In 2026, you can find new Surface PCs from Microsoft for sale powered by almost all major chip makers. There are Surface PCs with Intel, Snapdragon, and very soon, even NVIDIA. But one chipmaker you won't see in a Surface PC today is AMD.
This wasn't always the case however. In 2019, Microsoft released the Surface Laptop 3 with both Intel and AMD chip offerings, a first for the Surface line that lasted just two generations before being dropped entirely with the launch of Surface Laptop 5.
Microsoft has never explained why it decided to drop AMD from the lineup, until now that is. In an interview with Windows Central, I asked Surface CVP Brett Ostrum why we don't see AMD in the Surface lineup in 2026.
"We love working with AMD. We have a limited portfolio, and so we have to make our choices pretty wisely in terms of what we're doing and where we're doing," Ostrum told me, before proclaiming "I love working with AMD."
So in short, it seems Microsoft doesn't sell any Surface PCs with an AMD chip right now because the portfolio is limited in size and the company has other partners and customers they need to appease first.
I'm not sure I buy this explanation as Microsoft was clearly able to offer the same device with Intel or AMD in the past. Why can't Microsoft just do that today with the Surface Laptop 8 series, for example?
Microsoft has a close working relationship with AMD in the gaming space. AMD will power the next-gen Xbox, and is what you'll find in the currently manufactured Xbox consoles too. But for whatever reason, you just don't find it in a Surface.
With that said, there were rumors last year that Microsoft was working on a Surface powered by AMD's rumored Arm-based chip codenamed Sound Wave. That chip was rumored to launch sometime this year, but we've seen no sign of it as of yet.
If that chip ever does ship, we don't know where that might fit into Microsoft's limited portfolio as we have no real idea if the Sound Wave APU is a high-end one or not.
Either way, for now, Microsoft's official on-the-record stance as to why we don't see AMD in Surface PCs is because the portfolio is limited and they don't have the room for it right now.
Hopefully that rumored Surface powered by AMD's Sound Wave chip hasn't been totally canceled.
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