Sources: Google has made significant progress toward developing its own processor that will power Pixel smartphones as soon as next year and future Chromebooks
Google has made significant progress toward developing its own processor to power future versions of its Pixel smartphone as soon as next year …
Context & Ripple Effects
This Axios report is the starting gun for what became a multi-year custom-silicon effort at Google: an in-house processor meant to power Pixel phones and, eventually, Chromebooks rather than relying on merchant chip vendors. The follow-on coverage shows how hard the execution proved — Google later delayed its first fully customized Pixel chip by at least a year, pushing the codename Redondo design out of 2024 in favor of the Laguna chip slated for 2025.
The Chromebook half of the plan also matured separately: by 2021 Google was reported to be building Arm-based chips for Chrome OS laptops and tablets targeting a 2023 launch, and the platform itself is now being folded into Android via a multi-year migration project. That convergence is why this early processor decision matters — it laid the groundwork for one silicon strategy spanning both product lines.
First-order effects
- Google's existing Pixel chip suppliers lose their flagship socket if the in-house processor ships next year, while Google gains direct control over how tightly the silicon integrates with its software and camera pipeline.
- Chromebook hardware planning shifts inside Google: a processor designed for both Pixel and Chromebooks means future Pixel-branded laptops no longer depend on third-party PC silicon roadmaps.
Second-order effects
- Intel and other x86 suppliers face erosion in the Chromebook segment as Google's own Arm-based designs enter the market, pressuring OEMs to justify merchant silicon on price and supply flexibility.
- Rival Android phone makers see Google's vertically integrated Pixel stack as a template — and a competitive threat — pushing them toward their own custom silicon partnerships to keep differentiation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds through the later delays and the reported shift of high-end Pixel production to Vietnam, Google converges on Apple-style full-stack control: its own chips, its own manufacturing footprint, and one software platform after the Chrome OS-to-Android migration.
- Consumer computing splits further into vertically integrated ecosystems versus merchant-silicon vendors, with chip suppliers increasingly dependent on customers who cannot build their own.
The trend: Consumer device makers are moving from off-the-shelf processors to in-house custom silicon, trading faster time-to-market for tighter hardware-software integration.