What does an NPU do and why do so many laptops have them?

Almost nothing uses it yet.

By Luke James Nov. 14, 2026 1:00 pm EST Quality Stock Arts/Shutterstock Add Engadget on Google: Google Discover

Bought a new laptop recently? Chances are that it's equipped with an NPU, a chip you're almost certainly not using. The NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, is a block of silicon that runs AI workloads at a fraction of the power a CPU or GPU needs. Roughly 2W compared to well over 100W that standard laptop discrete graphics need to do the same job. While they're not yet found in all laptops, they're now pretty much standard in mid-range and premium machines.