lunar Lake chips.

The Business Reality

Wall Street reacted cautiously but positively, with AMD stock holding steady around $221 as analysts digested the implications. The strategy is clear: Capture the high-margin "creator" market from Apple while squeezing Nvidia out of the entry-level gaming laptop space.

However, the execution risk is high. Devices powered by the high-end Strix Halo are expected to cost upwards of $2,199, putting them in direct competition with established heavyweights like the MacBook Pro M4 Max. AMD isn't just fighting for market share; it's fighting to prove that the Windows ecosystem can finally match Apple's efficiency.

If Strix Halo delivers on its promises, the days of bulky, hot, loud gaming laptops may finally be numbered.