RTX Spark, unveiled on Monday by Jensen Huang, chief executive during a keynote in Taipei ahead of the Computex technology conference, brings about a shift in how computers are used, moving away from traditional software-based workflows towards systems that can carry out tasks through AI agents.

“The PC is being reinvented,” Huang said. “For forty years, you launched apps. Click. Type. With RTX Spark and Microsoft Windows, you ask, and the PC does the work.”

RTX Spark is designed as a superchip built for what Nvidia describes as the “era of personal AI agents”. It combines a Blackwell-based GPU with a Grace CPU, delivering up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and 128GB of unified memory. 

Nvidia says this setup is intended to support complex AI tasks running directly on the device rather than in the cloud.

The company explained that the chip will allow users to run large language models locally, including systems with up to 120 billion parameters, while also handling demanding creative and gaming workloads. These include editing high-resolution video, generating AI video content, and running advanced 3D rendering tools.

Nvidia said RTX Spark systems will support Windows PCs built for what it calls “personal agents”, software that can carry out tasks across applications. The company is working with Microsoft to integrate the technology into Windows, including new security features designed to control how AI agents operate on a device.

Microsoft chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella said the collaboration aims to expand access to advanced computing tools. “Our goal is to deliver unmetered intelligence to every home and every desk with Windows,” he said.

The companies noted that the new Windows platform will include tools that allow users to manage what AI agents can access, how data is handled, and when information is processed locally instead of being sent to the cloud.

RTX Spark also targets creators and developers as Nvidia said the chip can support 90GB 3D scene rendering, 12K video editing, and AI-assisted design work. Users will be able to run high-end gaming titles at 1440p resolution with frame rates above 100 frames per second.

Adobe is among the companies adapting its software for the new system. It is reworking Photoshop and Premiere to take advantage of the hardware, with expected performance gains in AI tools such as generative editing and video expansion features.

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s chair and chief executive, said the changes would speed up creative work. “The best creative work in the world happens in Adobe tools from Adobe Firefly to Photoshop and Premiere, and the expansion of our partnership with NVIDIA and Microsoft will make those experiences faster and more powerful than ever,” he said.

Other software and gaming companies are also involved, including Blackmagic Design, Blender, ComfyUI, OTOY, and Xbox, all of which said they are preparing support for the new platform.

Hardware makers are preparing devices around the chip. Nvidia said laptops and compact desktops will be produced by companies including ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface and MSI, with Acer and GIGABYTE also expected to join later. The first devices are scheduled for release in the autumn.

RTX Spark systems are expected to come in slim laptop designs and compact desktops aimed at both professionals and consumers. Nvidia said laptops will feature lightweight builds, OLED displays and all-day battery life.

With the launch, Nvidia is going beyond its traditional graphics chip business into full PC system design. Analysts say the move places the company in closer competition with Intel, AMD and Apple in the personal computing market.

The company said on Tuesday it is projecting an operating profit of 57.2 trillion won ($38.2 billion) for the January to March period.

This is far ahead of expectations and more than eight times higher than the 6.69 trillion won it reported a year earlier. It also exceeds the company’s total profit for all of last year.

This would be Samsung’s strongest quarterly result on record. Its previous high stood at 20 trillion won, reached in the final quarter of 2025.

Demand from data centres has pushed prices higher. Companies building AI systems buy large volumes of memory chips, stretching supply. As a result, prices for DRAM chips rose sharply in the first quarter, with estimates pointing to increases of more than 50%.

“As customers anticipated further increases, actual contract prices came in higher, leading to the beat,” Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities, said.

Samsung appears to be benefiting across most of its business. Analysts estimate its memory division generated about 54 trillion won in operating profit during the quarter.

Its mobile unit also held up, reporting around 4 trillion won in profit, though slightly lower than a year ago. However, its logic chip business is still under pressure and is expected to post a loss.

Currency movements have also helped. The South Korean won has fallen to a near 17-year low against the U.S. dollar, lifting the value of overseas earnings when converted back.

Even so, there are signs that the pace of growth may slow. The high cost of energy linked to the conflict in the Middle East has added pressure on production. At the same time, there are concerns that customers may begin to push back against high chip prices.

“There are growing concerns about a peak-out in memory price increases. It does appear that we are now past the initial upcycle phase and into a later stage,” said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

Recent data support that view. Spot prices for DRAM chips eased last week, noting that buyers are struggling to keep up with current price levels.

