ASUS and MSI have run out of RTX Spark computers before most shoppers even had a chance to place an order. Both companies confirmed that their first production allocations from Nvidia are already spoken for through channel pre-orders, and both are now going back to Nvidia for a second batch of the GB10-powered chips that make the machines possible — a follow-on run that one report says could span 300,000 to 500,000 chips. It is an unusual position for a brand-new consumer product category to be in: sold out before it has properly launched.
The news comes from two directions. Wccftech reported on August 13, 2026, that ASUS told investors its initial RTX Spark quantities had been fully claimed by channel partners, and separate Taiwan-based financial reporting citing UDN Money, published August 31, 2026, confirmed MSI’s first batch sold out the same way, with each company’s first shipment covering roughly 100,000 units. For a product line that Nvidia only unveiled at Computex in June, that was a fast sellout, and as of September 2026 it says as much about how tight AI-related chip supply still is as it does about consumer appetite for on-device AI hardware.
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RTX Spark Sellout: Key Facts at a Glance
As of September 2026, here is the state of the RTX Spark sellout in one place:
- ASUS: Initial RTX Spark allocation fully pre-ordered by channel partners as of August 13, 2026 (Wccftech).
- MSI: First RTX Spark batch sold out through distribution-level preorders as of August 31, 2026 (UDN Money).
- First-wave volume: Roughly 100,000 units per company, about 200,000 units combined.
- Next batch: A follow-on order reportedly spans 300,000 to 500,000 chips, targeted to reach partners around October 2026.
- Retail launch: RTX Spark laptops are expected to begin shipping as early as October 2026.
- Estimated pricing: Entry configurations around $1,799, higher-tier configurations near $2,899 (not yet confirmed by ASUS or MSI).
Can You Still Buy an RTX Spark Laptop Right Now?
Not yet, at least not through an open retail channel. The roughly 100,000 units apiece that ASUS and MSI sold out were claimed entirely by distributors and retailers placing wholesale orders, so individual shoppers never had a public pre-order window to miss in the first place. As of mid-September 2026, neither company has opened consumer ordering for RTX Spark laptops, and the retail launch remains on track for October 2026, the same month Nvidia’s second GB10 production run, reportedly 300,000 to 500,000 chips, is expected to start reaching partners.
That overlap matters for anyone hoping to buy near launch. Because the second batch is timed to land around the same window as the retail debut, early stock for ASUS’s ProArt P16, ProArt P14, and ProArt Mini PC, along with MSI’s Prestige N16 Flip AI+ and EdgeMesa N AI+, is likely to be thin in the first few weeks. That would repeat the pattern MSI already set with its DGX-class EdgeXpert MS-C931, which shipped through direct contact and waitlists rather than open shelves after its October 2025 launch. Shoppers who want a realistic shot at an RTX Spark laptop close to launch should watch ASUS’s and MSI’s own stores and major retailers directly once October arrives, rather than expecting broad shelf availability on day one.
What Actually Sold Out: RTX Spark, Explained
RTX Spark is Nvidia’s push to bring its GB10 Grace Blackwell superchip, internally codenamed N1X and officially confirmed by Nvidia in September 2026, the same silicon that powers the DGX Spark desktop “personal AI supercomputer”, into laptops and compact desktops built by PC brands rather than sold directly by Nvidia. The GB10/N1X chip pairs a 20-core Arm-based Grace CPU (ten Cortex-X925 performance cores and ten Cortex-A725 efficiency cores) built on a 3-nanometer TSMC process with a Blackwell GPU carrying 48 streaming multiprocessors and 6,144 CUDA cores, specs Nvidia itself confirmed in September 2026 alongside word that six OEMs would have RTX Spark systems ready for an October 2026 launch. Nvidia and its partners rate the chip at up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, or roughly 1,000 AI TOPS in FP4 sparse mode, backed by up to 128GB of LPDDR5X-8533 unified memory shared between CPU and GPU.
