Three generations across two years with one goal: bringing high-performance handheld gaming to life

At Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, the world got a glimpse into the first handheld gaming device powered by the all-new Intel® Arc™ G3 Extreme processor.

Created by Taiwan-based MSI, the Claw 8 EX AI+ is now available for sale in an eye-catching “void purple” color exclusive to the device.

But creating an all-new handheld design isn’t like building a laptop.

It took Intel and MSI over two years to conceptualize and design the Claw 8 EX AI+, which incorporates best practices from laptop designs and key learnings from previous generation handhelds. Together, Intel and MSI have crafted a device that’s a fraction of the size and weight of a regular mobile PC

Here are three things you need to know about how Intel’s top engineers helped MSI to create the Claw 8 EX AI+.

#1: A multi-generational engineering commitment that builds on past learnings

This isn’t the first time Intel and MSI have worked together on a handheld design: MSI’s previous generations handhelds were based on Intel® Core Ultra Series 1 (codenamed Meteor Lake) and Intel® Core Ultra 200V series (codenamed Lunar Lake) processors.

With the Intel® Arc G-Series processor family, Intel took a different approach by creating a purpose-built SoC optimized for handheld gaming.

“We distilled everything we learnt from the last two generations of handheld designs into a new category of devices that set a new standard for handheld experiences,” explained Nish Neelalojanan, said Intel’s senior director of Product Management, Client Computing and Physical AI Group.

Neelalojanan explained how past experience guided Intel’s engineers to remain laser-focused on creating a handheld device that provided the best gaming experience.

To achieve this, engineering teams made use of the unmatched efficiency of Intel Arc G3 Extreme to improve the handheld design and experience.

Elsewhere, software optimizations dramatically increased battery life and ensured the device remains cool to the touch under load for user comfort.

Additionally, Intel collaborated with key software leaders like Microsoft to ensure a seamless gaming experience via Xbox Mode on Windows 11.

The end result?

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is the first Intel-based handheld to offer console-like accessibility, while also improving performance by freeing up system resources and precompiling shaders, leading to smoother gameplay.

#2: Striking a fine balance in a tightly enclosed space where “every millimeter counts”

With past handhelds, gamers typically faced a tough decision – prioritize the best gaming performance at the expense of shorter battery life or choose to extend gaming sessions at the expense of performance.

Those binary decisions are a relic of the past.

“I think one of the biggest reasons gamers should choose the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is the incredible performance leap we’re seeing with the new Intel® Arc™ G3 Extreme platform,” said Joseph Shih, Claw product manager, MSI, explaining how top games like Cyberpunk 2077 now runs up to 37% faster, offer smoother frame rates and faster responsiveness.

Shih credits that huge leap in performance to the close collaboration between Intel and MSI.

“The key challenge in building any handheld is balancing performance, thermals, battery life, and comfort inside a very compact device – where every millimeter counts, as it will affect signal quality and compromise the end-user experience,” said Shih.

“From day one, both teams worked closely on motherboard layout, cooling, and power optimization to find the right balance between performance and efficiency.”

In one example of a close collaboration leading to a positive outcome, engineers decided to place the CPU and the DRAM components on opposite ends of the board to maximize space and optimize thermal efficiency, without affecting performance.

Other handheld designs tend to place these components next to each other to maintain signal strength.

“In a handheld, signal quality is extremely sensitive, so Intel’s signal simulation and validation support was critical to helping us achieve the right balance of stability, efficiency, and performance in such a compact body,” said Shih.

“What I really appreciated was how closely both teams worked behind the scenes. It genuinely felt like one engineering team focused on building the best possible handheld gaming experience for gamers,” Shih explained.

#3: The first successful power-on, pushes handheld gaming into AAA territory

Bruce Cheng fondly remembers January 2026 – it’s the month the joint Intel-MSI successfully powered on the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ for the first time.

It was the moment that signaled two hard years of shared engineering work had finally paid off.

Cheng, director of Advanced Co-engineering in Intel’s Customer Client Engineering group says that moment validated that the tough board-level circuitry decisions and hours of discussions with his MSI counterparts were the right bets.

“This was the first sign that the long, hard road made across three generations of handheld design discussions were paying off. It was proof that the performance gains we aspired to achieve were not just theoretical,” said Cheng.

The hard work didn’t end there. In the months to come, Cheng and his team would double down on performance tuning the handheld to where it mattered most – running AAA-games – while also carrying out additional engineering validation to ensure the device met the highest specifications.

That wasn’t all.

The joint team also monitored the dynamics of game titles – especially as gaming trends and preferences shift faster than in the laptop business.

“This learning mindset of continuous feedback loops and openness by both teams to revisit assumptions, make tough decisions and to course correct quickly was critical to our ability to deliver on time,” Cheng explained.