New technology could also affect demand. Google recently introduced a memory-saving system known as TurboQuant, which may reduce the amount of memory needed for AI workloads.

Samsung has also been working to strengthen its position in high-bandwidth memory chips, which are used in advanced AI processors.

The company began shipping its latest HBM4 chips to Nvidia in February, narrowing the gap with its main opponent, SK Hynix. Still, these advanced chips account for less than 10% of its DRAM revenue, meaning most of the profit is still coming from standard memory products.

In the market, Samsung’s shares rose 1.8% following the earnings outlook, outperforming the index. Shares in SK Hynix also increased.

Despite recent challenges, Samsung’s stock is still significantly higher this year, building on strong gains recorded in 2025.

The company is expected to release full details of its first-quarter results on April 30.

Reports say the company could post operating profit of about 40.5 trillion won ($26.8 billion) for January to March.

That would be six times higher than the same period last year and close to its full-year earnings for 2025. Revenue is also seen going up by about 50%.

Some forecasts go even higher. Analysts at Citigroup expect profit to reach 51 trillion won, above the market estimate.

The profits come as memory chip prices increase. Data from TrendForce shows DRAM contract prices doubled in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter. They are expected to grow by another 58% to 63% in the second quarter.

Demand is being driven by heavy spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Large technology firms are investing heavily in data centres, increasing the need for high-performance memory chips. One analyst described the current market as unusually strong.

“You couldn’t ask for things to be better,” said Ko Yeongmin, analyst at Daol Investment & Securities.

Even so, investors are monitoring developments outside the company. The conflict in the Middle East has pushed up energy prices and could affect supplies of key materials used in chip production.

There are concerns that higher prices may force technology companies to slow spending on AI projects.

At the same time, there are early signs that spot prices for DRAM chips have eased in recent weeks. Higher prices for smartphones and computers are beginning to affect consumer demand.

New technology is also adding pressure. Google recently introduced a memory-saving system called TurboQuant, which could reduce the amount of memory needed for some AI workloads.

These issues have weighed on the stock as shares in Samsung Electronics have fallen about 14% since late February, when the conflict began. However, the stock is still up 50% since the start of the year.

Some experts believe the recent slowdown in prices will not last.

“We have seen a cooling (in memory chip spot prices) over the last 3-4 weeks, yes. We do believe it’s temporary,” said Tobey Gonnerman, president of Fusion Worldwide. “The demand and backlog remain strong.”

Samsung is still the world’s largest memory chipmaker, with about 40% of the DRAM market and around 35% of NAND flash. Its semiconductor division accounts for more than 70% of total profit, making it the company’s main source of earnings.

The company is also strengthening its focus on AI. It recently agreed to work with Nvidia to produce AI inference processors.

Outside chips, performance is predicted to be weaker. Analysts say Samsung’s contract chip manufacturing business is likely to remain loss-making as it competes with TSMC.

Meanwhile, profits from smartphones and display panels could fall by about half due to high component expenses and stronger competition.

There are also labour concerns at home. Workers in South Korea have called for changes to pay and bonuses and have warned of possible strike action in May.

The stock rose by more than 5% in early trading, and investors reacted quickly after Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, spoke at the company’s GTC developer conference in California.

“I want to thank Samsung who manufactures the Groq LP30 chip for us and they’re cranking as hard as they can,” he said.

He added that the chips are already in production and will be shipped in the second half of the year.

That single update has changed the mindset around Samsung’s chipmaking business. For years, its foundry division has faced challenges, posting heavy losses as it tried to compete with bigger companies. Now, there are new signs of recovery.

At the same event, Samsung displayed the Nvidia chips built on its 4-nanometre process. It also introduced its latest high-bandwidth memory, aimed at handling growing demand from AI systems.

This points to a good working relationship between the two companies, especially as demand for AI chips continues to grow.

Experts say the deal could help Samsung’s foundry unit move closer to breaking even, though there are still challenges. Demand in the mobile market is still weak, and high memory prices could limit profits in the near term.

Even so, the market response shows good reports. Samsung shares were up about 4.3% at one point during the session, after earlier hitting stronger results. The index also moved higher, but not by as much.

There is more to watch this week. AMD chief executive Lisa Su is expected to visit South Korea, where she will meet Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee.

Her visit is also expected to include a tour of Samsung’s chip plant in Pyeongtaek and it would be her first trip to the country since becoming CEO in 2014.

