Microsoft has refreshed its Surface lineup with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus chips and an upcoming Nvidia powered flagship. But the hardware rollout leaves AMD completely missing from the catalog for over 5 years. The head of the Surface division has now spoken publicly to explain why Team Red remains on the sidelines.
Brett Ostrum, Corporate Vice President and Head of Surface at Microsoft, addressed the situation during an interview with Windows Central. The last time an AMD processor appeared in the lineup was the Surface Laptop 4 back in 2021. Since that release, the product line has shifted toward alternative silicon providers. Ostrum stated that the absence is purely a matter of resource allocation rather than any breakdown in relations between the 2 tech giants.
We love working with AMD. We have a finite portfolio, so we have to make very deliberate decisions about what we do and where we do it.
Engineering teams can only build and test so many motherboards at once. Microsoft recently brought the Snapdragon X2 Plus processor to the 12 inch Surface Pro and the 13 inch Surface Laptop. Next month, the company will launch the Surface Laptop Ultra running on Nvidia RTX Spark hardware. Juggling those specialized designs leaves little room for extra chip variants.
The lack of AMD silicon in Surface hardware does not mean the relationship is cold. Outside the PC hardware division, AMD is still one of Microsoft’s biggest partners. AMD produces the custom processors that run Xbox home consoles, and it serves as the chip provider for the collaborative ROG Xbox handheld. Microsoft also buys massive shipments of AMD enterprise silicon to run its cloud data centers. The partnership is alive and well, even if laptop shoppers cannot buy an AMD powered Surface today.
