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Microsoft event debuts new AI-friendly hardware and Windows changes
Get ready for more AI in your Windows and more AI on the desktop.
In its first live event in two years, Microsoft today announced its newest Surface laptop, outlined a host of changes coming to Windows 11, and shared a vision of how local-AI and agentic workflows could reshape personal computing for those in the dev community as well as home enthusiasts.
Originally teased in May 2026, the new Surface Laptop Ultra will be Microsoft’s first offering to take advantage of the new Nvidia RTX Spark SoC (system on a chip). The device has a starting price of $2,599, and comes in various SoC and memory configurations, with either a 5120-core or 6144-core Blackwell GPU and up to 128GB of LPDDR5x unified memory. It will begin shipping on October 16 and is available for pre-order now.
While the new Ultra is clearly focused on the developer crowd, graphical performance was highlighted during the presentation to show off just how capable the laptop can be. By leaning on unified memory allocation rather than the physical VRAM limits of a traditional GPU, the laptop can assign its resources to handle modern gaming tasks as well as local AI development and deployment. The new Gears of War: E-Day was shown running on the system, meaning that even without a traditional gaming GPU, AAA titles are on the table.
Joined on stage by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, President of Windows and Devices Pavan Davuluri also unveiled the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. This is a $5,999 anodized aluminum black box “designed to meet the needs of frontier developers.” The Spark Dev Box ships with a custom “developer-optimized” build of Windows 11 pre-configured for AI development and local AI use. With 128GB of unified memory and the onboard Nvidia RTX GPU, the box claims one petaflop (that’s 1,000 teraflops) of AI compute performance.
The RTX Spark Dev Box’s design is quite sleek. The unit physically resembles something like an Android TV box or game console more than it does a traditional PC. In fact, the vent pattern on the top of the unit is reminiscent of what you see looking down at the top of an Xbox Series X. According to Microsoft’s provided press materials, the venting on the RTX Spark Dev box has 1,000 chassis air vents as a nod to the 1,000 teraflops of AI performance.
Outside of the hardware announcements, Microsoft outlined a host of changes headed for Windows 11 this fall. OS builds featured on the Surface Ultra and Spark Box will arrive with an updated Windows software suite to support local model testing out of the box.
Microsoft’s baked-in Windows AI, Copilot, is getting a major overhaul. The new Copilot layout will see things divided into three tabs:
Coming to a Windows PC later this year, the new update will allow Windows users to execute system-level tasks directly from the search bar. Rather than opening up something like Control Panel to adjust display settings, the user will presumably be able to describe the action they want and have the system execute it directly from the taskbar tray.
For those who might still feel a little trepidation about turning over their entire digital lives and files to AI bots, Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), a security framework designed to keep agent activities confined to a sandbox. Available to developers today, the framework allows system admins and organizations to monitor active agents working within their systems and to specifically set guardrails for each, ensuring control over exactly what each agent is able to access.