Intel’s new Wildcat Lake chips take aim at the MacBook Neo with AI as the differentiator

Intel has launched its Core Series 3 processors, codenamed Wildcat Lake, in what amounts to a direct response to the MacBook Neo. The new chips, announced on 16 April, target the same budget laptop segment that Apple redefined last month with its $599 machine, and they arrive with a familiar pitch: more choice, more AI capability, and the full weight of the Windows ecosystem behind them.

The problem for Intel is that the MacBook Neo is already sold out through April, Apple has doubled its production orders to 10 million units, and early benchmarks suggest Wildcat Lake does not match it on raw performance. Intel’s counter-argument is that performance is no longer the only metric that matters in a laptop chip, and that the AI capabilities baked into its 18A process node give Windows OEMs something Apple cannot yet offer at this price point.

What Wildcat Lake delivers

Core ...