Intel appears to be taking aim at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, touting its yet-to-be-released Lunar Lake chips as the ideal solution for Copilot+ PCs.

Microsoft unveiled its new Copilot+ PCs, powered by Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors. The company is clearly trying to take on Apple and its M-series custom silicon, chips that have helped the Cupertino company deliver industry-leading performance and battery life.

Intel appears intent on making sure the world knows it can still compete, at least with its upcoming Lunar Lake chips.

Lunar Lake is expected to be a groundbreaking mobile processor for AI PCs with more than 3 times the AI performance compared with the previous generation. With more than 40 NPU tera operations per second (TOPS), Intel’s next generation processors will provide the capabilities necessary for Copilot+ experiences coming to market. In addition to the higher performing NPU, Lunar Lake will also be equipped with over 60 GPU TOPS delivering more than 100 platform TOPS.

“With breakthrough power efficiency, the trusted compatibility of x86 architecture and the industry’s deepest catalog of software enablement across the CPU, GPU and NPU, we will deliver the most competitive joint client hardware and software offering in our history with Lunar Lake and Copilot+,” said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Intel EVP and general manager of the Client Computing Group.

“The launch of Lunar Lake will bring meaningful fundamental improvements across security, battery life, and more thanks to our deep co-engineering partnership with Intel. We are excited to see Lunar Lake come to market with a 40+ TOPS NPU which will deliver Microsoft’s Copilot+ experiences at scale when available,” added Pavan Davuluri, corporate vice president of Windows + Devices at Microsoft.

What’s At Stake In a Changing PC Landscape

Microsoft and Intel have a long history together, forming one of the closest working relationships between two companies in the tech industry’s history. In recent times, however, Microsoft has been increasingly focusing on Arm-based computing, thanks to the combination of performance and battery life that Intel has been unable to match.

Intel is in the midst of an attempted turnaround, led by CEO Pat Gelsinger, but the company has struggled to make headway against AMD and TSMC, let alone reclaim its crown as the world’s leading chipmaker.

Intel clearly needs Lunar Lake to be a hit and deliver on its promise of being a performant, AI-capable chip. If the company fails to deliver, its window of opportunity to remain the preferred architecture for Microsoft products may be closed for good.