Nvidia Launches New Chip To Bring AI Directly To Personal Computers
Taipei: Nvidia has introduced a new chip that brings AI capabilities directly to laptops and desktops, pitting it against rivals like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel, and Apple.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is in Taiwan for the Computex conference, said on Monday that the RTX Spark PC chip is part of Nvidia’s effort with Microsoft to “reinvent the PC” for the AI era after three years of collaboration between the companies.
The chip, which industry experts say will overhaul interaction with AI, is designed to run AI agents locally rather than relying solely on cloud computing.
Huang said Nvidia developed the RTX Spark chip with the help of Taiwan’s MediaTek.
“RTX Spark aims to transform the traditional application-centric PC into a truly useful Agentic AI PC, which will be in every home as dedicated edge AI agents become important in the coming years,” said Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research.
“This will be the ‘RTX Spark’ moment for the PC segment, just like the iPhone, ChatGPT or DeepSeek.”
The new chip and Nvidia’s Vera central processing unit underscore the company’s increasing focus on PC and CPU products; Huang spent most of his keynote highlighting the RTX Spark chip and Vera CPU.
The Vera CPU is designed for AI agents, and early adopters include OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX, according to the boss of the $5 trillion chip company, who took the stage in his signature black leather jacket.
Shares of AMD and Intel fell nearly 4% in premarket U.S. trading, while Qualcomm lost nearly 7% and Apple lost 0.6%. Microsoft increased by 3.1%, driven by the recovery in software stocks.
Moving towards fully autonomous agents
Huang was speaking outside Computex, a gathering of leaders from some of the world’s largest technology companies.
Nvidia’s emphasis on AI agents running natively on PC hardware echoed comments put forth by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, who also spoke before Computex and framed 2026 as a turning point for agent AI.
“Two years ago we talked about how AI will change the human computer interface and, as a result, change the architecture of all our personal computing devices. And this is starting to become a reality in 2026. That’s why we call 2026 the year of the agent,” he said, adding that the industry is moving towards fully autonomous agents, leaving AI behind as a simple prompt response tool.
The shift to agency AI makes local edge computing inevitable because today’s device architectures are not always designed for always-on, autonomous operation, Amon said.
“All of these devices today are built for user-initiated actions, not agents,” he said.
During the earnings call in May, Huang said Nvidia’s new Vera central processors give the company access to a new $200 billion market.
“This (Vera CPU) will be the next big driver of growth,” Huang said during a lengthy speech outlining Nvidia’s latest AI products and highlighting the island’s central role in the global tech industry.
Huang dismissed concerns that artificial intelligence would reduce demand for software engineers as “complete nonsense” and instead suggested that the technology would increase hiring by making workers more productive.
“That’s the promise of AI. The number of engineers, software engineers, is actually increasing. People talk about AI reducing jobs, which is complete nonsense. It’s leading to more software engineers being hired.”
Huang, who was born in Taiwan’s southern city of Tainan, last week announced plans to invest nearly $150 billion a year in Taiwan, describing it as the epicenter of the artificial intelligence revolution.
The speech at Taipei Music Hall came nearly two weeks after she accompanied US President Donald Trump on a visit to Beijing as part of a powerful corporate delegation to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The Computex trade fair will be held from June 2-5.
