Apple has officially drawn the curtain on Intel-powered Macs. The company confirmed during its Platforms State of the Union at WWDC 2025 that macOS 26, also known as macOS Tahoe, will be the final major release for Macs running on Intel processors. While those devices will still receive security updates until 2028, the message is clear: the Intel era is over, and the future of macOS is Apple Silicon.
macOS Tahoe will be available this fall and brings several new features, including a refreshed design language, updates to Spotlight, Live Activities support, and even a dedicated Phone app. But if your Mac is powered by Intel, don’t expect to get anything beyond this release. Only four Intel models are supported in Tahoe: the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, the 2020 iMac, and the 2019 Mac Pro. All other Intel Macs have already been left behind or will be this year.
Apple’s transition away from Intel began in 2020 with the debut of the M1 chip, and since then, every new Mac has shipped with Apple’s own ARM-based silicon. The performance and battery gains were immediate and obvious, and Apple has made it increasingly difficult to justify sticking with older Intel hardware. Even models that stuck around in Apple’s product lineup until 2023, like the Intel Mac mini and Mac Pro, are now aging out of software support.
To bridge the gap during the transition, Apple relied on Rosetta 2, a built-in translation layer that allowed x86 apps to run on ARM-based Macs. That bridge will stay in place through macOS 27, but afterward, Rosetta’s role will be limited to supporting legacy video games. Developers are being urged to finish transitioning their apps to run natively on Apple Silicon, and Apple has made it clear that future innovation will be focused solely on its own chips.
The writing has been on the wall for some time, but now it’s official. macOS 27, expected in 2026, will not include support for any Intel Macs. Users holding on to Intel machines may still get security updates for a few more years, but no new features, no Apple Intelligence, and no UI improvements beyond macOS Tahoe. For developers, it’s time to stop targeting Intel. For users, it’s the last call to upgrade.
This marks the end of a nearly two-decade chapter where Intel chips powered everything from entry-level MacBooks to high-end Mac Pros. While OpenCore and other tools may keep some unsupported machines going unofficially, Apple has now set a firm expiration date. Going forward, the Mac experience—hardware and software—is built entirely on Apple Silicon.
