Apple’s 2026 Mac lineup may look familiar at first glance, but under the hood, big changes are brewing. The tech giant is preparing its upcoming M5 chips for a leap in performance and efficiency by adopting advanced Liquid Molding Compound (LMC) packaging, sourced exclusively from Taiwan’s Eternal Materials.
This strategic shift not only boosts current performance but also paves the way for future upgrades to TSMC’s high-end Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) technology.
LMC isn’t just a manufacturing tweak-it’s engineered to meet the rigorous standards of high-performance computing and AI chips. While the 2026 M5 Macs won’t yet use full CoWoS packaging, integrating a compatible material now is a calculated step toward enabling multi-die M-series processors in the coming years. CoWoS can combine multiple chiplets into a single package, dramatically increasing bandwidth, computational density, and overall capability.
In the short term, LMC will strengthen structural integrity, improve heat dissipation, and enhance manufacturing efficiency, ensuring sustained performance and energy savings. Eternal Materials secured Apple’s contract after outpacing Japanese rivals Namics and Nagase, signaling Apple’s growing reliance on Taiwan-based suppliers for advanced chip materials.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also noted that similar packaging advances are coming to the A20 chips for the 20th anniversary iPhone next year. Looking ahead, Apple could fully embrace CoWoS or even CoPoS (Chip-on-Package-on-Substrate) in the M6 or M7 generations, unlocking even more complex processors designed for heavy AI model training, high-end 3D rendering, and massive memory throughput.
The first M5-powered MacBook Pro models are expected in early 2026, with a potential M6 refresh later that year. By future-proofing its design now, Apple is setting the stage for a new era of Mac performance that could redefine what its laptops can do.