The first of many more handheld designs

While the MSI Claw 8 Extreme AI+ is the world’s first handheld design based on the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip, it won’t be the last.

At Computex Taiwan, Intel revealed more designs from its OEM partners like Acer and OneXPlayer are coming to market soon.

“The Arc G3 family for handheld devices proves we can bring PC-class performance and flexibility to handhelds, while offering smooth immersive gameplay and extended playtime. We’re proud of our collaboration with MSI as our pioneering partner for Intel-powered handhelds and look forward to seeing what the industry does next with Arc G3,” said Neelalojanan.

The Small Print:

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at intel.com/performanceindex.  Performance results are based on testing as of dates shown in configurations and may not reflect all publicly available updates.  See backup for configuration details.  No product or component can be absolutely secure.

Your costs and results may vary.  Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation.

Intel does not control or audit third-party data. You should consult other sources to evaluate accuracy.

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NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:

• The U.S. is at an inflection point. Artificial intelligence is reshaping global competition and increasing the need for secure, domestic semiconductor production.
• U.S. leadership in the AI era will be defined by innovation, domestic manufacturing, and workforce readiness. Strong semiconductor leadership is essential to economic growth, national security, and long-term global competitiveness.
• For nearly 60 years, Intel has helped power the digital age and continues to strengthen the U.S. innovation ecosystem through a nationwide R&D and manufacturing footprint.
• Intel’s end-to-end capabilities across design, manufacturing, and advanced packaging, along with its foundry model, position the company to provide the foundation for AI at scale.
• Looking ahead, Intel is focused on advancing the technology and talent that will define the next 250 years of U.S. leadership.

As artificial intelligence reshapes global competition, the next chapter of the American story will depend on how the nation leads in innovation, builds critical technologies at home, strengthens its workforce, and expands opportunity for future generations.

For nearly six decades, Intel has been an integral part of that story, advancing breakthroughs that have powered the digital age and helped transform industries around the world. Today, that work continues through a nationwide footprint spanning research, development, and manufacturing across Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and a planned site in Ohio, bolstering the nation’s innovation infrastructure needed for the AI era.

Growing AI demand across the global economy is increasing the importance of secure, domestic semiconductor production and the systems that power it. Intel’s approach—spanning silicon design, manufacturing, and advanced packaging—along with Intel Foundry’s integrated systems foundry model, is designed to deliver the performance and scale required for the AI era while advancing U.S. leadership in critical technologies. Intel Xeon processors, the most widely deployed host CPUs, also play a foundational role in AI, supporting key capabilities in memory, security, and orchestration.

Together, these end-to-end capabilities—spanning design, manufacturing, and advanced packaging—position Intel as an important foundation for the AI era and renewed U.S. technology leadership. This progress is reflected in 2026 recognition across independent benchmarks, including Fortune’s list of America’s Most Innovative Companies, a Platinum designation on the American Opportunity Index’s Where You Work Matters list, and inclusion on TIME’s inaugural list of America’s Most Iconic Companies, showcasing Intel’s sustained influence on U.S. industry and innovation.

As the nation marks this milestone year, Intel is partnering with America250, the national, nonpartisan organization established by Congress to lead the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Through this collaboration, Intel supports initiatives that celebrate American innovation and technological achievement and highlight the builders shaping the future—reflecting a shared commitment to inspiring the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers.

This work is grounded in a simple idea: that strong domestic technology leadership is essential to economic growth, national security, and long-term global competitiveness. Intel is advancing that vision through continued investment in U.S.-based manufacturing and through initiatives like USAI, which aim to expand secure, responsible AI solutions for government and public sector applications.

Equally important is investing in people. The future of American innovation depends on a workforce equipped with the skills to succeed in a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Intel’s Semiconductor Education Pathways Program (SEPP) strengthens education pathways from K-12 through post-secondary education and supports professional upskilling. SEPP focuses on investments that support local workforce needs and build a talent pipeline through scholarships and fellowships for masters and Ph.D. students, faculty development and career and technical education (CTE) programs. Through collaborations with education partners and national initiatives, Intel is working to expand access to AI education and training across communities nationwide.

Advancing AI for American Youth, Intel’s AI-Ready Schools Initiative is rolling out nationwide, delivering 500 AI PCs to 250 K–12 schools with AI-optimized software, and comprehensive professional development to support safe, effective AI learning. The program includes more than 750 hours of open teaching content and professional development. Intel has committed to expanding educator training 10x to increase AI readiness across U.S. classrooms and help the next generation become responsible innovators, creators, and builders—not just consumers.

Intel is also supporting “Fostering the Future,” a ‘Be Best’ signature initiative by the First Lady, through a series of immersive AI bootcamps for foster care youth. Intel is providing $250K in grants to community colleges across key Intel sites to help equip foster youth with foundational AI skills and prepare them for future educational pathways and technology-focused careers.

