Nvidia has announced a new chip for personal computers as it enters the consumer market for devices embedded with artificial intelligence technology, the BBC reports.
“This reinvention of computing is as important as the reinvention of the phone in what we know today as smartphones,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as he introduced the RTX Spark chip.
Huang made the announcement Monday during a keynote speech before the opening of the Computex technology fair in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the US tightened rules on the sale of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to Chinese companies.
The RTX Spark is “a new superchip… for the era of personal AI agents – delivering a new class of computing that goes from work tool to co-worker,” Nvidia said on its official website.
It will be included in a new line of Windows PCs made by Lenovo, HP, Dell, Microsoft Surface, Asus and MSI. These are expected to be available in the fall, with models from Acer and Gigabyte to follow later.
This step poses a challenge to well-known names in the personal computer market such as Apple and Intel.
Lenovo, HP, Dell and Apple accounted for almost 75% of the global PC market in the first three months of this year, according to research firm Gartner.
Nvidia has traditionally focused on creating Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) – specialized chips originally designed to quickly process computer graphics for video games, but now also widely used to power artificial intelligence systems.
Charlie Dai, vice president and principal analyst at technology research company Forrester, said the announcement shows that Nvidia is making a shift from a “component supplier” to an “architecture owner” in the PC market.
“This will directly challenge Intel, AMD and Qualcomm and increase competitive pressure in performance, efficiency and integration of artificial intelligence,” he said.
Part of the announcement is focused on partnering with Microsoft to deliver what Nvidia claims will be a “robust and secure Windows platform” powered by the RTX Spark chip for artificial intelligence agents – autonomous software programs like OpenClaw driven by artificial intelligence.
“Our goal is to bring limitless intelligence to every home and every desktop with Windows,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “The RTX Spark marks a real step forward towards this vision.”
The massive growth of data centers powering artificial intelligence has helped Nvidia become the world’s most valuable company, with a market value of more than $5 trillion.
On Sunday, the US took steps to close a potential loophole for shipping chips like Nvidia’s Blackwell processors.
Guidelines published by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), clarified that a license is required for the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to branches of Chinese companies located outside of China.
Washington has tried to stop Chinese companies from buying the high-end computer chips needed to develop key artificial intelligence technologies.