What makes that memory pool significant is not raw gaming performance, since RTX Spark is not a gaming chip in the RTX 50-series sense. It is the ability to load and run large language models locally, without a cloud subscription or an API bill. According to ASUS’s own pre-launch messaging, the RTX Spark platform is pitched at developers who want to run models with up to 120 billion parameters directly on a laptop, while the larger DGX-class desktop version, the ASUS Ascent GX10, is positioned for models up to roughly 200 billion parameters, a ceiling Nvidia reiterated for the DGX Spark line as recently as August 2026. That is a meaningfully different value proposition than a typical Copilot+ PC, and it is why the first wave of buyers looks less like consumers and more like AI labs, research groups, and independent developers who have been priced out of cloud GPU rental.
ASUS Confirms the Sellout in Its Own Earnings Call
The clearest on-record confirmation comes from ASUS itself. During its most recent investor call, reported by Wccftech and echoed across regional financial outlets, ASUS management described RTX Spark demand in blunt terms: “The market response has far exceeded our expectations. Essentially, the initial quantities we planned have already been fully pre-ordered by our channel partners, so we’re continuing to place additional orders and are very optimistic about next year’s sales.”
Two things are worth unpacking in that statement. First, “channel partners” means distributors and retailers, not end consumers, so this is a wholesale-level sellout rather than proof that individual buyers have already snapped up every unit. Second, ASUS did not disclose the exact number of units in that first allocation on the call itself, which is why the 100,000-unit figure now circulating comes from separate supply-chain reporting rather than from ASUS’s own investor materials. Even accounting for that caveat, a company going back to a supplier for a second production run before its first laptops have technically shipped is a strong demand signal, not routine pre-launch marketing.
ASUS’s first RTX Spark systems are expected to arrive under its ProArt line, including the ProArt P16 and ProArt P14 laptops plus a ProArt Mini PC, positioning RTX Spark within ASUS’s existing creator and professional hardware family rather than as a standalone gaming or consumer sub-brand.
MSI’s Matching Allocation and the 100,000-Unit Figure
MSI has not issued a public statement as detailed as ASUS’s earnings-call remarks, but Taiwan-based financial reporting citing UDN Money, published August 31, 2026, states that MSI’s first RTX Spark batch has also sold out through preorders at the distribution level, and that ASUS and MSI each received enough GB10 chips from Nvidia to build approximately 100,000 computers in their respective first shipments. That parity is notable: it suggests Nvidia allocated its first meaningful wave of RTX Spark silicon evenly between the two launch partners rather than favoring one over the other, and that both companies exhausted that allocation on comparable timelines.
MSI’s RTX Spark hardware is expected to include the Prestige N16 Flip AI+ laptop and an EdgeMesa N AI+ mini PC, both shown around Computex 2026 alongside early ASUS and HP entries. MSI already has experience in this exact hardware category through the EdgeXpert MS-C931, a DGX Spark-class desktop unit that launched in October 2025 and has been sold primarily through direct pre-order and enterprise channels rather than open retail, a distribution pattern that appears to be repeating with RTX Spark.
Why Nvidia Capped the First Batch This Tight
The 100,000-unit figure per partner is small by PC industry standards, where a single popular laptop SKU can ship millions of units a year. That scarcity traces back to the same memory constraints that have been squeezing Nvidia’s entire AI hardware lineup through 2026, a supply crunch Digitimes has tracked across Taiwan’s semiconductor and memory supply chain for much of the year. In February, Nvidia raised the price of the DGX Spark Founders Edition from $3,999 to $4,699, a $700 increase, or roughly 18%, that Wccftech attributed directly to ongoing memory shortages affecting the LPDDR5X supply that GB10-based systems depend on. That same shortage has rippled into gaming GPUs too: Crypto Briefing reported on August 3, 2026, that GeForce RTX 50-series cards were becoming up to 30% more expensive in South Korea because of memory costs and constrained supply.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang addressed supply more broadly at Computex in June, where he unveiled RTX Spark while emphasizing that Nvidia had secured enough capacity to support continued GPU and CPU growth and pledged roughly $150 billion a year in Taiwan-based investment. Even with that commitment, the memory bottleneck specifically, rather than logic-chip fabrication, appears to be the binding constraint on how many RTX Spark units ASUS and MSI could build for this first run. Crypto Briefing’s August 11 coverage of Nvidia’s efforts to calm AI market jitters likewise pointed to global memory shortages as the factor forcing specification and pricing recalibrations across Nvidia’s AI product stack, not just RTX Spark.
