Apple built a chip more powerful than anything in its lineup, then killed it

It turns out that Apple had bigger plans for the Mac Pro before quietly letting it die. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company built and scrapped an entire tier of chips above its Ultra lineup, plus two Mac Pro models that never made it to market, all before discontinuing the machine in March in favor of the Mac Studio.

The chip that could have out-powered anything Apple's made

Gurman, in his Power On newsletter (subscription required to view), calls it the "Extreme" chip, a tier above Ultra with roughly double the processing and graphics cores. He says the idea got far enough that two versions actually got built.



Both were eventually wound down over cost and demand concerns before ever reaching a Mac.

Two more Mac Pro models that never left the lab

The chip wasn't the only thing that got shelved. Gurman says Apple also built two unreleased Mac Pro models, internally known as J170 and J190.



J170 was a new Intel-based Mac Pro, oddly enough, built even after Apple had already moved the rest of its lineup to its own silicon. J190 was an M3 Ultra version meant to launch alongside the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in early 2025. Neither shipped.

Why the Mac Pro couldn't survive as is

The signs were there well before the March discontinuation. The Mac Pro was still running a 2023 M2 Ultra chip while the Mac Studio kept getting updated around it, a pretty clear sign of neglect for what used to be Apple's flagship desktop. On top of that, it costs twice as much as a Mac Studio for essentially the same functionality once you set aside the internal expansion slots. That gap was never going to hold up long term.

This one's probably gone for good

Gurman doesn't expect Apple to bring the Mac Pro back anytime soon, if ever, and everything that got canceled along the way tracks with that. A chip tier built twice and shelved twice, plus two full Mac Pro models that never left the lab, points to a company that tried hard to make the line work and eventually gave up. New Mac Studios with M5 Ultra chips are coming as early as this fall, which is likely where that scrapped Extreme-chip ambition actually ends up living.

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