It is not often that an interaction with a tech executive, begins with a surprise element carefully drawn from the secure confines of rather large (and must say, looked well padded; therefore secure) backpack. Bruce Lin, who is NB Marketing Manager for India at MSI, wanted to start on a cheerful note. As I vividly recollect the unmissable finer elements of (even more so in terms of attention to detail) Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth, its price tag is sure to get your attention — ₹6,29,990. This laptop has cutting edge specs including a latest generation Intel Core Ultra 9 chip, up to 96GB of memory, Nvidia’s latest RTX50 graphics, an expansive 18-inch display, and all AI smarts you’d expect in a modern PC. Beyond performance, it is a showcase, an encapsulation of what Taiwanese PC maker MSI, are capable of.
Speaking of the finer elements, the Titan HX 18 Dragon Edition Norse Myth is more than just an inspired design with some decals. It has intricate engravings (Lin tells me Northern Europeans who are well versed with this mythology can read through their meaning), and a dragon spirit plaque. If you’ve followed Thor (2011), Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Valhalla Rising (2009), you’d likely be familiar too. The conversation inevitably turned to the current generation of chips from Intel, AMD (both of whom figure prominently in MSI’s line-up) and also Qualcomm. Lin observes that some chips approach with an intent for outright performance, others primed more for the lowest possible power per watt metrics.
Late last year, MSI began manufacturing laptops in India. “We don’t focus only on those models which are profitable for us, because traditionally, we want to ensure options for every kind of user,” he says. That is well represented in the portfolio, the price band ranging from ₹40,000 upwards, to this limited-edition machine. MSI’s Lin talks to HT about an increasing weightage of AI in PC purchases, how competition between chipmakers is good news for them, the company’s plans for India and the next chapter for gaming portables. Edited excerpts.
Q. What is your assessment of the AI PC era as it has unfolded thus far? Are there enough use cases for AI in office and personal use, and would you take a different approach to break out from an already apparent sea of sameness?
Bruce Lin: AI has been around for decades. There are different technologies that come out, but from our view as a device producer, we feel the very foundation of everything is computing power. We now have AI assistants and text-based assistants, and Microsoft has amplified a lot on their Copilot, even Google Gemini for that matter. They are all based on LLM, or large language models, and that experience is based on server computing power. But now, we see a lot of chips that increase the performance and lower the power consumption requirement. Alongside, there’s a new perspective, which is the small language model, which makes it possible for people carry their own private language model, or say a personal, assistant, in their own device. That’s the evolution of compute power, and this change makes a big difference to customise responses based on my inquiries. With added security as well. For example, if I’m an entrepreneur, I’d be afraid of my idea getting leaked.
At MSI, we don’t focus on just building the computing power for a device, but also integrating our own AI services. I’ll share two examples. The first is our AI engine, which is now in the fifth year of development, has helped optimise many elements of a system automatically. Such as automatically detect what kind of usage scenario or software is active, and change the settings to tune the performance. When I do gaming, it’ll turn on a preset to overclock the graphics internally and also speed up the cooling efficient. Similarly, if you are using Microsoft Office, the power mode will shift to a balance for longer battery life. Perhaps even reduce brightness.
We have also got an MSI AI robot, wherein you simply type in natural language already and it can help you. Such as any Windows or app or game settings, without having to manually sift through realms of options. This is something we are pre-installing in laptops now. Since theAI Robot is closely integrated, it often knows better than Copilot about the specific device and exclusive setups such as AI noise cancellation that we build, or closely working with the AI engine.
Q. How’s the AI transition had a bearing on shaping up MSI’s current PC portfolio, as well as building the upcoming generations? To that point, does tough competition between chipmakers, which is a revision of the spec wars, good news for PC makers such as MSI?
BL: It most certainly has helped us. Each chip maker has different perspectives and approach. For some, they want to focus on pure computing power, and for others, they chase for a lower power consumption with sustainability on battery life. With different perspectives helps us match different uses and areas in our portfolio. Some users rely on the highest power and performance being available to them; for others, battery life is important. MSI is aligned with such demands. For example, the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth in front of us, can put out a full 270-watts of power, for both CPU and GPU. This is definitely the highest power we have ever provided on our laptops. We insured the power. Then there are the entrepreneurs, or creation use cases such as an illustrator or a freelancer. They tend to bring their portfolio where they need to showcase. All that’s on the device, and while they need some level of power, the laptop must be easier to carry around and have sufficient battery life. Something above 20 hours, correct? All in all, the more creativity there is with chipsets in the market, and not just chips but integration as well, it is good news.
Q. What are MSI’s plans for India? Do you believe a change in approach is needed to dial up competition with rivals, with more urgency, considering MSI’s product lineup is strong?
BL: First and foremost, we just have one word in 2025, and that is expansion. It will be an expansion of the product portfolio, of sales points and service points.
As for the products, we have no expanded the portfolio across price points from ₹40,000 to ₹6,00,000. We want to provide different devices for different users with different means, and that’s the reason we didn’t cut off high end products at around the ₹3.5 lakh price point. Secondary, we will also expand our channel availability. In 2010, we had only 10 MSI brand stores in India, and we are on track to achieve the 50-store milestone this year. We have also extended our channel availability with multi-store retailers such as Croma and Reliance Digital. It is not just that they will also open more stores, but we also help them on digital transformation. An example of that would be our MSI brand stores, which in the past, were mostly mid or small scale and didn’t really have their own online presence. We helped them with that, and of course, we have done a lot of advertising as well.
We feel the consumer behaviour is changing, and it is also important to expand availability and quality of service. Currently we have 60 service touch-points in the market, but we will increase that number to 115 service centres. And it is not just the service centres, but we also make it a point to integrate frequent service availability at MSI brand stores too. People who purchased an MSI machine can regularly come back to the MSI store, attend a service check, do general maintenance or even getting a replacement or an upgrade installed. That is something we wanted to do, so as to make a deeper connection with the community.
Q. As the product portfolio develops, what would be the key focus areas? Would it be gamers, creators, or the ultra-portable enthusiasts?
BL: We started our laptop business two decades back, and through that time, we have been recognised for gaming most of all. Along the way, that changed. I remember in 2018 when I first traveled to India, we attended a 3D developer a conference and were surprised to see around 40% of the participants there had MSI gaming laptops, instead for creating 3D and VR content. We recognised then that it is not just gamers who use our device, but also content creators, programmers, and professionals across industries. To answer your question, our line-up now holds equal importance for gaming, content creation, as well as business and productivity machines.
It is hard to imagine one device being able to do everything. That’s not really possible, but for different kind of users, we continue to optimise. Before 2010, MSI internally believed the ratio for gaming laptops as against other machines held as much as 90% weightage. Now, I’d believe gaming is approximately 60%, while the other categories make up for 40% of the portfolio. Demands from creators are increasingly important, such as a colour accurate display, for example.
Q. Speaking of strong product lines, the Claw 8 AI+ is an early mover in a rather unique combination – Windows + portable + gaming. How has the response been from customers worldwide, and how do you see that space evolving?
BL: To be honest, internally, we didn’t recognise the Claw 8 as only a gaming device. It becomes a complete PC too, and that’s because it uses the same chips as our laptops, and can be connected with an external display to work smoothly as a laptop too. We were surprised to find several content creators use it for their work. Think of it as the most powerful mini-PC at this time.
In India, there are currently limited brands that sell such a device in the market, but we are seeing a growing demand. What we have thus far is the first generation, and it’s more like an experiment for us to let people see how well it works for them. The next generation will see even more optimisation, better performance, battery life and definitely lower power consumption. People would appreciate the changes.
