NVIDIA has long dominated the artificial intelligence computing chip market. Now it's launching an attack on Intel's long-standing stronghold in PCs. Nvidia has quietly begun designing central processing units (CPUs) that will run Microsoft's Windows operating system and use technology from Arm Holdings, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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The artificial intelligence chip giant's new pursuit is part of Microsoft's efforts to help chip companies build Arm-based processors for Windows PCs. Microsoft's plans take aim at Apple, which has nearly doubled its market share in the three years since Apple released its own Arm-based chips for its Mac computers, according to preliminary third-quarter data from research firm IDC.

AMD also plans to produce PC chips using Arm technology, according to two people familiar with the matter.

One of the people familiar with the matter said that NVIDIA and AMD will start selling PC chips as soon as 2025. The move by NVIDIA and AMD means they join Qualcomm, which has been producing laptop chips based on Arm technology since 2016. Qualcomm Inc. plans to reveal more details about a flagship chip designed by a team of former Apple engineers at an event on Tuesday that will be attended by Microsoft executives, including Windows and Devices Vice President Pavan Davuluri, according to a person familiar with the matter.

NVIDIA spokesman Ken Brown, AMD spokesman Brandi Marina, Arm spokesman Kristen Ray and Microsoft spokesman Pete Wootton all declined to comment.

The efforts of NVIDIA, AMD and Qualcomm could shake up the PC industry long dominated by Intel, but the industry is facing increasing pressure from Apple. Apple's custom chips give Macs better battery life and higher performance that more power-hungry x86 chips can't match. Microsoft executives observed that Apple's Arm-based chips were very efficient, including in artificial intelligence processing, and they wanted similar performance, one of the sources said.

In 2016, Microsoft hired Qualcomm to lead the effort to migrate its Windows operating system to Arm's underlying processor architecture, which has long been designed for smartphones and their small batteries. Microsoft has granted Qualcomm an exclusive arrangement to develop Windows-compatible chips by 2024, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Microsoft is encouraging other companies to enter the market once the exclusivity agreement expires, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Jay Goldberg, CEO of financial and strategy consulting firm D2DAdvisory, said: "Microsoft learned in the 1990s that they no longer want to rely on Intel and no longer want to rely on a single supplier. If Arm really takes off in the PC (chip) field, they will never let Qualcomm be the only supplier."

Microsoft has been encouraging related chip manufacturers to build advanced artificial intelligence capabilities into the CPUs it designs. The company expects AI-enhanced software, such as its Copilot, to become an increasingly important part of using Windows. In order to achieve this goal, upcoming chips from NVIDIA, AMD and others will need to devote silicon resources to this goal.

If Microsoft and the chip companies go ahead with this plan, there's no guarantee of success. Software developers have spent decades and billions of dollars writing code for Windows that runs on the so-called x86 computing architecture, which is owned by Intel but also licensed to AMD. Computer code written for x86 chips won't automatically run on Arm-based designs, and the transition can pose challenges.

Intel has also built artificial intelligence capabilities into its chips, and recently showed off a laptop that runs features similar to ChatGPT directly.

Intel spokesman Will Moss (WillMoss) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SemiAccurate, a publication that focuses on chips, earlier reported AMD’s entry into the Arm-based PC market.