Im Zeitalter der Künstlichen Intelligenz kehren die großen Unternehmen zurück in das Schlachtfeld des PCs.

With the in - depth entry of AI technology into the application field, the PC, once regarded as the "sunset device", has suddenly become the focus of attention of technology giants.

Source: Tencent

On May 21, 2026, Tencent introduced the operating - system - level AI assistant Marvis, which transforms the entire computer into a speakable object and is launched on Windows, macOS, and Android simultaneously. It should be noted that although Marvis offers an Android version, it mainly exists in the form of a chatbot on mobile devices and can only evolve into its "ultimate form" after being connected to a computer.

Since 2026, Tencent has not only developed Marvis, an AI assistant targeting PCs, but also PC - based AI products such as QClaw and WorkBuddy. At the same time, the orientation of AI products towards PCs has become a major trend in the technology industry. Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance have also introduced products such as Qoder Work, DuMate, and Trae.

It is well - known that with the maturity of smartphones, the technology industry has entered the era of the mobile Internet, and the PC ecosystem has gradually faded into the background. Therefore, it seems extremely unusual that technology companies are now increasingly developing PC - based AI products.

The question is: Why do so many technology companies focus on PC software despite the dominance of smartphones as the mass computing platform? How will the relationship between PCs and smartphones change with the maturity of AI applications?

In the era of the mobile Internet, the PC was sent into the "cold"

In contrast to its current role as a relatively fixed workplace, a few years ago when smartphones were not as developed, the PC was the most important mass computing terminal device. It met the diverse needs of users in Internet use, social media, and entertainment, and was therefore the central battlefield for technology companies to build their product systems and capture access to ecosystems.

At that time, based on the search, shopping, and social - media needs of PC users, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent developed services such as Baidu Search, Taobao, and QQ, and thus developed into the three major Internet giants. At the same time, many start - up companies developed products such as WPS, Thunder, and PPS to meet the fragmented needs of users.

Among these companies, Baidu was once the ruler of the Chinese Internet industry because of its control over the most important search access in the PC Internet. In March 2011, Baidu reached a market capitalization of $48.1 billion, surpassing Tencent to become the Chinese Internet company with the highest market capitalization.

Source: China Internet Network Information Center

However, after 2007, when the iPhone opened the era of smartphones, the attractiveness of the PC to users began to decline. Data from the China Internet Network Information Center shows that the number of Chinese mobile Internet users increased from 277 million in June 2010 to 527 million in June 2014, an increase of 90.25%. The proportion increased from 65.9% to 83.4%, an increase of 17.5 percentage points.

Under these circumstances, many Internet companies have caught the wave of the smartphone era and carried out a mobile transformation. Alibaba has firmly established itself with Taobao for mobile devices, Tencent has obtained the "ticket" for the new era with WeChat, and ByteDance has stood out as a newcomer in the mobile Internet industry with Jinri Toutiao.

In October 2014, Ma Huateng, the chairman and CEO of Tencent, accurately stated in a public letter: "The mobile Internet is the real Internet that will connect everything and revolutionize all industries."

Source: QuestMobile

Facts have shown that Ma Huateng's assessment was wise. Thanks to the advantages of smartphones such as portability, round - the - clock Internet access, and wide applicability in various scenarios, the mobile Internet has quickly spread to areas such as shopping, travel, and entertainment, thus creating a larger business space.

With the dominance of smartphones as the mass computing platform, the strategic focus of Internet companies has completely shifted to the mobile Internet. The PC is not only no longer the preferred platform for innovative products, but many mobile applications are not even provided with a desktop version when they are launched.

For example, TikTok was launched in 2016, but it was not until June 2021, when the mobile Internet traffic dividend faded, that a web version was launched.

Although Xianyu once had a web version, under the wave of the mobile Internet, it has continuously reduced the functions of the web version since 2016 and abandoned the web version in 2019. It was not until 2024 that the Xianyu web version was launched again, but the functions are not yet complete.

AI unleashes productivity, and the PC has scenario advantages

In recent years, technology companies have also actively developed mobile AI products. However, in contrast to the era of the mobile Internet, these new AI products are often also adapted for PCs and sometimes even mainly used on PCs.