As the Official Compute Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 and Arrow McLaren IndyCar teams, Intel will be present at key moments throughout the season, including the Freedom 250 IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., helping bring visibility to this milestone year.

Across these efforts, Intel’s focus remains consistent: advancing the technologies and talent that will shape the next chapter of American innovation in the AI era. As America looks ahead, Intel is working to help build a more resilient, secure, and competitive future, powered by trusted technology, domestic manufacturing and a workforce prepared for what comes next.

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Powered by Intel edge infrastructure, a local California network demonstrates how micro-servers can deliver high-speed connectivity at a low cost.

BELLFLOWER, Calif. — A young woman unwillingly must leave her disabled mother at home to walk to the local library just to use the public internet to pay the household bills. A few blocks away, a family rations its online time, relying entirely on a son’s cellular data plan to check critical medical updates because traditional broadband is too expensive. At the weekly outdoor farmers market, small business owners regularly turn away customers because weak cellular signals prevent them from accepting credit cards.

These are the everyday realities in Bellflower; a suburb of 75,000 people located just 25 minutes outside of Los Angeles. Despite its proximity to America’s second-largest city, the community has long suffered from persistent cellular blind spots and high telecom costs that have left vulnerable residents behind.

Now, a new municipal network called Bellflower Connect is aiming to bridge this digital divide. By using a private wireless network of solar-powered micro-servers with Intel® Xeon® processors inside, and AI-driven cybersecurity at the edge, the public-private partnership offers an affordable, low-power blueprint for community broadband that organizers plan to scale to 50 additional U.S. cities under 150,000 people over the next few years.

Cutting the Red Tape

To get the network off the ground, the city of Bellflower waived standard permit charges, allowed reception towers to be built on public buildings, and bypassed lengthy request-for-proposal processes. This allowed project partner Tradewinds Networks to enter into a long-term revenue-sharing contract with the city. The funding was split through a public-private agreement, using a $1 million municipal transportation grant alongside $2 million put up by Tradewinds.

The program also includes a workforce development element, training local students to become certified wireless broadband technicians. Having won the 2025 Mobile Breakthrough Award for Social Impact, Tradewinds Networks aligned the Bellflower Connect project to meet sustainable goals, taking into consideration city health, economic development, innovation, and sustainability.

“This model allows us to aggregate services and delivery while making the network self-sustaining,” said Keith Alexis, chief technology officer and founder of Tradewinds Networks. “We then share revenues back with the community, which enables us to keep up a sustainable ecosystem that drives loyalty and usership. Additionally, our AI-based GuardTower solution runs on Xeon to keep the system secure.”

In May 2026, Bellflower, California city officials along with Tradewinds Networks chief technology officer and founder Keith Alexis, center, held a ribbon cutting ceremony officially opening the Bellflower Connect smart city network. One of the newly constructed Intel-based micro-server towers is behind them. (Credit: Tradewinds Networks)

Bringing Power to the Edge

The secret to keeping user costs so low lies in how the data is handled. Traditional wireless networks rely on sending data back and forth to distant, massive cloud data centers packed with expensive, power-hungry graphics processors. That data journey requires heavy infrastructure and immense electricity, costs that big telecom companies pass on to consumers.

Bellflower Connect skips the cloud entirely. Instead, the network uses a fleet of 80 slim solar towers and repeaters placed around town. Each tower backhauls to central locations that feature compact Dell PowerEdge XR8000 series servers running a 4th Generation Intel Xeon processor. This allows data to be processed right there in the city, and in some cases, on the street corner, a concept known as edge computing.

Because Xeon processors are highly scalable and versatile, they “snap” into these lightweight towers easily, operating at a fraction of the cost, power, and space required by a standard cloud setup.

“By having off-the-shelf Intel Xeon system-on- chip processors directly in the towers, street corner or city facilities versus sending information through the cloud, the system is scalable, modular, and information is processed faster, at a lower cost, and using less power,”
–Vijay Kesavan, a principal engineer for Intel’s Network and Edge Group.

This local computing footprint also creates a digital foundation for future municipal upgrades. According to Kesavan, cities can easily snap new services right into the existing Xeon infrastructure, such as smart street lighting, air quality or traffic sensors, and water utility leak detection.

High Tech at Low Cost

While connection to the network is entirely optional, the financial impact on residents who have been using it has been immediate. Qualifying low-income households receive free internet access through a home modem that links wirelessly to the nearest neighborhood tower. Other residents can opt-in for $15 per month, while local businesses can access the network for $39 per month. Alexis notes that’s far below traditional commercial carriers.

As of May 2026, about 60 households are using the service during its early rollout phase. By the time construction finishes in mid-2027, organizers expect 10,000 households connected to the network. Free public Wi-Fi will also blanket local parks, libraries, and the city’s outdoor markets.

