macOS 27 requires Apple Silicon, as Apple draws down the Intel Mac era

Apple announced that macOS 27 Golden Gate will require an Apple Silicon chip, marking the end of support for Intel Macs. This transition means that Intel-based Macs will no longer receive full operating system updates after this release. Users of Intel Macs running the previous version, macOS 26 Tahoe, can anticipate security and Safari patches for approximately two more years following the launch of macOS 27 Golden Gate. Macs currently running macOS 15 Sequoia will receive one additional year of updates. While Apple Silicon Macs will retain the ability to run Intel Mac applications through the Rosetta 2 compatibility layer in macOS 27, the company has indicated that future releases will progressively limit this functionality, primarily to support older games that rely on Intel code. This shift away from Intel processors has been a gradual process, with each new macOS version phasing out support for older Intel Mac models. Despite this, many users who acquired Intel Macs in 2019 and 2020 could still operate the latest macOS versions, and third-party tools like OpenCore Legacy Patcher enabled some users to extend the usability of their unsupported hardware.