The South Korean chipmaker said on Thursday that the new chips are already being delivered, though it did not name customers. 

This comes as demand for high-bandwidth memory steeply increases, driven by the global build-out of data centres used to train and run advanced artificial intelligence systems.

HBM is a form of dynamic random-access memory designed to handle very large volumes of data at high speed. It has become an essential component in modern AI processors. 

Samsung, the world’s largest memory chipmaker by revenue, has struggled in recent years to keep pace with competitors in earlier generations of the technology.

The company said its HBM4 chips provide a consistent processing speed of 11.7 gigabits per second, about 22% faster than the previous HBM3E version. It added that the chips can reach a maximum speed of 13 gigabits per second, easing data bottlenecks as workloads grow heavier.

Samsung also said it plans to provide samples of its next version, HBM4E, in the second half of the year.

Sources say Samsung began mass production and shipments of HBM4 chips in February 2026, with Nvidia graphics processors among the key targets.

Those chips are expected to power Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin AI accelerator platform, due for launch in the second half of the year.

The HBM4 chips are built on a 4-nanometre logic process and offer capacities between 24 and 36 gigabytes, with plans to scale up to 48 gigabytes. 

Samsung says the new generation delivers up to 3 terabytes per second of bandwidth per stack, roughly 2.4 times that of HBM3E, alongside a 40% improvement in power efficiency and better thermal control.

Competition in the market is getting tighter. SK Hynix said in January that it aims to maintain its “overwhelming” market share in next-generation HBM4 chips, which it said were already in volume production. 

The company added that it plans to achieve production yields for HBM4 in line with those of HBM3E.

Micron has also moved early. The company’s chief financial officer said it is in high-volume production of HBM4 and has begun shipping the chips to customers.

Samsung’s new focus underlines a catch-up initiative after falling behind in earlier HBM cycles. Investors welcomed the update. Samsung shares ended the day up 6.4%.

Memory bandwidth has become just as important as processing power in modern data centres, and demand is not falling behind. Companies are expanding AI capacity worldwide.

The South Korean group reported operating profit of 20 trillion won for the October–December period, more than triple the level recorded a year earlier. Almost all the increase came from semiconductors. 

Profit at the chip division jumped to a record 16.4 trillion won, accounting for more than four-fifths of total earnings, while quarterly revenue climbed 24% to an all-time high of 93.8 trillion won.

What we are seeing is a market stretched by the rush to build large-scale computing infrastructure. Demand for memory used in data centres has overtaken supply, and Samsung is benefiting from that imbalance. 

Management said the pressure is unlikely to ease soon, warning that shortages are expected to persist as expansion plans remain limited through 2026 and 2027.

“A significant shortage of memory products across the board is expected to continue for the time being,” Kim Jaejune told analysts during the company’s earnings call.

The flip side of that success is showing up elsewhere in the group. Higher memory prices are feeding directly into costs for Samsung’s mobile and display units. Mobile operating profit fell 10% to 1.9 trillion won in the quarter, even as smartphone shipments remained stable. 

The company said the year ahead would be difficult for those businesses as they struggle to protect margins.

“Memory price increases are expected to accelerate this quarter and are likely to give surprise earnings, while the memory cost burden will intensify on its mobile business,” said Sohn In-joon of Heungkuk Securities.

Samsung’s display arm revealed a profit which more than doubled to 2 trillion won, supported by strong sales linked to Apple’s latest iPhone line-up, but executives cautioned that customers are already pushing back against higher component costs.

At the centre of the boom is high-bandwidth memory, a specialised chip used in advanced servers. Samsung confirmed it has begun producing its next-generation HBM4 chips and plans to start shipping them in February at the request of a major customer. 

The company said all of its HBM capacity for this year has already been secured, with revenue from the segment expected to more than triple.

Rival SK Hynix is still the top supplier in the HBM market, particularly to Nvidia, and said it is moving ahead with large-scale production of its own next-generation chips after posting record quarterly profit.

Across the industry, manufacturers are moving capacity away from conventional memory used in consumer devices towards more lucrative products for servers, tightening supply further and strengthening pricing power.

“They’re in the enviable position of being able to dictate price, terms, etc more than ever,” said Tobey Gonnerman of Fusion Worldwide.

Samsung shares slipped 1.2% after the profit results, as investors are concerned about increasing expenses outside the chip unit. 