Local business owners are already preparing for the transition. Joe Ung, owner of Cassidy’s Corner Café, is opening a new location in Bellflower that will use the network for his operations and customer Wi-Fi.

“Having easy, affordable, accessible internet is a win-win for everyone,” Ung told KTLA-TV in an interview about the new network in May. “A lot of times people don’t see the everyday expenses of running a small business. Anywhere you can save, it’s a huge benefit.”

Scaling the Blueprint

The expansion beyond California is already underway. Wrightsville, Arkansas, is scheduled to begin Phase 1 of its network installation this summer, with eight additional U.S. cities currently navigating the design review and approval pipeline.

Though the yearlong rollout has faced logistical hurdles, project leaders say the community response validates the effort.

“We’ve had many difficulties assembling the model for this network, from rising costs to delayed fiber delivery,” Alexis said. “But residents have testified about the value they’ve gotten from it in city hall meetings. When installers meet residents who tell them how this is changing their lives, it makes it worth finding solutions to this complex problem.”

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Intel outlines progress across the AI compute ecosystem—highlighting open platforms, partners and real world momentum from silicon to software to systems.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 5, 2026 – At Computex 2026, Intel will share its vision for the next era of AI-driven computing and spotlight the ecosystem progress powering it.

Intel’s presence – anchored by a keynote from CEO Lip‑Bu Tan on June 2 – underscores momentum across compute, from AI PCs to the edge, data center, and cloud. It also shows how silicon innovation, open platforms, and strong ecosystem collaboration help customers deploy and scale AI with confidence.

As AI workloads scale across the compute continuum, Intel will reinforce the resurgence of the CPU as a critical engine for AI – complementing GPUs and accelerators to enable powerful, efficient, and scalable systems. Intel will also highlight progress in silicon innovation and the enduring role of x86 as a foundational architecture for AI across the world’s largest installed base and broadest ecosystem.

Building on this platform foundation, Intel leaders and ecosystem partners at Computex will demonstrate how Intel technologies align at the system level—helping customers deploy AI more efficiently from the client to the data center.

Computex 2026 attendees are invited to tune into the keynote online, engage with Intel leaders and ecosystem partners through invitation‑only sessions and demonstrations, and explore Intel technologies in action.

Computex 2026 Keynote Delivered by Intel CEO, Lip-Bu Tan

When: June 2 from 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Taiwan Local Time

Where: Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center

Event Registration: Invitation-only event

Livestream: Watch the Intel keynote live on the Intel’s Computex Events Page and Intel’s YouTube Channel on Monday, June 2, starting at 1:30 p.m. Taiwan Local Time.

Keynote Replay: A video replay will be published on the Intel Newsroom after the livestream ends.

Robotics & Edge AI Pavillion (Powered by Intel)

When: Tuesday, June 2 – Friday, June 5:  9:30am – 5:30pm

Where: Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC)

Event Registration: Open to Computex-registered attendees.

More from Computex 2026: To see and experience more from Intel Computex 2026, visit the Intel Newsroom and follow along on social media with @IntelNews and @Intel on X, and Intel on LinkedIn.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Client Computing
• Software
• Computex

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Intel® Arc™ G-Series processors combine leadership performance and power efficiency to deliver smooth, immersive gameplay with exceptional battery life

What’s New: Intel today introduced Intel® Arc™ G-Series processors, a new family of products designed for next-generation handheld gaming systems. Launching with Intel Arc G3 and Intel Arc G3 Extreme processors running on Windows 11, the series builds on the architecture of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (code-name Panther Lake) to bring optimized performance and power efficiency to portable play.

Designed for handheld with optimized core counts, power management, and software, Intel Arc G3 processors deliver leadership performance and efficiency for smooth, immersive gameplay and exceptional battery life without compromise. Handheld designs from leading partners will launch in the coming months, beginning with Acer’s Predator Atlas 8, MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, and OneXPlayer.

“Intel Arc G-Series represents years of focused innovation and a deep commitment to gaming. It delivers uncompromising PC performance in the palm of your hand, combined with the console-like accessibility and immediacy gamers expect. With cutting-edge graphics technologies like XeSS 3 and breakthrough efficiency for longer unplugged play, Intel Arc G-Series proves that while others make tradeoffs, gamers don’t have to.”
– Dan Rogers, Vice President and General Manager, PC Product, Client Computing Group

What it offers: Intel Arc G-Series processors are purpose-built for handheld gaming, developed in close collaboration with hardware partners and software developers to deliver broad compatibility and uncompromised handheld play.

Featuring up to Intel Arc B390 graphics built on Intel’s latest Xe3 architecture, Intel Arc G-Series processors enable advanced technologies like real-time ray tracing for high-fidelity visuals and XeSS 3 for higher performance, smoother gameplay, and improved responsiveness. Ongoing Day-0 driver support ensures new releases and existing libraries perform their best from day one.

