MSFT Stock On 4-Day Winning Streak: Microsoft Takes On Apple's Macs With Nvidia-Powered Surface Ultra, More On-Device AI

• Microsoft opens Surface Laptop Ultra preorders, with shipments starting Oct. 16.
• DeepSeek V4 Flash, MAI Code 1.1 Flash and Nvidia Nemotron are coming to Windows for local AI workloads.
• Retail sentiment for MSFT remained ‘neutral’ on Wednesday.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is doubling down on AI-powered Windows PCs as it looks to challenge Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) Mac lineup, unveiling a broader push to bring powerful AI models directly onto devices.

Microsoft also started preorders for its Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) RTX Spark Arm-based chip and priced at $2,599. Shipments begin on Oct. 16. 

Microsoft said the machine can run AI models with more than 120 billion parameters locally, with configurations offering up to 128GB of unified memory.  

Microsoft shares rose 0.1% on Wednesday, its fourth consecutive session of gains, but dipped marginally in overnight trading. 

Microsoft Bets On Hybrid AI

Microsoft said it is bringing local versions of models including DeepSeek V4 Flash, its own MAI Code 1.1 Flash and Nvidia’s upcoming Nemotron to Windows. MAI Code 1.1 Flash, for example, has been compressed substantially to run locally, while DeepSeek V4 Flash is a 284-billion-parameter model that Microsoft says can run on RTX Spark systems.  

Microsoft is also preparing a native Meta Muse app for Windows. Meta launched a native Muse app for Mac on Sept. 17. 

Microsoft shared details about the upcoming “Hybrid Intelligence” features that let Copilot use files on a Windows PC to take actions and a new search experience that allows users to do quick actions from the search bar.

“There will never be a moment where we say, ‘this runs locally, this runs in the cloud.’ Hybrid intelligence will be everywhere,” CEO Satya Nadella said onstage at the company’s Windows and Surface-focused event in San Francisco.

Nvidia Wants To Reinvent The PC

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who joined Nadella onstage, framed RTX Spark as a fundamental shift in personal computing.

“This is the only computer on the planet that runs everything natively on the device — DirectX, OpenGL and every CUDA application,” Huang said, arguing that the platform combines capabilities historically spread across PCs and cloud.  

Nvidia unveiled the RTX Spark platform earlier this year as a new class of Windows processors, built for local AI agents, combining a Blackwell RTX GPU with a 20-core Grace CPU.

Huang’s comments underline Nvidia’s ambition to extend its AI dominance from data centers into PCs. Meanwhile, Nadella said: “Windows has been with me for 34 years. Looks like it’s going to be with me for 34 more.” 

MSFT Stock: Retail, Analyst View

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for MSFT and NVDA remained ‘neutral’ on Wednesday, unchanged from the previous day. “$NVDA $MSFT  awesome event today, still want to wait a bit on $NVDA  233 might not come but I like this buy zone,” a trader wrote.

Year to date, MSFT stock is up 10.2% and NVDA shares are up 27.6%.

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