NVIDIA’s new chip takes the fight to Apple and Qualcomm

NVIDIA and Microsoft don’t believe the next big upgrade for the PC is a faster keyboard shortcut or a redesigned app. They think AI agents that can do things for you will be the future of computing.

At GTC Taipei, NVIDIA announced a new AI superchip for Windows PCs called RTX Spark. It’s one of the biggest pushes yet from the company into personal computing, and it comes with a bold claim: the traditional app-centric PC is beginning to give way to a new model where AI becomes the primary interface.

That’s a radical change from how PCs have worked for decades. NVIDIA envisions users just telling an AI agent what they want done rather than opening apps, navigating menus, and doing things manually. Then the agent would take care of the work on several applications by itself. As NVIDIA described it during the event, “AI is the UX.” The implication is that someday, conversations could replace much of the keyboard-and-mouse workflow people rely on today.

RTX Spark is the hardware NVIDIA believes can make that happen. The chip integrates the company’s AI, graphics, and gaming technologies into a single platform for slim laptops and small desktop computers. It can provide up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, support up to 128GB of unified memory, and run advanced AI models locally.

A big part of the pitch is the local processing angle. Running AI agents directly on a PC could offer faster response times, better privacy, and less dependence on internet access. NVIDIA and Microsoft are also developing new Windows features and security tools specifically for these personal AI agents, including NVIDIA OpenShell, intended to allow agents to run safely on user devices.

The hardware itself is a big move for NVIDIA as well. The company has long powered gaming PCs with its GeForce GPUs, but with RTX Spark, it’s making its most aggressive move yet into the full PC processor market. That puts NVIDIA in more direct competition with established players like Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and even Apple’s increasingly powerful Mac chips.

Systems powered by RTX Spark will serve creators, developers, gamers, and AI pros, said NVIDIA. The company says these machines will be able to handle demanding workloads, from local AI inference and software development to 12K video editing, 3D rendering, and high-end gaming.

Already, a number of PC manufacturers, including big Windows names like ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Acer, and GIGABYTE, are getting devices ready based on the new platform. The first RTX Spark PCs arrive this fall.