Other notable specifications and features include:

• Immersive gaming with XBOX mode, a controller-optimized, console inspired, full-screen experience for Windows 11 PCs, which unifies your library of installed games.
• Faster game launches with Intel Precompiled Shaders, which downloads prebuilt shader files from the Intel cloud for select titles.
• Right-sized compute, with 2 P-Cores, 8 E-Cores, and 4 LP E-Cores manufactured on the Intel 18A process node technology, the most advanced logic node developed and manufactured in the United States.
• Advanced connectivity, including integrated Intel Wi-Fi 7 R2, dual Bluetooth 6, and Intel Thunderbolt™ 4 with support for Thunderbolt Share, giving users up to 40 Gbps bandwidth for high-speed storage, peripherals, and rapid transfer of large game libraries.

About XeSS 3: XeSS 3 enhances gaming with three key graphics technologies—XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Multi-Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency.

• XeSS Super Resolution provides AI-based upscaling to deliver higher performance.
• XeSS Multi-Frame Generation adds multiple interpolated frames for a smoother gameplay experience.
• Xe Low Latency integrates with game engines to provide faster response to gamers’ inputs, unlocking more responsive gaming.

Availability: Intel and its OEM partners will share more details on Intel Arc G3 processors at Computex 2026. Handheld systems powered by Intel Arc G-Series processors will begin rolling out from OEM partners starting June 2026, with broader availability throughout the year. Refer to your preferred OEM vendor for specific system availability.

More Context: Intel Arc G-Series Processors Overview Deck | The Next Step in Handeld Gaming

The Small Print:

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.intel.com/PerformanceIndex.

While Wi-Fi 7 is backward compatible with previous generations, new Wi-Fi 7 features require PCs configured with Intel Wi-Fi 7 solutions, PC OEM enabling, operating system support, and use with appropriate Wi-Fi 7 routers/APs/gateways. 6 GHz Wi-Fi 7 may not be available in all regions. More details at www.Intel.com/performance-wireless.

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Chip to Rackscale AI Solutions Delivered to Customers with the Help of Strategic Industry Partners

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 2, 2026 – Today at Computex 2026, Intel unveiled new innovations that address customers’ chip- to-systems-level AI needs with solutions tailored to address their specific industry challenges, including:

• New rackscale AI infrastructure: Intel announced rackscale AI infrastructure for customers interested in scaling their inference and agentic workloads based on Intel® Xeon® processors and SambaNova SN-50 Reconfigurable Dataflow Units (RDUs).
• Agentic Cloud Offering for Disaggregated Inference: Vector Core Compute, a new purpose-built enterprise inference cloud formed by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital, unveiled fully disaggregated inference running on Intel Xeon processors, SambaNova RDUs, and NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs.
• Deep industry solutions: Strategic collaborations with industry leaders, including Foxconn, Siemens, Hitachi, Echo Neurotechnologies, and Greenstone Biosciences focused on delivering integrated vertical customer solutions based on Intel processors and purpose-built silicon.
• Intel Xeon 6+ processors: Next-generation data center CPU built on Intel 18A and designed for high-density, scale-out workloads.
• PC, gaming handheld, and physical AI momentum: Broad partner support and customer uptake for the Series 3 family of processors.

“For more than five decades, Intel, its ecosystem partners, and Taiwan have brought the world the foundational technologies for the PC, Internet, and now AI eras,” said Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel. “Today, with the rise of inference, agentic, and physical AI, Intel is poised to bring the world new innovations from the chip to systems level that promise to transform industry and society for the better. We are proud to join all our partners in building great products that will delight customers and bring the power of AI to more people as we create a brighter future together.”

Rackscale AI Infrastructure for Inference and Agentic Workloads

As the training of AI models has matured, and more AI applications have moved into production, the industry has witnessed an exponential rise in the demand for cost-effective and power-efficient AI inference. With the emergence of agentic AI, the growing demand for AI inference is changing the balance of power in the data center, returning the CPU to a position of prominence.

According to Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Bajarin, while “the training-era world looked closer to a one-CPU-per-four-GPU relation in AI deployments, agentic inference changes that relationship to roughly a one-CPU-to-one-GPU (or less) ratio.”

Seeking to capitalize on this trend at a systems level, Intel, SambaNova, and Foxconn today announced their intent to build rackscale AI infrastructure for data center, hyperscale, and intelligence center deployments—built on Intel Xeon processors.

The companies are demonstrating production-ready racks that combine Intel Xeon processors with SambaNova SN-50 RDUs, which together are designed to deliver high performance AI inference with improved cost and power efficiency. As part of the collaboration, Foxconn will provide system integration capabilities for the new rackscale AI infrastructure. Foxconn also plans to manufacture a CPU-dense variant of the rackscale infrastructure for workloads that do not require additional acceleration, including cost-optimized inference, data processing, and hybrid AI.

