Jensen Huang previews the "New Era of PCs": NVIDIA no longer wants to just sell GPUs

Author: Bao Yilong; Source: Wall Street Insights

Nvidia is preparing to rewrite the power structure of the PC industry with a single chip.

On May 30th, just days before the Taipei ComputeX conference keynote speech, Nvidia’s official social media account released a three-character teaser—"A new era of PC."

The post also included two sets of geographic coordinates pointing to the Taipei Performing Arts Center, and on the same day, Microsoft Windows and Arm official accounts posted the same content.

This rare collaboration among three parties pushed a long-anticipated suspense to the forefront: Nvidia is about to announce its entry into the Windows PC processor market.

On the same day, according to Axios citing insiders, the first Windows computers equipped with Nvidia chips are expected to appear simultaneously at ComputeX and Microsoft’s Build developer conference, including Microsoft’s Surface brand and Dell.

Rumors about Nvidia’s Arm-based processors have been circulating for a long time. Dell CEO Michael Dell previously hinted in an interview in 2024 that they might launch AI PCs powered by Nvidia chips in the future.

Nvidia’s move into the Windows on Arm platform also means that Qualcomm will no longer have exclusive licensing rights for Microsoft’s Windows 11 Arm edition.

For decades, Nvidia has played the role of an independent graphics card supplier in the PC supply chain, being "invited in" by OEMs to complete precise component assembly tasks, but without the authority to lead overall device design.

Now, Nvidia aims to integrate CPU, GPU, and AI units into a single SoC, directly providing the "heart" to OEMs like Dell and Lenovo. This approach follows Apple’s vertical integration path with the Apple M series, but its target is the entire Windows ecosystem.

N1X Chip: A "Public Secret" Circulating for Nearly a Year

Public speculation about this chip is not new.

According to The Wall Street Journal, manufacturers like Dell are developing laptops equipped with N1 and N1X chips.

VideoCardz reported that Lenovo had already tested prototype laptops using chips named N1 and N1X earlier this year.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also confirmed that the company is developing the N1 chip, stating it shares the same technological lineage as the processors used in the DGX Spark mini workstations.

The latter features the GB10 super chip, integrating a Blackwell architecture GPU with a 20-core Arm CPU, currently sold to AI engineers at a price of $4,699.

Current leaked specifications suggest that the N1X may feature a 20-core CPU co-developed with MediaTek, a Blackwell GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores comparable to desktop RTX 5070, support up to 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory architecture, with shared CPU and GPU resources.

This design concept is highly similar to Apple’s M series chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series.

Windows on Arm: From Qualcomm’s Monopoly to Multi-Party Competition

Nvidia’s entry will fundamentally change the competitive landscape of Windows on Arm.

Previously, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series was the sole chip manufacturer licensed for Windows on Arm, enjoying de facto exclusivity.

Nvidia’s involvement means this exclusive license will officially end, ushering in genuine multi-party competition within the Windows on Arm camp.

However, analyst Carolina Milanesi of Current Strategies noted that Nvidia’s entry is a positive development for the industry and could indirectly benefit Qualcomm.

She pointed out that although Qualcomm has had advantages in battery life, it has never gained significant market share in PCs, partly because developers and enterprises are reluctant to allocate resources to a differentiated Windows version.

Nvidia’s arrival could encourage more developers to focus on the Windows on Arm ecosystem, thereby fostering overall platform maturity, which Qualcomm could also benefit from indirectly.

This shift also aligns with Microsoft’s strategic expectations. Previously, Microsoft’s first promoted AI PC concept "Copilot+ PC" faced setbacks, including delays in core features like Recall due to security concerns.

Now, Microsoft hopes to run AI Agents locally on devices, and Nvidia’s participation as the world’s hottest chipmaker provides new backing for this agenda.

Beyond chip advantages, gaming scenarios still pose risks

Although the outlook for N1X is optimistic, potential technical limitations cannot be ignored.

Since N1X adopts an Arm architecture, running the extensive x86 PC game library accumulated over decades requires reliance on an x86 emulation layer.

According to PCWorld, Microsoft’s existing Prism emulation layer in Windows has been specially optimized for Qualcomm chips, with some performance features only effective on Snapdragon SoCs.

This means N1X may experience performance degradation in gaming scenarios, and some games might not run at all.

For products primarily aimed at AI performance and battery life optimization, this limitation may not be a fatal flaw.

However, Nvidia currently positions itself more as an AI company than a graphics company. The core user groups targeted by N1X—AI application developers and business users seeking lightweight, long-lasting devices—are quite distinct from gamers.

The true market test will depend on the actual experience and pricing strategies of the first N1X laptops once they hit the market.

It’s More Than Just a Chip

From a broader perspective, Nvidia’s move into the PC processor market marks a key step in its transformation from a "parts supplier" to a "platform creator."

In the past, Nvidia participated in the PC ecosystem as an independent graphics card supplier, with the power to influence overall architecture always held by Intel, AMD, and OEMs.

By integrating CPU, GPU, and AI units into a single SoC, Nvidia can directly deliver a complete core computing platform to OEMs, fundamentally changing its position in the value chain.

Apple has already demonstrated a successful example with Apple Silicon.

After replacing Intel processors with its own Arm-based chips, Mac computers now outperform similarly priced competitors in both performance and battery life, driving a continuous increase in Mac’s market share.

The Windows camp has long hoped to replicate this path. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series was the first attempt, and Nvidia’s N1X may be the most significant bet so far.

But the tech industry is no stranger to declarations of a "new era." Whether this vision will materialize remains to be seen until consumers open the next-generation laptops in about a year.

The answer will be revealed on June 1st, Beijing time.