RTX Spark vs. DGX Spark: Two Products, One Chip
It helps to separate two things that share the same GB10 silicon but serve different markets. DGX Spark is Nvidia’s own branded desktop reference platform and the partner-built equivalents certified under that program, aimed squarely at AI labs and enterprise developers. RTX Spark is the mobile and compact-desktop expansion of that same chip, sold as a feature inside mainstream laptop and mini PC lines from ASUS, MSI, and other PC brands, aimed at a slightly broader developer and creator audience who want portability alongside local AI inference.
As of August 10, 2026, the DGX Spark partner ecosystem included eight officially certified systems: Nvidia’s own DGX Spark Founders Edition, the Acer Veriton GN100, ASUS Ascent GX10, Dell Pro Max with GB10, Gigabyte AI TOP ATOM, HP ZGX Nano AI Station, Lenovo ThinkStation PGX, and MSI’s EdgeXpert MS-C931. RTX Spark laptops sit adjacent to that lineup rather than inside it, using the same GB10 foundation but packaged for mobility and, in ASUS and MSI’s case, priced to reach a wider audience than the roughly $4,000 DGX-class desktops.
| System | Maker | Category | Memory | Status (Aug 31, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DGX Spark Founders Edition | Nvidia | Desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | Shipping; price raised to $4,699 |
| Ascent GX10 | ASUS | Mini desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | Shipping via DGX Spark program |
| EdgeXpert MS-C931 | MSI | Desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | Pre-order/direct-contact sales since Oct. 2025 |
| ProArt P16 / P14 / Mini PC | ASUS | Laptop/mini PC | Unified GB10 memory | First batch sold out via channel pre-order |
| Prestige N16 Flip AI+ / EdgeMesa N AI+ | MSI | Laptop/mini PC | Unified GB10 memory | First batch reportedly sold out via pre-order |
| ZGX Nano AI Station | HP | Mini desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | DGX Spark-certified partner system |
| ThinkStation PGX | Lenovo | Desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | DGX Spark-certified partner system |
| AI TOP ATOM | Gigabyte | Desktop | 128GB LPDDR5X | DGX Spark-certified partner system |
The GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, in Numbers
Every RTX Spark and DGX Spark system leans on the same core component, so understanding the chip explains why demand has outrun supply. Nvidia also confirmed in September 2026 that a lower-end N1X variant, trimmed to 18 CPU cores and 5,120 GPU cores, will power entry-level RTX Spark configurations alongside the full 20-core, 6,144-core chip used in higher-tier models. The specs below are consistent across every certified full-spec partner build:
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| CPU | 20-core Grace Arm CPU: 10x Cortex-X925 + 10x Cortex-A725 |
| Process node | TSMC 3nm |
| TDP | 140W |
| Cache | 49MiB (25MiB L2 + 24MiB system-level cache) |
| GPU | Blackwell GB20B: 48 SMs, 6,144 CUDA cores, 192 5th-gen Tensor cores, 48 4th-gen RT cores |
| GPU clock | Up to 2.42GHz |
| AI performance | Up to 1 petaflop / ~1,000 AI TOPS (FP4, sparse) |
| Memory | 128GB LPDDR5X-8533 unified (CPU + GPU shared) |
| Local model capacity | Up to ~120B parameters (RTX Spark) / ~200B parameters (DGX-class desktop) |
Pricing: What RTX Spark Laptops Are Expected to Cost
Those early estimates have since been overtaken by confirmed numbers. Tom’s Hardware reported in October 2026 that RTX Spark laptops began shipping October 16, 2026, with starting prices of $2,599, well above the roughly $1,799 figure analysts had floated ahead of launch, and PC Gamer reported the same month that the full RTX Spark lineup spans roughly $2,600 to $7,000 depending on configuration. That places even entry-level RTX Spark laptops close to the roughly $4,000 price point of DGX-class desktops like the Ascent GX10 and EdgeXpert, while the priciest configurations now exceed those desktops outright, underscoring just how much the 128GB unified-memory AI chip adds to a portable chassis.