Agentic Cloud Offering for Fully Disaggregated Inference

Vector Core Compute, a new purpose-built enterprise inference cloud formed by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital, unveiled fully disaggregated inference. Running onstage at Computex, Intel, SambaNova, Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital showcased the first real-world demonstration of a disaggregated inference system, using Intel Xeon 6 processors for orchestration and execution, SambaNova SN40 RDUs for decode, and NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs for prefill—operating from a Vector Core Compute data center in Los Angeles, California.

Together.ai is the first commercial customer running workloads on Vector Core Compute’s agentic cloud, which delivered the fastest enterprise inference on the MiniMax 2.5 model of any architecture to date. Vista Equity Partners has secured early access to the company’s high-quality, low-cost inference solutions for its 90+ portfolio companies which serve more than 2.5 million enterprise customers and 750 million users worldwide.

Industry Specific Solutions Based on Intel Processors and Purpose-built Silicon

It is often stated that AI is transforming every industry. It is also true that the computing needs of specific industries vary widely due to differences in their business environments, processes, workflows, and customers.

Today, Intel announced several strategic partnerships designed to co-develop industry-specific vertical solutions based on Intel processors and purpose-built silicon, including:

• Foxconn: The world’s largest electronics manufacturer is working with Intel to provide systems integration capabilities for rackscale AI infrastructure and explore collaboration in design services and custom silicon development.
• Siemens: The leading technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare and Intel have expanded their existing collaboration. In 2023, Siemens and Intel first joined forces; now the two companies are strengthening their collaboration across the entire value chain from design to manufacturing to chips embedded in Siemens products. Siemens brings its capabilities for the design, manufacturing, and lifecycle management of chips, as well as fab digitalization, automation, and electrification. This collaboration will enable the exploration of use cases for purpose-built Intel silicon for Siemens’ varied compute requirements, which may include edge devices, high-performance computing (HPC), and robotics.
• Hitachi: A global leader in digital innovation and sustainable solutions and Intel intend to work together on a range of solutions including foundry tools and quantum computing.
• Echo Neurotechnologies: The developer of neuroscience and brain-computer interface solutions and Intel are exploring new neuromorphic technologies to advance neuro-AI, speech neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces, and Intel’s future neuromorphic and conventional hardware architectures.
• Greenstone Biosciences: The Silicon Valley biotech company plans to use Intel processors, purpose-built silicon, and the Intel Health and Life Sciences AI Suite to accelerate human-centric drug development using stem cells, organoids, genomics, and AI.

Intel Xeon 6+ Processors for Next Generation Data Centers

Extending this week’s announcements from data centers and racks down to chip-level innovations, Intel announced the availability of Intel Xeon 6+ processors, which provide greater performance density, power efficiency, and operational scale for cloud-native, agentic AI, and network-intensive workloads.

Built on Intel 18A—its first use in a data center CPU—Xeon 6+ is engineered for sustained performance under real-world power constraints—addressing the orchestration, concurrency, and data movement demands of emerging agentic AI.

Xeon 6+ can be configured for AI rackscale infrastructure purpose-built for hosting agents at maximum density. For example, a single liquid-cooled rack can deliver 36,864 cores using 32U of compute space, which provides the highest agent density available (at approximately 100-kilowatt rack power compute).

Optimized for environments where watts per rack, throughput per core, and latency predictability are critical, Xeon 6+ emphasizes scale-out performance—making room for new AI workloads without requiring disruptive data center redesign.

Series 3 Scale and Momentum

Core Ultra Series 3, built on Intel 18A, continues to experience strong customer uptake for a platform that now powers more than 325 consumer and commercial PC designs. Leveraging the same advanced IP as Ultra, the recently launched Core processors are enabling a new class of thin, sleek, powerful, and efficient PCs at affordable price points. Series 3 also pushes into the growing market of handheld gaming with the new Intel Arc G-series processors, which will be available starting this month. The expansion of the Series 3 processor family is being accelerated by increased 18A yields and strong customer and partner engagement.

Beyond the PC, Intel has powered edge devices in manufacturing, robotics, retail, and smart cities for decades. For the first time, the latest Series 3 IP scaling in the PC ecosystem will deploy in parallel to thousands of edge customers globally. Over 130 customers have already chosen Series 3 to power edge AI and robotics designs.

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Looking for a new Series 3 laptop? You’ve come to the right place.

Earlier this week at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Intel launched the Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processors.  

The launch event featured about 24 different AI PC laptops from 15 leading PC OEMs located in Intel’s Tech Showcase center. Each run on Series 3 CPUs built on Intel 18A –it’s the most advanced semiconductor process Intel has ever developed. 

