Nvidia unveils new powerful chips that would bring advanced artificial intelligence functions into laptops and desktop computers.

TAIPEI: Nvidia on Monday unveiled new powerful chips that would bring advanced artificial intelligence functions into laptops and desktop computers, with the new personal computer models from brands including Microsoft and Dell set to roll out later this year. While Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia has already been massively successful in supplying high-end chips for data centres riding the worldwide AI demand boom, it is plotting different plans to expand its presence across AI systems and products. Jensen Huang, the Taiwanese American founder and CEO of Nvidia, made the announcement 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 – which combines CPU, or central processing unit, and GPU, or graphics processing unit, capabilities – that would power new Windows laptop and desktop computer models in what the company called "AI personal computers,” expected to debut in the fall of this year. Nvidia is already the world’s most valuable company, ahead of Apple, Google’s parent Alphabet and Microsoft. Its new superchips for PCs will challenge chipmaking rivals including Intel and AMD. Nvidia's shares were up nearly 4% in early US trading, while Intel and AMD both fell more than 3%. The company said it will be "reinventing the personal computer” 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 personal computers running on Nvidia’s RTX Spark superchips would be able to support "highly capable AI models” and complex workloads. With the new superchips, these personal computers can run AI agents locally, Nvidia said. "This is the first across the lineup of PC reinvention for 40 years,” said Huang. 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,” Su said. Neil Shah, analyst and co-founder of Counterpoint Research, described Nvidia’s announcement as a move that’s "revolutionising 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 including Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceXAI. Huang also revealed a humanoid robot reference design that could act as a blueprint for future research, especially within the higher education sector. Nvidia said its "Isaac GR00T” stands nearly six feet tall and has the humanoid chassis of Chinese robot maker Unitree’s H2. It is equipped with five-fingered dexterous hands, made by Singapore-based robotics startup Sharpa, that are capable of finely controlled movements. – AP

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