Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11
TechCrunch Julie Bort ● Covered by 7 sources
Microsoft showed off pricey new Windows PCs with Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip. They’re built to run AI models on the machine itself, and one top model is already sold out.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Julie Bort — read the original for the full story.
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Microsoft finally put numbers on the AI PCs Nvidia teased back in June. At a Wednesday event in San Francisco during Tech Week, the company introduced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a Windows machine built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip and aimed squarely at developers who want to run AI locally.
The pricing is not subtle. The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,600 for one base model and $3,700 for a version with a more powerful chip. Add more memory and storage and the price can climb to $5,900, with Microsoft saying the highest-end version is already out of stock.
Microsoft also unveiled the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a workstation that starts at $6,000. It ships with Microsoft’s own developer tools baked in, including VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, WSL, and PowerShell 7. The whole pitch is that these systems are built for on-device AI: the CPU, GPU, unified memory, and cooling are all tuned to handle models locally, without paying for every run.
The software side matters just as much. Microsoft is pairing these machines with a refreshed Windows 11 that includes “Execution Containers,” a feature meant to make it easier to sandbox AI agents. Satya Nadella said that feature will be available to all Windows 11 users, and framed it as part of a bigger shift toward orchestration, memory outside the model, and supporting other people’s agents, not just Microsoft’s own apps.
Microsoft is also making the pitch directly to the developer crowd that has gravitated toward Macs, offering up to $1,000 off for a MacBook Pro trade-in. And this wasn’t a one-company show. Dell also announced the details of its previously teased XPS 16 Creator Edition, priced at $3,800 with Best Buy pre-orders open now and delivery slated for later in October.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is Microsoft admitting that “AI PC” only means something if the machine can actually do useful work offline, not just flash a Copilot sticker. The trade-in offer for MacBook Pros tells the real story: the fight is for developers, and developers are still the hardest people in the room to impress. Throwing RTX Spark at them is at least an argument, not just marketing fog.
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