The top Series 3 SKUs (stock-keeping units) will deliver up to 60% better multithread performance, over 77% faster gaming performance and up to 27 hours of battery life. 

Pre-orders for the first consumer laptops powered by Series 3 CPUs begin this week, with over 200 designs from leading PC OEMs coming later this year.  

One Series 3 customer – Brazil-based Positivo Tecnologia – can’t wait to bring these devices to market. 

“We are so excited to partner with Intel on the launch of Series 3 and can’t wait for our customers to get their hands on our laptops featuring all-new Series 3 processors,” said Hélio Bruck Rotenberg, President of Positivo Tecnologia. 

“This is Positivo and Intel truly writing the new chapter in technology together.” 

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Created by Oversonic Robotics – the first Italian-based robotics company that makes AI-optimized humanoid robots – RoBee was among the star attractions at Intel’s Tech Showcase area in CES Las Vegas.

Meet RoBee. Standing about 6 feet tall, this humanoid robot from Oversonic Robotics is powered by AI and created for situations that require split-second decision-making, like performing complex manufacturing tasks or assisting patients with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

RoBee needs to think fast – quite literally on its feet – which is where local on-device processing comes into play. Powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra series 3 edge processors, all of RoBee’s speech understanding, speech generation, reasoning and select vision tasks are processed on the robot.

Nothing is sent to the cloud, which reduces reliance on large, power-hungry GPUs and reduces the risk of latency. Series 3 for edge systems will be available starting Q1 of 2026.

Press Kit: Intel at CES 2026 – Newsroom

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At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Intel surprised guests with a new artwork installation built with not 100, not 1,000 but 42,000 LEGO bricks.

The mockup of an actual Intel® Core^™ Ultra Series 3 (code-named Panther Lake) chip even lights up, thanks to 600+ LEDs and complicated circuitry hidden within its LEGO tiles – mimicking the way a real-life Series 3 processor functions.

Since its big reveal on Jan. 5 at Intel’s Tech Showcase, it’s been drawing huge crowds that gape at its size and color.

Press Kit: Intel at CES 2026

“This CPU brick building model has LED lights that light up its CPU, NPU and GPU tiles based on Windows Task Manager,” explained Khoi Nguyen, mastermind of the unique installation.

Nguyen recruited Zach Hill, a former Intel intern and member of Intel’s Graphics Technical Marketing team who is a longtime LEGO enthusiast.

This is not Hill’s first Intel-centric build.

In 2023, Hill designed a 600-piece Intel® Arc™ A750 GPU. PCGamer called it “a seriously impressive piece of engineering; it even includes moving parts,” with “spinning fans made from steering wheels, with fifteen LEGO meat cleaver pieces clipped onto each of them.”

Nguyen and Hill brainstormed the model, and Hill used LEGO Group’s Bricklink Studio software to create the 3D model. Now, while dreaming up the concept is one feat, putting the literal pieces together – all 42,000 of them – was quite another.

It took Hill weeks to build the set. At first it sprawled across the floor in his house, then had to be moved to his garage because it was hitting the ceiling. (The entire model measures about 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide.)

“For the last 10 days, I have been up until 3 a.m. every night, integrating the model with the electronics for the LEDs. We had to modify and make changes to the building bricks to make space for everything. It’s exhausting but also very rewarding to see it coming together,” shares Nguyen, who also designed the power harness and data line level shifter circuitry so all 600+ LEDs would work correctly.

And teammate Michael Larsen wrote the software that triggers the LEDs to light up in the correct sequence.

“Larsen figured out a way to easily get the NPU utilization represented by using Intel OpenVINO to run the AI model to analyze Windows Task Manager, and pull out the corresponding percentage of utilization, then send the signals to the LEDs on the model,” Nguyen explained.

Hill explains how his life-long love of LEGO began with an early fascination with the building blocks of the universe, and how LEGO bricks – like transistors in modern computers – reflect the expandable, modular nature of atomic and molecular structures.

“Just as LEGO pieces or silicon are meaningless on their own, they come alive when thoughtfully arranged by humans who turn simple components into something powerful, expressive, and unique,” said Hill.

“I’m particularly excited to support the launch of Intel® Core™ Ultra CPUs with this giant LEGO build as it represents the versatility shared by Intel CPUs and LEGO pieces –technological advancements which enable work, play, and interpersonal connection.”

Learn more about Series 3: CES 2026: Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Debut as First Built on Intel 18A – Intel Newsroom

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At Intel’s Series 3 launch, Intel showed off 9 engaging demos highlighting, gaming, AI, content creation, retail, edge and more – all running on PCs powered by Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3. Intel ushers in the next generation of AI PCs with exceptional performance, graphics and battery life; available this month.

