Nvidia unveils new superchip to bring AI functions into personal computers
Nvidia has unveiled a powerful chip that would bring advanced artificial intelligence (AI) functions into laptops and desktop computers, with new personal computer models from brands including Microsoft and Dell set to roll out later this year.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia has already been massively successful in supplying high-end chips for data centres riding the worldwide AI demand boom. It's also plotting different plans to expand its presence across AI systems and products.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia's Taiwanese-American founder and CEO, made the announcement Monday in Taipei at the annual Nvidia GTC event.
Microsoft and Nvidia "are going to reinvent the PC [personal computer]," he said in his keynote speech.
"This is going to be the new PC," Huang said as he unveiled Nvidia's RTX Spark superchip. It combines central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) capabilities that would power new Windows laptop and desktop computer models in what the company called "AI personal computers," expected to debut this fall.
Nvidia is already the world's most valuable company, ahead of Apple, Google's parent Alphabet and Microsoft.
The company said it aims to reinvent the PC for creating and gaming.
"When it has an autonomous [AI] agent, an agent that's helping you, that understands you, you could talk to it. It could look at you. You could ask it to read files, go help you do some research. It could do a lot more," Huang said.
Microsoft said in a separate statement that the PCs running on Nvidia's RTX superchips would be able to support "highly capable AI models" and complex workloads, and can run AI agents locally.
"For 40 years, you launched apps. Click. Type. With RTX Spark and Microsoft Windows, you ask — and the PC does the work," Huang said in a news release.
Nvidia's move is significant at a time when demand is growing for the use of personal AI agents, said Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research and advisory group Omdia.
"For consumers, it means more choices, which is always a good thing."
Neil Shah, analyst and co-founder of Counterpoint Research, described Nvidia's announcement as a move that's "revolutionizing how PCs would look like in the next 10 years."
The new laptops and desktop computers "will drive agentic AI applications in every home," Shah said, with an aim of having an "AI supercomputer" in each household.
Also during Monday's speech, Nvidia's Huang said its new Vera CPUs for data centres are in full production and are "going to be our new major growth driver" on the boom of AI agents, with early customers expected to include Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceXAI.
He also revealed a humanoid robot reference design that could act as a blueprint for future research, especially within the higher education sector.
cbc.ca
