The Copilot+ revolution promised on PC with the transition to ARM chips could take a new form from 2025. Nvidia about to launch its own platform against Qualcomm.
With the announcement of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft seems on the verge of successfully bringing the PC into a new era. On the one hand thanks to stunning demonstrations around AI, but also with a successful transition to ARM architecture with Qualcomm. The firm notably unveiled its Surface Pro 11 equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip which promises more performance than the Apple M3 while offering the same autonomy.
For the moment, this transition to ARM is mainly done with Qualcomm, but the architecture has the strong point of knowing many players. There is one that we are particularly waiting for, and it seems to be ready too, it is Nvidia.
With or without MediaTek?
The boss of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was recently interviewed with Michael Dell, the boss of the eponymous brand, on the question of the era of AI PCs. So far, Nvidia is the big winner in the AI race led by Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI and Apple. Particularly because the giant is mass-selling its chips for cloud computing centers dedicated to AI.
With Copilot+ PCs, 2024 should mark the transition of part of these calculations to local computing. For example, Windows 11’s new Recall feature will run directly on the PC’s NPU, the dedicated AI chip alongside the CPU and GPU.
Where is Nvidia’s place in this new AI PC market? This is the question asked by Bloomberg to Jensen Huang, but to which Michael Dell will take the lead and answer “come back next year“. A way for Dell to announce that Nvidia will be present in this new market from 2025. More timid, Jensen Huang explains that Nvidia already offers AI through its graphics cards (referring to uses such as DLSS) and that its solutions are compatible with any type of processor: x86 (AMD/Intel), or ARM.
It therefore remains to be seen whether we are talking about a unified Nvidia platform where the brand would be responsible for both an ARM CPU and a GPU, as it can offer in the Nintendo Switch or in its Grace computing centers. Hopper.
Conversely, as some rumors speculate, Nvidia could partner with ARM chipmaker MediaTek to co-design an SoC equipped with a MediaTek processor and an Nvidia graphics chip.
At the moment, Qualcomm still appears to have exclusivity in the Windows market with Microsoft, but that exclusivity contract could expire at the end of the year. Nvidia would then be free to launch a competing solution next year. In 2025 we could see Asus, Dell, HP or Lenovo computers designed exclusively with Nvidia, without AMD or Intel processors, arrive. When we see the performance of Nvidia graphics chips, the idea rather makes our mouths water.