They won't, because they'd need an ARM architecture license.

Qualcomm have an architecture license and the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 isn't too far off the M5 Pro.

[1] https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/snapdragon-x2-elite...

[2] https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-14-inch-2026-...

watt about in performance per watt?

Are they using LLMs to close that gap, or is this their Nuvia acquisition doing the heavy lifting?

Arm sells architecture licenses to anybody these days.

Why, the LLM can make up its own architecture.

The value lies in the design space exploration, which is what an LLM can easily do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_space_exploration

Or they'll just build a competitor in RISC-V instead and that's fine.

Except the problem is not restricted to the actual ISA or its HDL implementation, etc.

It's even just getting space / time in a fab at that advanced of a process node.

I mean you can design anything without a license. Selling it is where the problems come up. Even then there are likely places in China that would still make it for you.