After the semi-failure of Qualcomm and its Snapdragon-based laptops, do Mediatek and NVIDIA have what it takes to make their mark in the PC CPU sector?
As a graphics card specialist for over twenty years and a major force in artificial intelligence gas pedals, NVIDIA is in a way untouchable... for the moment. The company founded by Jensen Huang is not resting on its laurels, however, and is taking advantage of its hour of glory to expand its activities. So, even without having announced anything in this field, NVIDIA is making the CPU giants tremble with the hypothesis that it could soon enter this sector. In this venture, NVIDIA is said to have found a serious partner in Mediatek, one of the best-known smartphone SoC specialists.
The two companies have already made a number of advances, and even if no official communication has yet filtered through, the release of a common chip by these two giants is an open secret. All rumors and analysts agree that 2025 will be the year in which this alliance, which could revolutionize the IT industry, is unveiled. The German website ComputerBase prefers to remain cautious, but its information leaves little room for doubt, and everything leads us to believe that a Mediatek/NVIDIA chip could be presented at Computex in Taipei from May 20 to 23.
The chip in question would be based on joint work by Mediatek and NVIDIA, who have already combined their Grace CPU (Mediatek) and Blackwell GPU (NVIDIA). A chip with remarkable potential, thanks to the integration of 20 ARM cores (10 Cortex-X925 and 10 Cortex -A725) with a Blackwell GPU (5th-generation Tensor cores, 4th-generation RT) capable of delivering 1 PFLOPS in FP4. However, this would be far too power-hungry for a SoC that the two partners intend to target the notebook market. ComputerBase understands that Mediatek and NVIDIA are planning to offer two SoCs: the first, called N1, is intended for laptops, while the second, N1X, is aimed at the desktop PC market.
This two-pronged offensive is likely to rattle Qualcomm, whose Snapdragon laptops have not been a resounding success, as well as AMD/Intel, who reign supreme in the desktop sector. Also according to ComputerBase, Mediatek's CEO is scheduled to give a keynote speech on May 20 at 5 p.m. Paris time. NVIDIA's CEO is scheduled to speak the day before. Two "chances" to learn more about this burning issue.
