Nvidia kicked off the month with a major announcement of a new frontier for its business
Nvidia's reveal of the RTX Spark at the Computex conference in Taipei sent shares of incumbent PC hardware makers tumbling.
AMD and Intel dropped 1% and 4.5%, respectively, while Qualcomm, another maker of PC chips, fell 8%. Nvidia jumped 4% and closed out the day up 6%.
"Running agents securely and privately requires hardware that's up to the task," Nvidia said in a statement. "Designed for AI, creating and gaming, RTX Spark brings NVIDIA's 30 years of technology innovation to slim Windows laptops with all-day battery life and ultraefficient desktop PCs."
Despite the volatility on Monday, AMD and Intel are each up sharply year to date. AMD is up 130% this year, while Intel has gained nearly 200%.
The development marks a sharp pivot for Nvidia. Before the RTX Spark, it's presence in the PC market was limited to graphics cards.
For years, it relied on companies such as AMD and Intel to provide the central processing units (CPUs) that powered its GeForce RTX line, essentially functioning as the "brain" of each machine. The partnerships significantly benefitted the smaller, rival chip makers who struggled to compete in an industry dominated by Nvidia.
Now Nvidia is setting itself up to conquer the PC market on its own, shifting from being a provider of GPUs for computing, to a direct competitor for the companies it previously partnered with.
"The knee-jerk reaction is this Nvidia move will strike at the heart of the PC business at Intel and AMD, said Chris Versace of TheStreet Pro. "Logical to say the least, but it will also make the move into the PC market by Qualcomm (QCOM) far more challenging as it continues to deal with issues in its largest end market."