For comparison, Nvidia’s own DGX Spark Founders Edition, sold with 4TB of storage, carries an official MSRP of $4,699 after February’s $700 increase, though as of September 2026 Amazon and Micro Center were actually listing that same 4TB configuration at $4,679, a slight discount off Nvidia’s revised sticker price, while the ASUS Ascent GX10, sold with 1TB of storage, was originally guided at $2,999. Microsoft has since entered the same price tier from the laptop side: PCMag reported in October 2026 that the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, Microsoft’s own 128GB-RAM entry in the category, costs $5,999, landing above both of those desktop benchmarks. Those desktop price points, first reported by TechRadar Pro, predate the current RTX Spark laptop launch and reflect the desktop-class end of the GB10 lineup, which now sits in the middle of a lineup that PC Gamer pegs at $2,600 to $7,000 once laptops are included.
| System | Category | Price | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX Spark laptop (entry configuration) | Laptop | ~$1,799 (estimated) | Not yet confirmed by ASUS/MSI |
| RTX Spark laptop (higher-tier configuration) | Laptop | ~$2,899 (estimated) | Not yet confirmed by ASUS/MSI |
| Ascent GX10 | Mini desktop (DGX-class) | $2,999 (original guidance) | Shipping via DGX Spark program |
| DGX Spark Founders Edition | Desktop (DGX-class) | $4,699 (raised from $3,999) | Shipping |
Timeline: From Computex Reveal to a Sold-Out First Batch
The speed of this sellout only makes sense against the timeline. Nvidia unveiled RTX Spark at Computex on June 2, 2026, alongside Jensen Huang’s remarks about secured chip supply and continued Taiwan investment. Wccftech reported on July 22 that ASUS and MSI would be the first vendors to ship RTX Spark PCs, with Acer and Gigabyte following later, and confirmed a fall 2026 launch window. By August 13, ASUS was telling investors its channel allocation was already spoken for. By August 31, the same pattern had been reported for MSI, with both companies’ combined first-wave allocation estimated at roughly 200,000 units before either laptop had technically reached a retail shelf. Nvidia confirmed six OEM partners in total for the category in September 2026, and Tom’s Hardware reported that RTX Spark laptops actually began shipping October 16, 2026, at a starting price of $2,599, the same month a second, larger production run — reportedly 300,000 to 500,000 chips — is expected to start reaching partners.
That compresses what is normally a multi-month ramp, from unveiling to sellout, into under three months, and it happened entirely at the pre-order and channel-allocation stage rather than through public retail listings. As of September 2026, consumer availability for RTX Spark laptops is still on track for October, meaning the systems that just sold out to distributors have not yet reached the shoppers who will ultimately buy them.
The most recent public checkpoint came at IFA 2026 in Berlin, where ASUS showcased its ProArt RTX Spark lineup, the ProArt P16 and ProArt P14 laptops plus the ProArt GR1X, on September 2, 2026, detailing hardware specifications but stopping short of a confirmed retail price or exact ship date. As of late September 2026, that status held across both launch partners: RTX Spark laptops remained a fall 2026 launch with no OEM-confirmed MSRP, which keeps the widely cited $1,799 to $2,899 range firmly in analyst-estimate territory rather than official ASUS or MSI pricing.
Historical Context: Nvidia’s Pattern of Undersupplying New Categories
This is not the first time Nvidia has launched a new hardware category into an allocation-constrained market. The original DGX Spark desktop line, which MSI’s EdgeXpert joined in October 2025, was sold largely through direct pre-order and required buyers to “contact MSI directly” rather than purchase off a retail shelf, according to Tom’s Hardware‘s coverage of the launch. The February price increase to $4,699, driven by memory costs rather than a change in the chip itself, was an early sign that Nvidia’s AI hardware supply chain was running tighter than its GPU business could comfortably absorb. RTX Spark’s sellout extends that same pattern from a niche desktop product into a mainstream laptop category for the first time, which raises the stakes considerably: a shortage that was previously confined to AI labs and enterprise buyers is now hitting consumer PC brands’ core laptop lineups.
