- At CES 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hinted that the company has plans to enter the Windows PC market.
- Leaks reveal that Nvidia is partnering with MediaTek to co-design an ARM-based CPU for Windows laptops.
- Furthermore, there are strong rumors that the "N1X" and "N1" are ARM-based Nvidia chipsets for Windows PCs.
In October 2023, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon X series chipset, featuring the ARM-based custom Oryon CPU for the Windows market. Around the same time, Reuters reported that Nvidia, the American GPU maker, was quietly working on an ARM-based CPU for Windows laptops, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Come 2024, Qualcomm released the much-awaited Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips, bringing them to consumer PCs. Curiously, no other chipmaker introduced ARM-based chipsets for Windows devices in 2024. It turned out, Microsoft and Qualcomm had an exclusivity agreement dating back to 2016. The agreement granted Qualcomm the exclusive right to develop ARM-based chipsets for Windows PCs. The deal ended in 2024, and Nvidia is ready to pounce on the opportunity.
Project DIGITS with ARM CPU Announced
Finally, at CES 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled Project DIGITS, a mini supercomputer featuring the Blackwell GPU, and it runs Nvidia’s Linux-based DGX OS. However, the interesting part is that it also packs a 20-core ARM-based CPU. It includes ARM’s 10x Cortex-X925 and 10x Cortex-A725 CPU cores.
Later, during an investor presentation, Jensen responded to an analyst and revealed that Nvidia co-designed the ARM CPU with MediaTek. Interestingly, he added, “You know, obviously we have plans,” hinting at the possibility of bringing an Nvidia ARM CPU to the consumer PC market. However, he tempered expectations by saying that he would “wait to tell you” about Nvidia’s upcoming ARM CPU for Windows.
In his address to the media, Jensen also suggested that MediaTek may bring the PC chipset on its own. Huang added, “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win.”
The Curious Case of Nvidia N1X and N1 ARM-based PC Chipsets
Just before CES 2025, X user @QQ_Timmy shared a post saying that Nvidia is actively advancing its Windows on ARM (WoA) initiative. The user mentioned that the high-end “N1X” and mid-range “N1” chipsets from Nvidia have been developed in collaboration with MediaTek.
Not only that, the user mentioned that device makers might launch Windows laptops with Nvidia’s ARM-based chipsets at Computex in May 2025.
Later, @_h0x0d_ on X revealed an unknown platform code called “N1X” for Lenovo’s upcoming Yoga 2-in-1 16 2025 laptop. Lenovo generally adds “A” for AMD before the platform code, “I” for Intel, and “Q” for Qualcomm chips. The new “N1X” platform code likely refers to Nvidia’s upcoming ARM-based PC chipset.
Nvidia Arm CPU Expected Release Date
Given the recent leaks and the Microsoft-Qualcomm exclusivity agreement coming to an end, it appears Nvidia is set to enter the Windows PC market pretty soon. Leaks suggest that PC makers may unveil Windows laptops with Nvidia’s ARM CPU at Computex in May 2025, and these retail devices may ship by September 2025.
Nvidia has expertise in GPUs and Tensor cores and has worked with ARM CPUs in the past. The company has already developed the ARM-based Grace CPU for data centers. Not to forget, Nvidia has previously built ARM-based Tegra series processors for multimedia devices and gaming consoles.
Now, with the latest MediaTek partnership, can Nvidia outperform Qualcomm (or Apple) in CPU performance and efficiency, especially with vanilla ARM CPU cores? I pose this question because Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon X2 Elite is set to feature 3rd-gen Oryon CPU cores, promising a generational leap in performance and efficiency.
Whatever the case, it looks like 2025 is going to be another exciting year for Windows laptops. Besides established players like Intel and AMD, new entrants such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, and MediaTek may bring fresh innovations and improve the Windows experience overall.
