Something big is brewing for Windows laptops – and Qualcomm might not like it
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips are getting popular, and the company is now even confidently throwing shade at its competitor, Intel. Meanwhile, though, there may be someone else ready to steal Qualcomm's thunder.
According to new rumors from the Internet's dark corners, Nvidia and MediaTek may be taking aim at Qualcomm, and may be prepping to unveil a laptop-friendly Arm chipset at Computex in Taipei City, Taiwan. The conference is set to start next week on May 20 - 23. Rumors about an Nvidia Arm-based CPU have been floating online in the last few years. Then, at CES in January, Nvidia and MediaTek announced Project Digits, which is a personal AI supercomputer. Shortly after, Nvidia rebranded the concept as the Nvidia DGX Spark, but it's too big for most computers, and that's where the rumored new processors come in. We're talking about the more laptop-friendly N1 processors by Nvidia/MediaTek. Those would be a direct rival to Qualcomm's famed Snapdragon X series. Reportedly, these chips would be called N1X and N1. Their powers are said to be aimed at standard users, not for something like an AI supercomputer.
Is Qualcomm going to be in trouble? | Image Credit - Qualcomm Reportedly, the N1X and N1 processors may combine MediaTek's Arm-based CPUs and Nvidia's Blackwell GPU tech. The two chips are rumored to feature up to 10 Cortex-X925 high-performance cores and up to 10 Cortex-A725 cores. Also expected are less powerful configs for more budget-oriented options. These chips will run a version of Windows optimized for Arm-based chips. And yep, all of this makes these rumored processors direct rivals to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X. Also, those appear to be rivals to AMD's Ryzen AI MAX APU because Nvidia participates in the collab with its Blackwell GPU technology. The N1X and N1 CPUs are rumored to be available in early 2026. The timeline would make sense with a Computex announcement, and it gives the two companies at least 7 months to fix any sort of technical issue that arises before the chips are due to ship. These processors may be used in powerful workstation machines, gaming laptops, or consumer-level laptops. We see Qualcomm's chips used in ultra-light laptops, while AMD's Ryzen chips are more focused on gaming laptops. Of course, don't expect to see a laptop with one of these until 2026. Nevertheless, the two companies will hold keynote presentations during Computex on May 19 and on May 20. Qualcomm is said to focus on AI during the conference, so these two might as well surprise it by throwing the gauntlet with a Windows-on-Arm chipset.
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