Nvidia chases $200 billion CPU market with AI-powered PCs from Microsoft, Dell and HP

Nvidia opened the massive Computex trade show in Taipei on Sunday with a spark, literally. The chip maker has unveiled a new PC CPU called the RTX Spark, which it has dubbed a “super chip,” and named a list of PC makers that will soon introduce AI-powered PCs powered by it.

The ultra-fast 1 petaflop chip is designed to securely run AI agents like OpenClaw or the Hermes Agent, according to Nvidia. RTX Spark Windows PCs will be available this fall from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface, and MSI, with models from Acer and Gigabyte to follow.

In addition to being equipped with secure sandboxes (co-developed with Microsoft) to run the agents securely, the computers will also have enough CPU, GPU, RAM, and Nvidia CUDA core software to run local versions of large language models.

Nvidia said its RTX technology will provide faster AI performance, better image quality, and support for AI features in more than 1,000 games and applications.

The chip maker is marketing this as an alternative to creators making AI content, as well as providing a significant upgrade to its traditional market for gamers. Nvidia said more than 100 Windows software makers have signed on to support the new chip, including Adobe, Blender, ComfyUI, Riot Games and Xbox.

But Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s vision for these new computers is much bigger. He wants to end the days of launching apps, pointing, clicking, and typing.

“With RTX Spark and Microsoft Windows, you ask — and the PC does the work,” he said in the press release. “Border modeling. Creative workflow. RTX gaming. All on a laptop.”

Last month, after another record quarter, Huang promised investors that he had found a new $200 billion market for Nvidia in selling AI CPUs, not just GPUs. He specifically pointed to a high-end server CPU released earlier this year called Vera — which Nvidia says has already sold $20 billion worth.

He also hinted at his bigger ambitions. “We will have billions of agents, and those billions of agents will use tools,” he said on an earnings call in May. “And those tools will be like personal computers, just like we humans use personal computers today.” “We’re going to need more CPUs.”

Nvidia ARM-based Windows devices have been tried before — and failed. In 2013, Microsoft was forced to write off $900 million of its Nvidia ARM-based Surface RT, with partners like Dell also underwriting the product.

But at this point, after posting record quarterly revenue after record quarter, it’s hard to bet against Huang pursuing his PC dreams again.

And this chip is a completely different beast. It is stronger, not less. Microsoft positions its RTX Spark PC as so powerful that it calls it the Surface Laptop Ultra, calling it the “most powerful Surface laptop ever.”

However, the PC manufacturers haven’t released many details about each of their offerings, including pricing. These systems appear to be full Windows versions of the DGX Spark minicomputer that Nvidia already sells to developers for about $4,800.

We’ll have to wait and see if these PCs will compete on price with the more affordable Mac Mini that has become a popular choice for running OpenClaw. Or maybe they’ll sit at the top of the PC market, like the mini PC run by Nvidia.

Either way, if Nvidia can crack the code on bringing AI agents easily, safely, and useful to the masses, it could — and should — go big.