Competitive Landscape: Acer, Gigabyte, and the Rest of the Field
ASUS and MSI’s head start is deliberate. Nvidia structured RTX Spark’s rollout so that ASUS and MSI would ship first, with Acer and Gigabyte following in a second wave, according to Wccftech’s July reporting. That staggering means Acer and Gigabyte are watching the exact scenario playing out now, two launch partners selling out a 100,000-unit allocation apiece before shipping, as they finalize their own order volumes with Nvidia. The DGX Spark side of the ecosystem, where Dell, HP, and Lenovo are already certified partners alongside Gigabyte, gives some indication of how the field will fill out on the mobile RTX Spark side too, though none of those three has been named as an early RTX Spark laptop partner.
The bigger competitive question, one The Verge and other outlets have raised repeatedly through 2026, is whether Apple, AMD, or Qualcomm respond with a comparable unified-memory AI laptop platform. Apple’s M-series chips already offer large unified memory pools that developers use for local LLM inference, and Nvidia’s own GB10 pricing sits well above what an equivalent-memory MacBook Pro configuration costs, meaning RTX Spark’s real competition for developer dollars may come from outside the traditional Windows-laptop field entirely.
Market Impact: What a 200,000-Unit Sellout Means
In isolation, roughly 200,000 combined units between ASUS and MSI is a rounding error against global laptop shipments, which run into the hundreds of millions annually. The significance is not volume, it is what the sellout signals about Nvidia’s ability to allocate scarce GB10 and memory supply toward its most reliable OEM partners. ASUS explicitly told investors it is “very optimistic about next year’s sales” and is placing additional orders now, and the scale of that follow-on order, reportedly 300,000 to 500,000 chips for the next production run alone, suggests Nvidia expects 2027 volumes to scale well past this initial allocation once memory supply loosens. For Nvidia, a fast sellout of a brand-new, higher-margin AI PC category, arriving right as its DGX Spark desktop line was already selling at raised prices, reinforces the case that AI-capable PC hardware, not just data-center GPUs, is now a meaningful and constrained revenue line.
It also puts pressure on the broader PC supply chain. If GB10 chips and the LPDDR5X memory that feeds them stay scarce into 2027, expect other AI PC categories, including Copilot+ laptops from Microsoft’s partner ecosystem, to compete for the same constrained memory fabs, a dynamic that has already pushed RTX 50-series GPU prices higher in markets like South Korea this year.
What This Means for Developers Waiting to Buy One
For the AI developers, researchers, and small labs this hardware is actually built for, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the first units are already gone at the wholesale level, and the October 2026 retail launch is likely to be tight from day one. Anyone planning to buy an RTX Spark laptop to run 100-billion-plus-parameter models locally instead of renting cloud GPU time should expect waitlists similar to what DGX Spark buyers faced in late 2025, when MSI directed interested buyers to contact the company directly rather than shop retail. Given that ASUS is already placing follow-on orders, a second wave of supply is coming: one report puts that next production run at 300,000 to 500,000 chips, well above the roughly 200,000 units in the combined first batch, and Nvidia has pointed to October 2026 as the month RTX Spark systems are expected to begin shipping. A firm date for when that second batch reaches the same channel partners who just cleared out the first one has not been confirmed.
Predictions: Where RTX Spark Goes From Here
- Retail listings for ASUS ProArt and MSI Prestige/EdgeMesa RTX Spark systems will likely carry waitlists or limited regional availability when they formally launch beginning around October 2026, mirroring the pre-order-only pattern DGX Spark set in 2025.
- A second RTX Spark price adjustment is plausible if LPDDR5X memory costs keep climbing, following the same $700 increase Nvidia applied to the DGX Spark Founders Edition in February.
- Acer and Gigabyte’s later-2026 RTX Spark entries will likely launch with larger allocations than ASUS and MSI’s initial 100,000-unit batches, a plausible outcome given reports that Nvidia’s next GB10 production run alone could span 300,000 to 500,000 chips, benefiting from a few extra months of GB10 and memory production ramp.
- Demand will keep concentrating among AI developers and small labs running local models rather than mainstream consumers, keeping RTX Spark a premium, dev-focused category through 2026 rather than a mass-market laptop line.