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS:

• First platform built on Intel 18A: At CES 2026, Intel launched the Intel® Core^™ Ultra Series 3 processors, the first compute platform built on Intel 18A – the most advanced semiconductor process ever developed and manufactured in the United States.
• Powering over 200 PC designs: Series 3 delivers a robust family of processors powering hundreds of designs up and down the stack, all delivering exceptional performance, graphics and battery life.
• From PC to Edge: For the first time, Series 3 processors are tested and certified for embedded and industrial use cases at the edge like robotics, smart cities, automation, healthcare, and more.

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2026 – Today at CES, Intel unveiled Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, the first AI PC platform built on Intel 18A process technology that was designed and manufactured in the United States. Powering over 200 designs from leading, global partners, Series 3 will be the most broadly adopted and globally available AI PC platform Intel has ever delivered.

“With Series 3, we are laser focused on improving power efficiency, adding more CPU performance, a bigger GPU in a class of its own, more AI compute and app compatibility you can count on with x86.”

– Jim Johnson, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Client Computing Group, Intel

Series 3 Adds a New Class of Intel Core Ultra X9 and X7 Processors

Within the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 mobile lineup, a new class of Intel Core Ultra X9 and X7 processors come packed with the highest performing, integrated Intel® Arc^™ graphics. They are purpose-built for multitaskers that handle advanced workloads like gaming, creation and productivity on the go. The top SKUs feature up to 16 CPU cores, 12 X^e -cores and 50 NPU TOPS, delivering up to 60% better multithread performance¹ over 77% faster gaming performance² and up to 27 hours of battery life³.

The Series 3 family also includes Intel Core processors, intentionally designed to power mainstream mobile systems. Leveraging the same foundational architecture of Intel Core Ultra Series 3, the Intel Core lineup enables more performant and efficient laptop designs at lower price points.

Event Press Kit: Intel at CES 2026

Series 3 Accelerates AI Adoption in Robotics, Smart Cities, Automation and Healthcare

For the first time, alongside their PC counterparts, Series 3 edge processors are certified for embedded and industrial use cases, including extended temperature ranges, deterministic performance, and 24×7 reliability.

Intel Core Ultra Series 3 delivers competitive advantages in critical edge AI workloads with up to 1.9x higher large language model (LLM) performance⁴, up to 2.3x better performance per watt per dollar on end-to-end video analytics⁵, and up to 4.5x higher throughput on vision language action (VLA) models⁶. The integrated AI acceleration enables superior total cost of ownership (TCO) through a single system on chip (SoC) solution versus traditional multi-chip CPU and GPU architectures.

Availability

Pre-orders for the first consumer laptops powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors will begin Jan. 6, 2026. Systems will be available globally starting Jan. 27, 2026, with additional designs coming throughout the first half of the year.

Edge systems powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3 will be available starting Q1 2026.

More: Supporting Quotes from Partners | Product Brief: Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Processors | Press Deck: Supplemental Data Deep Dive

¹Up to 60% better multithread performance vs. Lunar Lake at similar power with an Intel® Core™ Ultra X9 388H vs. Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 288V. As measured by Cinebench 2024 Multi Core (at 25W). See www.intel.com/PerformanceIndex for workloads and configurations. Results may vary​.

²Up to 77% better gaming performance vs. Lunar Lake with an Intel® Core™ Ultra X9 388H vs. Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 288V. As measured by Geomean of average game performance across 45 game titles at 1080p High with 2x upscaling when supported on Panther Lake Reference Platform vs. Lunar Lake Reference Platform. See www.intel.com/PerformanceIndex for workloads and configurations. Results may vary​.

³Get as much as 27.1 hours while Netflix streaming with an Intel® Core™ Ultra X9 388H tested in Lenovo IdeaPad reference design. As measured by Netflix streaming at 1080p in Edge browser. Individual system results will vary significantly with different use, battery capacity and other factors. Learn more at intel.com/performanceindex for details

⁴As estimated by DeepSeek Ilama-8B first token latency on Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H vs. NVIDIA Jetson Orin™ AGX 64GB for BS1 and INT4. Individual system results may vary as power and performance are affected by use, configuration and other factors. Details at intel.com/performanceindex.

⁵As estimated by medium end-to-end video analytics with BS8 on Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H vs. NVIDIA Jetson Orin™ AGX 64GB. Individual system results may vary as power and performance are affected by use, configuration and other factors. Details at intel.com/performanceindex.

⁶As estimated by Action Chunking Transformer (ACT) Bimanual insertion model (using four cameras – 640×480 with FP32) on Intel Core Ultra X9 processor 388H iGPU vs. NVIDIA Jetson Orin™ AGX 64GB. Individual system results may vary as power and performance are affected by use, configuration and other factors. Details at intel.com/performanceindex.

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