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Nvidia's Much-Anticipated, Reportedly Upcoming N1X / Windows PC Processor: Supply Chain Checks and Key Takeaways ▌Supply chain checks point to around 10M shipments of N1X-based devices over the next two years. ➡ Still a niche market, aimed at power users who need on-device AI compute. ➡ Whether shipments get revised up will come down to price, but mainly to whether Windows can deliver apps and workflows that truly orchestrate on-device AI compute. ▌Today, the main ways people use AI on a PC (both Windows and Mac) are accessing cloud LLM services through a browser and calling LLMs via API to consume a cloud provider's compute / tokens: ➡ In both cases, the core AI compute happens in the cloud, not on the device. ▌So far in 2026, the two hottest stories in the PC market have had almost nothing to do with on-device AI compute: ➡ Strong MacBook Neo sales. My industry checks suggest 2026 shipments of Neo models were revised up by roughly 100% (5M → 10M). Buyers are paying for price, design, and ecosystem, not for on-device AI compute. ➡ Cheap mini PCs, still niche, are drawing a lot of attention because they can run AI agents (like OpenClaw) around the clock (e.g., Mac mini). These agents also run inference in the cloud. ➡ Bottom line: neither the sales nor the buzz has much to do with on-device AI compute. ▌The key to on-device AI driving an upgrade cycle is the operating system (OS): ➡ What really sets on-device AI apart from the cloud is its ability to deeply integrate a user's data and workflows across apps while keeping things private. But that needs OS support. ➡ AI in today's PC OS is still mostly about adding AI features to first-party apps and loosely connecting workflows across apps. ➡ Some apps already make good use of on-device AI compute, like speech-to-text, but not enough to drive meaningful upgrade demand. ▌The N1X devices could give AI power users another solid option: ➡ Thanks to the N1X, device makers can strike a better new balance across AI compute, memory, design, and portability. ➡ For power users running LLMs on-device, an N1X device is a solid alternative to the Mac when it comes to capable on-device AI compute and large memory. ➡ But if the goal is a real upgrade cycle, then beyond price, OS support (Windows) is still what matters.