TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fabless Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek is designing an Arm-based computer chip that will run Microsoft Windows, Reuters reported on Tuesday (June 11).

Microsoft introduced a new series of laptops last month with Arm Holdings-designed chips, which can run several artificial intelligence applications. The MediaTek chip is being designed for these new Microsoft laptops, per Reuters.  

MediaTek’s computer chip is expected to launch late in 2025 after Qualcomm’s exclusive agreement to provide Microsoft laptop chips expires, two sources told Reuters. It is based on Arm’s ready-made designs. 

Reuters noted that it is currently unclear if Microsoft has cleared MediaTek’s PC chip for the Copilot+ Windows program. 

Microsoft selected Qualcomm in 2016 to lead its migration of the Windows operating system to Arm’s underlying process architecture, which has long been used in smartphones. Microsoft gave Qualcomm an exclusive deal to design Arm-based Windows-compatible chips until 2024, the report said. 

With the Qualcomm deal nearing its end, other chipmakers have started to design Arm-based chips for Microsoft laptops. For decades, Windows devices have used chip architecture made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel, Reuters said. 

Nvidia and AMD are developing Arm-designed chips for Windows devices. One source told Reuters that Nvidia is getting help from MediaTek on its computer chip. However, MediaTek’s push to make a Microsoft PC chip is separate from its work with Nvidia, sources told Reuters.