In addition to products such as Marvis, Qoder Work, and DuMate recently introduced by Chinese technology companies, foreign technology companies have also developed PC - based AI products such as Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI.

Source: OpenClaw

What is even more unusual is that many of the recently emerged PC - based AI products have attracted a large number of users despite the migration of most users to the mobile Internet. For example, OpenClaw received more than 300,000 "stars" on the open - source platform GitHub within only two months after its release, surpassing Linux to become the most popular open - source project on this platform.

If the popularity of OpenClaw on GitHub was mainly limited to the programming community, then the subsequent public enthusiasm for "shrimp farming" means that the product has successfully "emerged from the niche" and entered the mass market.

Source: Shenzhen News Network

According to the Shenzhen News Network, in early March 2026, Tencent held a free installation event for OpenClaw in Shenzhen. The venue was full of people from all walks of life, from children to the elderly. "Many people were not familiar with programming and cloud computing, but they came out of curiosity or for professional reasons."

The reason is that, in contrast to the smartphone, which is more oriented towards entertainment and life scenarios, the PC's strengths mainly lie in productivity scenarios, and the application of AI technology is more likely to lead to positive feedback.

Source: "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads"

In mid - May 2026, Li Xiang, the chairman and CEO of Li Auto, explained in a podcast "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads" why ordinary users can only perceive AI to a limited extent: "An important aspect of agents is that they need a real work and production environment to get good feedback. Ordinary users will quickly get bored because there is no production feedback."

In fact, the mobile AI assistants developed by technology companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance since 2025 have continuously improved their "working abilities". However, due to the isolated ecosystems of the mobile Internet, these AI products can usually only achieve service closure within their own systems and cannot offer real cross - platform services, making it difficult to provide users with a revolutionary user experience.

In comparison, the fragmentation of PC ecosystems is less, and Windows and macOS can grant system - wide execution rights to applications. AI agents such as OpenClaw can deeply integrate the data on the user's computer and actually "execute tasks with one word".

From the perspective of demand, when using the PC, users often have clear productive requirements in the fields of work and creativity, and are therefore more willing to accept AI agent products that can increase efficiency and perform complex operations.

The PC is not only better tailored to the needs of users, but also has significant advantages over smartphones in terms of computing power, storage, and battery life in the field of AI agents.

Source: NVIDIA

For example, NVIDIA's flagship graphics card, the RTX 5090, has 9.2 billion transistors and an AI computing power of 3,352 TOPS, and can be regarded as the user's private "token factory". In comparison, the current flagship processor in the smartphone industry, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Ultra, only has an AI computing power of 80 TOPS and cannot meet the high computing power requirements of users at the terminal device side.

In summary, it is no coincidence that large companies are increasingly developing PC - based AI products in the era of AI. Compared with smartphones, the PC is more suitable for the implementation and further development of AI agents in terms of hardware performance, system openness, and user scenarios.

It can be said that AI transforms the PC from a "work tool" into the core access to the next computing ecosystem.

In the next era, the hybrid computing architecture may become the norm

Although large companies are investing in the AI agent industry, bringing the marginalized PC back to the center of the technology industry, due to its bulkiness, it is difficult for the PC to become a portable computing terminal device for users. This means that in the era of AI, the relationship between PCs and portable terminal devices such as smartphones may not be based on a trade - off between decline and growth.

Although cloud - based large models have scale advantages and stronger capabilities, the personal computing center in the era of AI will still mainly be based on local devices because each user has a large amount of private and individual data.

Source: Honor

In June 2024, Zhao Ming, the former CEO of Honor, stated: "Many capabilities of device - side AI are not included in cloud - based AI. Their strengths mainly lie in the learning ability with the user's personal data and the protection of privacy. The future development of device - side AI will better support consumers and better coexist with network - based AI."

Under these circumstances, with its stronger device - side computing power and higher system openness, the PC has the chance to transform from a productivity tool into a "household computing center" that... (The original text seems incomplete here)