This is an important step for Samsung as it tries to close the gap with SK Hynix, its long-time competition and the top supplier of advanced memory used in Nvidia’s accelerators. 

Delays in Samsung’s earlier HBM programmes weighed heavily on its earnings and share price last year. This time, the company is moving faster and with more at stake.

The initial production run is tied to months of qualification testing with Nvidia and AMD. Samsung cleared those tests late last year, opening the door to commercial shipments in early 2026. The company has not disclosed volumes, and it is unclear how quickly supply will scale.

Samsung declined to comment on the development. Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment.

Following the development, Samsung shares rose more than 2% in early trading, while SK Hynix shares slipped by nearly 3%. Investors are reading this as a sign that competition in the HBM market is about to increase.

HBM4 is the sixth generation of high-bandwidth memory, designed to handle the heavy data loads of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. 

Compared with HBM3E, it gives higher bandwidth while using less power. That combination is important as chipmakers push systems harder to train and run ever-larger models.

For Nvidia, memory supply is now a strategic issue, not just a technical one. The company’s next platform, Vera Rubin, is already in production and will rely on HBM4 to achieve its performance targets. 

As Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang said earlier this month, the platform is in “full production,” ahead of a launch later this year.

Until now, SK Hynix has carried most of that burden. It supplies the bulk of the HBM used in Nvidia’s current accelerators and has already locked in supply talks with major customers for next year. 

The company is also expanding capacity, with plans to start deploying wafers into its new M15X factory in Cheongju early next month. It has not said whether HBM4 will be part of that first output.

Micron is also pushing into the space, adding pressure to an already tight market. Demand for high-bandwidth memory is surging as data centres scale up, and analysts expect the market to grow sharply over the next few years.

Samsung’s entry into HBM4 production changes the balance. It gives Nvidia and AMD another qualified supplier, reduces the risk of shortages, and may help cool pricing pressures. It is a chance for Samsung to regain ground in a segment it cannot afford to miss.

Both Samsung and SK Hynix are due to report quarterly earnings later this week. Investors will be listening for any detail on HBM4 orders, production timelines and customer commitments.

The startup’s debut product, Chipmind Agents, is aimed at automating the repetitive, low-level work that ties up engineering teams and drags out design cycles.

Chipmind describes its agents as a new class of tools that work from a customer’s own, proprietary design data.

The agents are built to slot into existing engineering flows, learn a company’s toolchain and design hierarchy, and then carry out multi-step design and verification tasks autonomously, all while leaving final control with the human engineer. The company claims engineers can save roughly 40% of their time on routine chores.

The problem Chipmind targets is familiar to anyone who has worked in chip design: massive, customised EDA flows that simply were not built to talk to modern automation. Chipmind’s founders say they didn’t try to rip out those legacy systems.

Instead, they built a platform that prepares them for agentic automation and wraps intelligence around the existing stack.

“In the semiconductor industry, deep customisation and data protection are fundamental, but true design awareness is what separates a generic tool from an intelligent partner. Each company’s chip is a complex hierarchy with unique constraints, surrounded by a proprietary environment of tools and workflows,” said Harald Kröll, co-founder and CEO of Chipmind. 

“That is the reality we built for. Our ‘design-aware’ agents are engineered to holistically understand the entire chip context, not just the surrounding tools. We’ve found this deep awareness is the key that unlocks productivity, translating directly into significant time savings on the most complex tasks, all while integrating seamlessly into existing workflows.”

The startup’s origin is rooted in academic and industry experience. Co-founders Harald Kröll and Sandro Belfanti met at ETH Zurich during their PhDs and together have been involved in the development of more than 20 chips, from mobile modems to system-on-chip designs. Their experience, they say, exposed how much of chip engineering is precise but repetitive work.

“Anyone who’s spent time in chip development knows how much of the work is repetitive and time-consuming, demanding precision but not necessarily creativity,” said Sandro Belfanti, Co-Founder and CTO of Chipmind. 

“Throughout my career developing chips at top-tier semiconductor companies, I’ve often wished for a solution that could magically take care of those tedious tasks so I could focus on solving real engineering challenges.

“With Chipmind Agents, we’re finally bringing that solution to life: AI agents that can autonomously handle the boring parts, letting engineers focus on what truly matters: innovation.”

Chipmind’s first funding round was led by Founderful, with several semiconductor industry angels joining the table. The founders say the money will go to hiring engineers, speeding up product work and deepening relationships with strategic customers.

