Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a high-end AI-focused laptop powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip, at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday. The device starts at $2,599 and will begin shipping on October 16, with pre-orders now open.
The laptop is Microsoft’s first to use Nvidia’s Arm-based RTX Spark system-on-a-chip, which pairs a Blackwell graphics processor with Nvidia’s Grace CPU. Configurations range from an 8-core CPU with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage to a top-tier model with up to 128GB of unified memory and 2TB of storage, priced at $5,899.99. Microsoft claims the Surface Laptop Ultra processes local AI prompts twice as fast as Apple’s MacBook Pro M5 and generates video six times quicker, though it has not published test methodologies for these comparisons.
CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented the device as part of a push toward “hybrid intelligence,” where AI workloads are split between local and cloud processing. “The trajectory for me is so clear. There will never be a moment where we will go and look and say: ‘Oh, this runs locally, this runs in the cloud.’ You will expect this hybrid intelligence to be everywhere and pervasive,” Nadella said. Huang added that AI integration will be central to all computing, stating, “We have reinvented the computer as we know it.”
The Surface Laptop Ultra features a CNC-machined aluminum body, a 15-inch HDR touchscreen with peak brightness of 2,000 nits, and ports including HDMI and an SD card slot. Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a $5,999 developer workstation with 128GB of unified memory, shipping in November. Both devices are designed to run AI models locally, with Microsoft emphasizing security and sandboxing for AI agents in a revamped Windows 11.
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, and MSI are also releasing RTX Spark-powered laptops starting October 16. Microsoft’s partnership with Nvidia marks its shift from Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs, which launched in 2024, to higher-performance hardware targeting developers and creators.