- Expect Nvidia to lean harder on RTX Spark messaging at CES 2027 as evidence that AI PCs, not just data-center GPUs, are a durable growth line, especially if ASUS’s “optimistic about next year” framing translates into confirmed 2027 order volumes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Nvidia RTX Spark?
RTX Spark is Nvidia’s platform for bringing the GB10 Grace Blackwell superchip, the same silicon used in Nvidia’s DGX Spark desktop AI systems, into laptops and compact desktops built by partners like ASUS and MSI. It combines a 20-core Grace Arm CPU with a Blackwell GPU and 128GB of unified memory, aimed at running large AI models locally.
Did ASUS and MSI RTX Spark laptops actually sell out?
Yes, at the channel level. ASUS confirmed on an investor call, reported by Wccftech on August 13, 2026, that its initial RTX Spark allocation had been fully pre-ordered by distributors and retailers. Taiwan-based financial reporting citing UDN Money reported on August 31, 2026, that MSI’s first batch sold out the same way, with each company’s first shipment covering an estimated 100,000 units.
Can I order an RTX Spark laptop today?
No. The sellout happened entirely at the distributor level, so there has never been a public consumer pre-order page to check. As of mid-September 2026, ASUS and MSI still have not opened retail ordering, and the earliest chance to buy remains the expected October 2026 launch window, when supply is likely to stay tight until Nvidia’s next GB10 batch reaches partners.
When will RTX Spark laptops be available to buy?
RTX Spark laptops began shipping October 16, 2026, Tom’s Hardware reported, with ASUS’s ProArt P16, ProArt P14, and ProArt Mini PC RTX Spark systems and MSI’s Prestige N16 Flip AI+ and EdgeMesa N AI+ launching in that same window, as Nvidia had six OEM partners lined up for the October 2026 rollout.
How much will RTX Spark laptops cost?
Pricing is now confirmed. Tom’s Hardware reported in October 2026 that RTX Spark laptops start at $2,599, well above the $1,799 estimate analysts floated before launch, and PC Gamer reported the same month that the full lineup, including higher-tier configurations like Microsoft’s $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, spans roughly $2,600 to $7,000 depending on specs.
What is the difference between RTX Spark and DGX Spark?
Both use the same GB10 Grace Blackwell superchip, but DGX Spark refers to Nvidia’s own desktop reference platform and certified partner desktops like the ASUS Ascent GX10 and MSI EdgeXpert, aimed at AI labs and enterprises and priced near $4,000. RTX Spark is the laptop and compact-desktop version built into mainstream ASUS and MSI product lines, expected to launch at lower price points.
Why is Nvidia GB10 chip supply so limited?
Reporting from Wccftech and Crypto Briefing throughout 2026 has pointed to ongoing memory shortages, specifically LPDDR5X supply, as the main constraint, rather than a shortage of Blackwell GPU logic dies. That same memory pressure pushed Nvidia to raise the DGX Spark Founders Edition price by $700, about 18%, in February 2026 to $4,699 (with Amazon and Micro Center listing it slightly lower, at $4,679, by September 2026) and contributed to RTX 50-series GPU price increases of up to 30% in markets like South Korea by August 2026.
How many RTX Spark units did ASUS and MSI receive in their first batch?
According to Taiwan-based financial reporting citing UDN Money, ASUS and MSI each received enough GB10 chips to build approximately 100,000 computers in their respective first shipments, putting the combined first wave at roughly 200,000 units across both companies.
How big will Nvidia’s next RTX Spark production run be?
Following the sellout, ASUS and MSI both went back to Nvidia for more GB10 chips. One report indicates that next production run could span 300,000 to 500,000 chips, well above the roughly 200,000 combined units in the first batch, though Nvidia has not confirmed a final figure or how it will be split between partners. Nvidia has separately indicated RTX Spark systems are expected to begin shipping as early as October 2026.
Can RTX Spark laptops run large AI models locally?
Yes. With 128GB of unified LPDDR5X memory, RTX Spark laptops are positioned to run AI models with up to roughly 120 billion parameters locally, without relying on cloud GPU rental, while the larger DGX-class desktop systems built on the same chip are positioned for models up to roughly 200 billion parameters.
