NVIDIA and Microsoft introduced RTX Spark on October 7, 2026, a chip that brings NVIDIA’s full AI stack to Windows laptops and compact desktops. The announcement came at Microsoft’s Windows AI and Surface event in San Francisco, during a conversation between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The central idea is AI agents that run directly on your PC without sending data to the cloud. Laptop preorders opened on the day of the event, with availability starting October 16. Compact desktops go on sale in November.
In the conversation with Nadella, hosted by Sriram Krishnan, a former senior White House policy advisor on AI, Huang looked back at the two companies’ shared history and said that without Windows there would be no GeForce. In the era of agents, he said, the PC becomes a personal assistant because the agent lives on the computer itself. Nadella said Microsoft needed to make the desktop the most secure place for agents to run.
What is inside RTX Spark
According to NVIDIA, the chip pairs a Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an NVIDIA Grace CPU with up to 20 cores, connected at 600 GB/s. It delivers one petaflop of FP4 AI performance with up to 128GB of unified memory. That memory is what lets it run large models that do not fit on a typical machine. NVIDIA’s example is Qwen 3.8 Flash Next, a 125-billion-parameter model that it says runs locally, unmetered and without sending data to the cloud.
RTX Spark systems are coming from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, MSI and Gigabyte, ranging from slim laptops to compact desktops. Microsoft introduced the Surface Laptop Ultra, built around the chip. The compact desktop version is designed for 24/7 operation as a dedicated local AI system that keeps agents running continuously.
Who it is for
The chip runs the full CUDA platform, the same software stack used across NVIDIA hardware. NVIDIA says each audience gets something different:
- Developers: models, tools and workflows move between machines without rewrites, from RTX Spark up to DGX Station.
- Creators: fifth-generation Tensor Cores with NVFP4 support, hardware-accelerated AV1 and 4:2:2 video.
- Gamers: AAA games at 1440p above 100 frames per second with DLSS 5, Reflex and G-SYNC.
MXC: a home for agents inside Windows
At the event, Microsoft announced general availability of Microsoft Execution Containers, or MXC. It is operating-system-level infrastructure that lets AI agents run securely and persistently in the background, under the control of the OS. Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s EVP of Windows and Devices, said the goal is for agents to be secured, observed and governed, together with Microsoft Security and Agent 365. Huang compared MXC to DirectX and argued it will change how agents are built and deployed.
DGX Station for Windows
The event also previewed NVIDIA DGX Station for Windows, a deskside AI supercomputer that until now ran only on Linux. It is built on the GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip, with 748GB of coherent memory and up to 20 petaflops of FP4 compute, and NVIDIA says it can run models of up to a trillion parameters locally. Linux toolchains remain available through WSL. The system targets enterprise development and research teams, and there is no availability date yet, only a sign-up for updates.
What it means for you
- Who is affected: developers, creators and companies that want to run large models and AI agents on their own machines, without per-use fees and without sending sensitive data to the cloud. For EU and UK organizations, keeping data on the device can also simplify GDPR reviews of AI tools.
- What to do now: if you are planning to buy a powerful AI PC, wait for reviews and pricing on the individual models from each manufacturer before you preorder. NVIDIA’s announcement does not include prices.
- Availability: laptops from October 16, compact desktops from November, and no date yet for DGX Station for Windows. NVIDIA did not break down availability by region for the US, EU or UK.
- Looking for AI tools you can use today? Browse our AI tools directory, and follow the story in AI News.
Sources
- NVIDIA, official blog: NVIDIA, Microsoft Kick Off a New Beginning for Windows PCs With RTX Spark and AI Agents, by Gerardo Delgado, October 7, 2026
