Microsoft is due to unveil a laptop powered by Nvidia chips on Wednesday at an event in San Francisco, Reuters reported. Analysts say the aim is to make Windows a place where AI agents can do work such as writing code directly on the machine rather than reaching out to the cloud. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will present the device, called the Surface Laptop Ultra, together.
The Big Open Question: Price
Analysts say the biggest unknown is the price, since a shortage of memory chips has pushed up costs for desktops and laptops alike. When Microsoft first floated the idea of running AI on PCs two years ago as a way to save money, most of those laptops cost less than $2,000. In recent weeks, Nvidia has raised the price of its DGX Spark AI desktop by about 75%, to $6,950, an increase tied to the soaring cost of the machine's 128 gigabytes of memory.
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Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Reuters that memory costs are weighing on both Apple's and Microsoft's efforts. Two years ago, "the software wasn't ready, but the hardware was. Now the software is ready and the hardware is too expensive to actually run it locally," he said. "So it's becoming this thing where only the people who have the budget can really afford to run AI locally."
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What Microsoft Stands To Gain
For Microsoft, the launch hinges on whether some of the work now done in its expensive Azure data centres can shift to powerful Windows PCs instead. Customers would then bear the hardware cost, in a PC market where Microsoft is still dominant. Apple, a longtime rival, is pursuing the same opportunity with new Mac computers.
What Nvidia Stands To Gain
For Nvidia, a successful push into Windows PCs could give it a foothold in a space where Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, its longtime rivals, have long held sway. The laptop is expected to use Nvidia's RTX Spark chips, announced in June, and the launch is the payoff of years of joint work between Microsoft and Nvidia on moving jobs such as writing code or handling demanding business work onto desktops and laptops.
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Keeping AI Agents Contained
Both companies will also need to show that agents, the AI systems that run for long stretches and solve complicated problems largely by themselves, can be kept safely contained on a personal computer. Nvidia is already working to avoid a repeat of the hack of AI hub Hugging Face, and Apple is considering tighter controls on how AI agents gain full access to a Mac's hard drive.
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