Microsoft Unveils New PCs with AI Chips from Qualcomm

Microsoft is advertising new computers with advanced chips that can run Windows software with AI features without draining the battery quickly.

The company showed off a Surface Laptop and a Surface Pro tablet with a Qualcomm chip on Monday. These devices can do some AI tasks even when they’re not connected to the internet. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus, Acer, and Samsung are also releasing PCs that are ready for AI. These PCs will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors, which will run Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot and promise longer battery life.

Microsoft told the press at a keynote address on its campus in Redmond, Washington, that PCs with AMD and Intel chips that work with the Copilot+ standard will be available in the future. The PCs will be able to translate sound, suggest how to answer incoming messages and make changes in the Settings app. They will also be able to talk to people about what’s on the screen.

Price for Copilot+ PCs will begin at $999. Microsoft is now taking pre-orders for the devices, which will be available in June. With the Recall feature, you can look through a log of what you’ve done on PCs in the past. Recall is based on AI models that run on the device itself, so it can be used when the internet isn’t connected. Also, a copy of the data is never sent to servers in the cloud. It will be possible for AI models to make pictures from both written and drawn descriptions.

Wider AI Adoption and Market Impact

Soon, other big tech companies, like Microsoft, started adding generative AI to their products as well. It was added to the Bing search engine and the Windows 10 and 11 operating systems. The Copilot chatbot is based on ChatGPT’s AI models. People who subscribe to the Office productivity software could pay extra to have a Copilot look through their documents for written answers.

The GPT-4 kit inside ChatGPT has only used Microsoft’s Azure cloud for its computing needs. Some AI models can be run on the new PCs without being connected to the internet.It’s been almost four months since Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, told investors on the company’s earnings call that “AI will become a first-class part of every PC.”

Arm-based Windows computers haven’t always worked better than PCs with Intel or AMD chips, so Microsoft hasn’t been able to get many people to buy them. Some applications haven’t worked with others. When computers run generative AI locally, they will need more power, so having a long battery life is more important than ever. So Windows on Arm might be a better choice. According to a note sent to clients earlier this month, Morgan Stanley analysts think that Arm systems will make up 14% of all Windows PCs shipped in 2026, up from 0% in 2023. Sharing of Microsoft ended the day up 1.2% to $425.34, which is just below the all-time high set in March. For a record close, Qualcomm went up 2% to $197.76.