AMD Sound Wave ARM APU for Windows reportedly in works with strong NPU performance

The introduction of a plethora of notebooks running on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs over the weekend seems like the harbinger of a new era for Windows laptops. Microsoft calls the new ARM-powered laptops “Copilot+ PCs” owing to the AI capabilities of the machines.

Curiously, these Copilot+ PCs run exclusively on the Snapdragon X Elite/Plus chips as Microsoft has mandated a minimum of 40 TOPs of NPU performance in order for a laptop to be branded as Copilot+ and get access to features like Recall.

In other words, Intel and AMD’s latest Core Ultra 100 and Ryzen 8000 Hawk Point APUs have effectively been relegated to second-class citizenship for the time being in the Windows world, at least when it comes to non-gaming laptops. However, Qualcomm may not remain the only ARM SoC supplier on Windows as, in addition to MediaTek, AMD is also reportedly preparing an ARM APU codenamed “Sound Wave”.

The information comes to us courtesy of Moore’s Law Is Dead and claims that the AMD Sound Wave’s NPU is “very powerful” and the APU is “purpose-built to win MS from Qualcomm”.

Seemingly scheduled for 2026, AMD Sound Wave APU appears to be a high priority for the company with senior management paying “a lot” of attention to save the APU from experiencing delays like the Strix Point products.

AMD is also allegedly stressing the release timing of Sound Wave with the report indicating that the company won’t hesitate canceling the project if it “starts falling behind schedule or underperforming”.

Additionally, in what appears to be AMD’s effort to minimize bugs with its ARM CPUs, the company has seemingly asked at least one retailer for bug reports “even if they are from ARM systems”. The same source also alleged to MLID that AMD is especially interested in “CPU-related crashes” in systems relying on ARM CPUs and Radeon GPUs. 

All in all, it appears that AMD is taking the rise of the Snapdragon SoCs on Windows very seriously and is preparing its ARM answer. However, it remains to be seen whether AMD’s purported APU plan comes to fruition or the project goes the way of Team Red’s previous ARM effort, the K12 Core.

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