Microsoft unveils $2,599 AI Surface Ultra laptop

Microsoft has announced a Surface Ultra laptop using Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, pricing the device at $2,599 and saying it will begin shipping on October 16.

The company presented the launch on Wednesday as part of a move toward “hybrid intelligence,” in which some AI computing and data processing happens on a user's device while other applications run through Microsoft's cloud services.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said at an event in San Francisco that users would come to expect intelligence to be available locally and in the cloud. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang joined him onstage and said AI would be integrated across computing devices.

The Surface Ultra will use Nvidia's RTX Spark AI chip. Microsoft Executive Vice President of Windows and Device Pavan Davuluri said the device was built for “developers and creators pushing the limits of performance.”

The launch also expands Nvidia's push into personal computing, a market long dominated by Intel and Qualcomm chips. Microsoft has been working on AI PCs since at least 2024, when its laptops used Qualcomm chips.

Microsoft recently announced that it would integrate Word, Excel and PowerPoint into its Copilot AI assistant. The company has also unveiled its own artificial intelligence models as it seeks to reduce reliance on OpenAI, though Copilot still runs primarily on models from OpenAI and Anthropic.