Intel teases Windows ‘refresh’ for 2024 amid Windows 12 launch rumors

Intel has teased a “Windows refresh” for 2024 which it hopes will boost its revenues. During Citi’s analyst conference last month Intel CFO David Zinsner discussed a Windows refresh next year, suggesting that consumers might upgrade their PCs because of a new release of Windows.

“We actually think 2024 is going to be a pretty good year for client, in particular because of the Windows refresh,” said Zinsner at the Citi analyst conference on September 6th. “We still think that the install base is pretty old, and does require a refresh. We think next year may be the start of that given the Windows catalyst.”

Zinsner’s comments from a month ago were spotted by PC Gamer, and come months after references to Windows 12 were leaked from internal Intel documents. Intel is reportedly preparing its Meteor Lake desktop platform for a next generation of Windows, likely to be called Windows 12.

Intel has only officially announced Meteor Lake mobile chips so far, arriving in December with a dedicated AI coprocessor inside. Meteor Lake is Intel’s first CPU with different chiplets for each component and the first on its Intel 4 process node. The addition of an AI coprocessor could be important given Microsoft’s push for AI features inside Windows.

Microsoft hasn’t announced any plans for Windows 12, but there are signs the company is looking to future versions of Windows to integrate AI-powered features. “As we start to develop future versions of Windows we’ll think about other places where AI should play a natural role in terms of the experience,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing, in an interview with The Verge earlier this year.

We’ve also seen Microsoft add its AI-powered Copilot directly into Windows 11 recently and focus heavily on AI during its recent Surface event. Microsoft also added a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) chip to its Surface Laptop Studio 2, only mentioning that it will light up Windows Studio Effects like direct eye contact and background noise removal. Microsoft appears to be quietly laying the foundations for a bigger focus on AI in Windows, and Windows 12 combined with a hardware refresh focused on AI coprocessors feels inevitable at this point.