Microsoft Corp is stepping up its challenge to Apple Inc in the growing market for artificial intelligence-powered personal computers with a new flagship Surface laptop that combines Windows with Nvidia Corp’s latest chip technology.
The company on Tuesday revealed pricing and availability for the Surface Laptop Ultra, saying the new machine can outperform Apple’s latest MacBook Pro M5 on some artificial intelligence tasks.
Microsoft executives said during an event in San Francisco that the Surface Laptop Ultra can process prompts from locally run AI models twice as quickly as a comparable MacBook Pro M5. They also claimed the new device can generate videos up to six times faster than the Apple machine.
The Surface Laptop Ultra is expected to begin shipping soon, with a starting price of US$2,599, putting it about US$400 below the entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The pricing and performance claims highlight Microsoft’s broader effort to defend Windows’ position in personal computing as consumers and businesses increasingly demand computers capable of running AI applications directly on the device.
Apple has benefited from growing interest in its computers for AI workloads, with its in-house processors offering users the ability to run increasingly sophisticated models locally without relying entirely on cloud-based services.
Microsoft’s new machine introduces another major player into the competition for AI computing on laptops. The Surface Laptop Ultra is powered by an Nvidia chip designed for Windows PCs, handling both conventional computing and artificial intelligence workloads.
The move also creates a new competitive front for Nvidia against Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which have traditionally dominated the market for general-purpose processors used in personal computers.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang appeared alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the San Francisco event to discuss the development of the new chip.
“We’ve reinvented the personal computer completely,” Huang said.
Nvidia’s technology is not limited to Microsoft’s own hardware. Other major Windows PC manufacturers, including Dell Technologies Inc and HP Inc, have also developed computers using the new Nvidia chip.
Microsoft executives used the event to make the case for running AI workloads locally rather than relying exclusively on cloud computing.
They argued that processing AI tasks on a user’s own computer can reduce computing costs while potentially improving privacy and security by keeping sensitive information on the device.
The company also pointed to Windows security features designed to monitor and control the actions of AI agents, reflecting the growing importance of autonomous software tools capable of carrying out tasks on behalf of users.
Nadella said the future of personal computing would likely involve a combination of local hardware and cloud-based services, rather than relying exclusively on either approach.
“In time, developers and users will expect AI tools to be powered by a combination of local hardware and cloud services,” Nadella said.
Microsoft’s latest push builds on an AI PC campaign launched in the summer of 2024, when the company and partners including Qualcomm Inc began promoting computers designed specifically to support artificial intelligence features.
Those machines were built around more powerful chips based on designs from Arm Holdings Plc and were marketed as a new generation of computers capable of running AI features directly on the device.
However, the earlier push faced privacy concerns surrounding one of Microsoft’s headline features, which was designed to maintain a record of actions users had taken on their computers.
The industry-wide shift towards AI-enabled PCs is also facing cost pressures. Gartner said earlier this year that rising memory prices could delay AI computers becoming the majority of PC shipments until 2028.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra therefore enters a market where performance, price, privacy and the ability to run AI workloads locally are increasingly becoming key battlegrounds.
With Nvidia now supplying chips for the Windows PC market, Microsoft is seeking to give its operating system and hardware ecosystem a stronger position as the personal computer evolves from a conventional productivity device into a platform for increasingly sophisticated AI applications.