Microsoft's new Surface device will be unveiled at the company's March 21 event, but one question remains.

That is, the Surface Pro 9 is still powered by a 12th generation Intel notebook chip, which is desperately in need of a boost. Now, we may have a pretty good hint as to what is coming.

In an exclusive interview with Qualcomm CMO Dom McGuire, he gave a pretty strong hint that the Snapdragon X Elite will be first on the upcoming Surface Pro 10.

When I spoke with McGuire at MWC 2024, he said that the Snapdragon X Elite would usher in the era of what he calls the "next generation PC." Of course, this raised a hedge in the face garden known as my eyebrows, so I began to unpack this with him - examining what impact this new chipset might have on laptop design in the coming years.

"In this first phase, I think we will see traditional enclosures along the brand lines that these PC OEMs have already established," McGuire commented. Following this, he focused on two products in particular: "The Surface Pro will remain the Surface Pro and the Lenovo Yoga will remain the Lenovo Yoga. [Of course, the close relationship with Lenovo is one worth exploring, and we will do so in our next article (because he has much more to say about Lenovo). But the fact that McGuire specifically covered this model a few weeks before Microsoft's Surface and AI event is important for those of us who have learned to read between the lines when it comes to interviewing key figures. I think there is something there.

Furthermore, this ties in nicely with Windows Central's report that the OLED-equipped Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will be announced by both Intel and Qualcomm.

Looking further afield, McGuire emphasized that this first phase will continue until the "back-to-school vacations" and then OEMs will "enter the next cycle." What does the next cycle look like? McGuire believes that "[i]n addition to the fact that the platforms are smaller and more energy efficient, the idea of distributed computing will be important. This is something he elaborated on to us when defining what an AI PC is. Simply put, it is not one device, but multiple AI-enabled devices that together form a proactive, proactive assistant in your life. [For example, the smaller Snapdragon X Elite components allow laptop makers to add larger batteries to their chassis.

"I think Microsoft is definitely looking at it. I think Microsoft is definitely looking at it. I think Microsoft is definitely looking at it, and I think other companies are looking at it. I think it's going to bring interesting things," he declared, stating quite definitively that the role of the AI PC is greater than the sum of its own parts.