Adds CEO comments, company background, paragraphs 5-8

By Stephen Nellis

Jan 7 (Reuters) - Nvidia NVDA.O Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that MediaTek 2454.TW will be able to sell the desktop central processor chip the two companies unveiled earlier this week and that Nvidia has undisclosed future plans for the chip.

On Monday at CES 2025, Nvidia unveiled a desktop computer called Project DIGITS. The machine uses Nvidia's latest "Blackwell" AI chip and will cost $3,000, but it also contains a new central processor, or CPU, on which Nvidia worked with MediaTek to create.

Responding to an analyst's question during an investor presentation, Huang said Nvidia tapped MediaTek to co-design an energy-efficient CPU that could be sold more widely.

"Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win," Huang said.

Reuters has previously reported that Nvidia is working on a CPU for personal computers that would challenge Intel INTC.O, Advanced Micro Devices AMD.O and Qualcomm QCOM.O, which currently dominate the market for computers used by consumers and businesses.

The Project DIGITS computer is not yet a mass-market device. It runs a Linux-based operating system from Nvidia that is used by AI developers, and Huang told analysts those developers are Nvidia's target market with Project DIGITS.

But Huang said Nvidia has further plans for its desktop CPU that he declined to disclose.

"What else can I do with it? I'm gonna have to wait to tell you that," Huang said. "You know, obviously we have plans."

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis)

((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))