The launch arrives as chip design grows continually harder, demand for compute rises, design complexity increases, and simply adding headcount is not a realistic fix. Chipmind places itself as a practical bridge, a way to keep existing toolchains while automating the parts of the process that slow teams down.

Edouard Treccani, principal at Founderful, added: “In a world buzzing with AI every day, Chipmind stands out as a refreshingly real solution to a problem Harald and Sandro have spent 20 years deep in. From day one, they’ve built in close dialogue with the market, and the early feedback has been remarkably positive. Founderful is thrilled to be part of their journey!”

Chipmind is offering demos to semiconductor groups interested in testing its agents and says it will continue scaling its engineering team as it works with early customers.

The Japanese group, SoftBank will purchase Intel common stock at $23 per share, giving it close to a 2% stake and making it one of Intel’s top shareholders. 

The announcement, made after U.S. markets closed on Monday, sent Intel shares up more than 5% in after-hours trading, while SoftBank’s stock slipped over 5% in Tokyo.

Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, said, “Semiconductors are the foundation of every industry. For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation. This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role.”

The investment lands at a challenging moment for Intel. Under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, the company has been cutting costs and narrowing focus. It shut down its automotive chip division earlier this year, slashed between 15% and 20% of its foundry workforce, and doubled down on its client and data centre chip portfolio, where it still lags behind rivals Nvidia and AMD.

Tan, who has been navigating both corporate restructuring and political issues, welcomed SoftBank’s support. “We are very pleased to deepen our relationship with SoftBank, a company that’s at the forefront of so many areas of emerging technology and innovation and shares our commitment to advancing U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership. Masa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment.”

Beyond chips, SoftBank’s CEO Son has been positioning the group as a key player in the next wave of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Earlier this year, SoftBank acquired Foxconn’s Lordstown, Ohio factory, which will be repurposed to manufacture AI data centre equipment. 

The site forms part of the $500 billion Stargate project, a venture involving SoftBank, Oracle and OpenAI, aimed at building large-scale AI server capacity in the United States.

Meanwhile, U.S. politics are heavy over the semiconductor sector. The Trump administration has floated the idea of converting CHIPS Act funds into equity, potentially giving Washington as much as a 10% stake in Intel.

The White House has also threatened new tariffs on imported chips in a bid to strengthen domestic production and cut reliance on Asian giants like TSMC and Samsung.

U.S. shares rose 7% on Thursday, with a further 2.6% gain after hours, while Frankfurt-listed shares climbed 3.6% on Friday. Investors are betting that government backing could provide much-needed stability for the struggling chipmaker.

The potential investment was first reported by Bloomberg, noting discussions that followed an 11 August meeting between President Donald Trump and Intel’s Chief Executive Officer, Lip-Bu Tan. 

The talks reportedly focused on how Washington could accelerate domestic semiconductor manufacturing, with the delayed Ohio mega-fab project expected to be a central part of the plan.

The development comes amid one of Intel’s most challenging periods in decades. The company posted a $2.9 billion net loss in the second quarter of 2025, driven by $1.9 billion in severance costs and $800 million in asset impairments. 

A restructuring plan has seen 25,000 jobs cut and major chip fabrication projects in Germany, Poland, and Ohio scrapped or delayed.

Trump’s involvement with Intel has been far from smooth. Days before the reported stake talks, he called for Tan to resign over what he described as “highly conflicted” ties to Chinese firms. 

His comments followed a letter from Senator Tom Cotton, alleging Tan’s investments in over 100 Chinese technology companies, including at least eight linked to the People’s Liberation Army.

Tan’s past leadership of Cadence Design Systems has also resurfaced in political debate. In July 2025, the company admitted to illegally exporting chip design software to a Chinese military university, paying $140 million in fines.

Despite political issues, Intel aims to continue cooperating with the White House. “Intel is deeply committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts to strengthen U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” a company spokesperson said. 

“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumours or speculation.”

Tan has also made it apparent that there will be no return to unchecked spending. “There are no more blank cheques. Every investment must make economic sense,” he said.

Intel has already secured nearly $8 billion in federal subsidies through the CHIPS and Science Act, placing it among the largest beneficiaries of U.S. semiconductor funding.

Analysts suggest a direct government stake could help stabilise Intel’s finances and restore competitiveness against rivals Nvidia, AMD, and TSMC.