The landscape of the PC market is rapidly shifting toward artificial intelligence (AI), and Nvidia has re-entered the fray after roughly 17 years with the unveiling of its ‘RTX Spark’ platform. In response, Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are accelerating the development of processors and accelerators for AI PCs, setting the stage for a fierce battle over the AI PC semiconductor market, which is expected to grow to a scale of 400 trillion won (approximately $265.7 billion).

First showcased at Computex 2026 in June, Nvidia’s ‘RTX Spark’ is a PC platform with a unified memory architecture that combines an Arm-based ‘Grace’ CPU and a ‘Blackwell’ GPU into a single package. It offers up to 128GB of unified memory and 1 petaflop of AI computing performance based on FP4. Unlike the ‘DGX Spark,’ a finished product aimed at AI developers, RTX Spark is characterized by its focus on the general consumer market, including gaming and content creation, centered around the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. Nvidia is preparing to launch products with major PC manufacturers, including Microsoft’s ‘Surface Laptop Ultra,’ HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and MSI.

The PC industry views ‘RTX Spark’ as a potential game-changer for the high-end gaming and mobile workstation markets. However, with prices expected to start at a minimum of $3,000 (approximately 4.5 million won) and flagship models far exceeding 5 million won (approximately $3,321), some predict its mass-market impact will be limited. AMD’s ‘Ryzen AI Max’ series is considered the only product currently capable of direct technical competition in this segment. AMD recently launched the ‘Ryzen AI Halo’ AI PC, featuring 128GB of unified memory at a price of $4,000 (approximately 6 million won), emphasizing accessibility and x86 ecosystem compatibility as a counter to Nvidia’s DGX Spark.

Amid this global competitive landscape, Samsung Electronics has also thrown its hat into the AI PC ring. Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Business is developing ‘GAIA,’ a dedicated AI PC accelerator, on a 4-nanometer process and has already supplied prototypes to Lenovo and HP for performance verification. Mass production is targeted for as early as next year, with plans to integrate next-generation memory technology like PIM (Processing-in-Memory). Unlike conventional processors that serve as the brain of a PC, ‘GAIA’ is specialized in maximizing generative AI task efficiency by optimizing the Neural Processing Unit (NPU). The System LSI Business, which has been suffering losses while focusing on smartphone application processors (APs), has identified the AI PC as a new growth engine.

Qualcomm has also been actively targeting the AI PC market since 2023 with its ‘Snapdragon X Elite.’ It recently expanded its lineup to the $300 (approximately 450,000 won) range by announcing the ‘Snapdragon C’ platform, aimed at the entry-level market. Intel is also concentrating on the $599 (approximately 900,000 won) market with its entry-level processor ‘Core Series 3 (Wildcat Lake),’ which applies its latest architecture. The AI PC market has thus entered an all-out competitive phase, from premium to budget segments.

Meanwhile, the growth of the AI PC market is creating a complex dynamic as it coincides with an AI-driven surge in memory prices. The 16GB memory configuration, which had become the standard for PCs in recent years, has been directly hit by price increases. With Apple’s move to equip its $599 ‘MacBook Neo’ with 8GB of memory as a signal, 8GB is emerging as the new standard for budget PCs. A phenomenon is also appearing where older platforms supporting DDR4 memory are strategically re-launched to avoid the cost burden of DDR5.

According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the AI PC market is projected to grow to $260.43 billion (approximately 393 trillion won) by 2031. The competition among global semiconductor companies to preempt this massive market is turning the AI PC into the core platform of the AI agent era, while fundamentally reshaping the hardware configuration and pricing strategies of the existing PC market.