Nvidia announced the launch of its first processor for personal computers — and semiconductor stocks are having a mixed reaction.
Nvidia and Microsoft announced the launch of the Surface Laptop Ultra powered by the RTX Spark chip, a model built for autonomous artificial intelligence agents to run workflows for the PC user as well as to assist with gaming and creating. Agentic AI refers to systems that complete tasks with minimal human supervision.
The RTX Spark includes a central processor, co-designed with MediaTek, as well as Nvidia’s Blackwell graphics processor, in what Nvidia calls a superchip.
“Microsoft and Nvidia meticulously optimized everything so that this computer literally runs everything the world has ever created,” Jensen Huang said early Monday during his keynote speech on the first day of the Computex exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan. He added that the computer brings together all of Nvidia’s previous applications, including its CUDA software, with each Windows application.
Nvidia’s stock rose about 2.3% in pre-market trading, while Microsoft climbed close to 4.5%. Other companies in the semiconductor industry also got a boost from the announcement, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing up 1.8%, Broadcom up more than 2.6% and Micron Technology up around 4%. Shares in rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices both dropped more than 4% before the opening bell following the speech. Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s stock fell by 9.7%.
The Nasdaq is set to advance by 0.2% at the opening bell, reaching near to a record high.
“While strategically significant, investors are likely to view the move as a longer-term growth opportunity rather than an immediate earnings driver,” Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at the Wealth Club, wrote in a note on Monday. “For now, Nvidia’s fortunes still depend overwhelmingly on relentless global demand for AI infrastructure and data center computing power.”
The new superchip will power a line of laptops and desktop computers with 24-hour battery life available to purchase from this fall from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI.
Neither of the two tech giants have disclosed pricing yet.
“There is no question this reinvention of the computer is as big of a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone,” Huang said.
“I could totally imagine that someday there’s actually an AI supercomputer in your house and it’s running all of your agents,” he added. “It’s running all of your assistants and they’re doing all kinds of things for you all the time.”