Microsoft and Nvidia unveil RTX Spark AI PC at San Francisco event

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 7, 2026, 20:00 UTC

On October 7, 2026, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared together in San Francisco to announce the Surface Laptop Ultra, a Windows PC built around Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, which Nvidia describes as a Grace Blackwell-based processor. Leaked specifications published before the event, picked up by outlets including TechPowerUp and Wccftech, indicated the machine would offer up to 128 GB of unified memory and an 18-core CPU in its base configuration, with pricing climbing as high as $7,000. HP separately disclosed prices for its own RTX Spark laptops before any official announcement, according to The Verge and Mashable. Huang remarked at the event that Nvidia was founded because of Windows, framing the partnership as historically significant.

The announcement matters because it represents a formal co-engineering commitment between two of the largest players in computing, aimed specifically at running AI agents locally on consumer and professional PCs. Running models with up to 120 billion parameters on a laptop would mark a meaningful shift from cloud-dependent AI inference toward on-device processing. The price point, however, keeps the hardware well outside mainstream reach for now, and the HP leak suggests a broader ecosystem of RTX Spark devices is coming, though on terms and timelines that remain unconfirmed.

The Pro-AI camp is enthusiastic, with accounts like The Tech Drop highlighting the 120-billion-parameter local inference capability, and B&H Photo describing RTX Spark as a comprehensive workstation platform in compact form. Tech Break and Nano Bytes24 both suggest the chip could fundamentally change the gaming PC market. Critics are less impressed. Corey Brotherson pointed to existing Windows reliability problems, specifically GPU driver deletions via Windows Update, as a reason to doubt the partnership will deliver smooth results. Super Dracula raised broader concerns about Microsoft's influence over government and its role in what they called an AI investment cycle headed for economic collapse. A separate reaction flagged that the DGX Spark line saw its memory cut from 128 GB to 64 GB while its price rose from $3,000 to $4,999, framing the announcement as a step backward on value. The Middle Ground camp, represented by Devindra Hardawar, welcomed the technology but expressed frustration that its benefits appear aimed at developers and power users rather than ordinary PC owners.

The clearest next signal will be official pricing and availability dates from Microsoft and HP, which would confirm whether the $7,000 figure from pre-event leaks holds and how broadly RTX Spark devices are distributed across price tiers.