Microsoft and Nvidia are putting the future of the Windows PC on display Wednesday, with the companies expected to showcase the new Surface Laptop Ultra and demonstrate how powerful artificial intelligence can increasingly run directly on a personal computer instead of relying on the cloud.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are expected to take the stage at Microsoft’s event in San Francisco, which begins at 10 a.m. Pacific time, or 1 p.m. Eastern. The event will focus on Windows, Surface hardware and Microsoft’s broader push to bring more advanced AI capabilities directly to PCs.
At the center of the event is the Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft’s new high-performance laptop powered by Nvidia silicon. The 15-inch machine can be configured with up to 128GB of unified memory and delivers up to one petaflop of AI computing power, allowing it to run larger AI models and handle demanding workloads directly on the device.
That local processing is an important part of what Microsoft and Nvidia are trying to accomplish. Instead of sending every AI request to massive cloud data centers, sufficiently powerful PCs could run AI models and agents locally, potentially reducing latency, improving privacy and allowing people to perform some sophisticated AI tasks without a constant connection to cloud computing resources.
The companies are also expected to demonstrate how AI agents can operate on Windows PCs. Those systems are designed to carry out more complicated, multi-step tasks with less direct supervision, including work involving software development and business projects. How Microsoft plans to give those agents access to a user’s computer while maintaining security and privacy will be one of the issues to watch.
Price and availability are also major unanswered questions. Powerful AI hardware requires large amounts of memory, and rising memory costs have pushed up prices across the computer industry. Microsoft has already revealed many of the Surface Laptop Ultra’s hardware features, but Wednesday’s event could provide a clearer picture of when consumers will be able to buy it and how much that level of local AI computing power will cost.
Microsoft’s event begins at 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern) Wednesday. Readers can follow the event through Microsoft’s official Windows and Surface event page.
