The big picture: Microsoft unveiled its new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro convertible at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui last week and confirmed that it would be discontinuing the Copilot+ PC brand for new Windows devices. The company has now provided a rather unconvincing explanation as to why the latest Surface devices do not ship with AMD processors.
During an interview with Windows Central, Brett Ostrum, CVP of Surface devices at Microsoft, was asked why the company dropped AMD from its 2026 Surface lineup. Ostrum stated that Microsoft can’t offer too many processor options due to its limited Surface portfolio, although the company highly values the relationship with AMD.
Ostrum says: “We love working with AMD. Our portfolio is limited and so we have to make our decisions pretty wisely in terms of what we do and where we do it.” He added that AMD is a valued partner for Microsoft and that the two companies will continue to work closely together on other products in the future.
Ostrum hasn’t confirmed whether future Surface devices will ship with AMD chips, but online speculation suggests AMD-based Surface PCs could still be in the pipeline, with Microsoft rumored to be working on new devices powered by AMD’s upcoming Arm chip, codenamed Sound Wave.
Regardless of the latest Surface devices, Microsoft and AMD work closely together on PCs, gaming consoles and handhelds. Team Red’s 3D V-Cache CPUs remain among the best gaming processors on the market, and the company is also Redmond’s chosen partner to deliver a custom processor for the next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix.
Microsoft’s new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop may not ship with Copilot+ branding, but they still offer the same AI features as their predecessors. They are powered by the Snapdragon X2 Plus SoC, which the company says is better than the Snapdragon
In addition to the Surface devices, Microsoft also introduced the second generation Surface Mouse last week. Priced at $79.99, it offers several new features including haptic feedback, a customizable action button, Bluetooth 6.0 with multi-device support, and a claimed six months of battery life. It will go on sale on October 13th in black and platinum colors.
