NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel reveal next-generation AI infrastructure while robotics companies demonstrate humanoids heading to factories and homes by 2028.
The Consumer Electronics Show 2026 wrapped up this week with tech industry leaders showcasing ambitious plans to embed artificial intelligence into everything from semiconductor architectures to household robots, signaling what executives called the dawn of "physical AI."
NVIDIA Leads with Rubin Platform and Autonomous Driving Partnership
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang opened the show with a sweeping presentation unveiling the company's Rubin platform, described as an "extreme-codesigned" AI system integrating six new chips into a unified architecture. According to NVIDIA, the Vera Rubin NVL72 rack-scale system combines 72 Rubin GPUs with 36 Vera CPUs, delivering up to a 10x reduction in inference token costs compared to its Blackwell predecessor.
"Computing has been fundamentally reshaped as a result of accelerated computing, as a result of artificial intelligence," Huang stated during his keynote at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
The platform has already secured commitments from major cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the company is building what he called the world's most powerful AI superfactories, deploying Vera Rubin NVL72 systems across next-generation facilities.
Perhaps most consumer-facing was NVIDIA's automotive announcement: a partnership with Mercedes-Benz featuring Alpamayo, a family of open-source reasoning models for autonomous vehicles. The Mercedes-Benz CLA will be the first production vehicle shipping with NVIDIA's complete autonomous driving stack, expected to launch in the U.S. this quarter with Level 2+ capabilities.
"The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here—when machines begin to understand, reason and act in the real world," Huang declared.
AMD Counters with Helios AI Server and Desktop Chips
AMD CEO Lisa Su delivered her own opening keynote hours later, unveiling the Helios AI server rack as a direct competitor to NVIDIA's offerings. Su brought a full-sized Helios rack unit onstage, describing it as the world's best AI rack—matching NVIDIA's 72-GPU configuration with AMD's MI455X chips.
Su emphasized unprecedented AI demand, predicting 5 billion people will use AI daily within five years and arguing that meeting that demand will require increasing global computing capacity by 100 times.
On the consumer front, AMD introduced its Ryzen AI 400 series processors, marking the company's first desktop chips certified for Microsoft's Copilot+ platform. The processors feature 60 TOPS XDNA 2 NPUs, exceeding Microsoft's 40 TOPS minimum requirement. AMD also showcased the Ryzen 7 9850X3D gaming CPU, targeting enthusiasts seeking higher performance.
AMD expanded into robotics by partnering with Generative Bionics to unveil the GENE.01 humanoid robot, powered by AMD CPUs and GPUs for industrial environments.
Intel Fights Back with 18A Process Technology
Intel brought urgency to its presentation, unveiling Core Ultra Series 3 processors built on its new 18A process technology—what the company described as the most advanced semiconductor process developed and manufactured in the United States.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan made a surprise appearance to confirm the chips are ramping in high-volume production, addressing concerns after reports last summer indicated yields were below 50 percent. Systems using the new processors will begin shipping January 27, with over 200 PC designs planned.
Intel claims the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H offers integrated graphics performance comparable to discrete RTX 4050 laptop GPUs, with a 76 percent improvement in gaming performance across 45 titles tested.
The company also announced a dedicated handheld gaming platform built on the new architecture, with a custom Core G3 die variant specifically for portable gaming PCs.
Robotics Take Center Stage
The show floor was dominated by demonstrations of physical AI in action. Boston Dynamics confirmed its fully electric Atlas humanoid will deploy at Hyundai's Georgia electric vehicle plant by 2028 for complex assembly roles.
Mobileye announced a $900 million acquisition of Mentee Robotics, expanding beyond autonomous vehicles into bipedal robots. LG showcased its CLOiD humanoid smart home agent using Vision-Language-Action models to perform household tasks, though demonstrations revealed the technology still faces challenges.
The Nosh robot chef, a $1,200 countertop device that cooks meals from fresh ingredients in 45 minutes, drew significant attention as a practical consumer application. SwitchBot's Onero H1 was cited as the only multi-purpose home robot with a confirmed release window this year, though pricing remains under $10,000.
Consumer Hardware Innovations
Lenovo dominated the laptop conversation with rollable displays. The ThinkPad Rollable XD concept extends vertically from 13.3 inches to 15.9 inches, while the Legion Pro Rollable expands horizontally from 16 inches to 24 inches for gaming. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist features a motorized hinge that uses AI to track users' faces and rotate the screen automatically.
Motorola unveiled the Razr Fold, a book-style foldable with a 6.6-inch outer and 8.1-inch inner display supporting the new Moto Pen Ultra stylus. The company also introduced the Moto Watch, claiming 13-day battery life, and the Moto Tag 2 tracker with 500-day battery life.
Samsung showcased the Galaxy Z TriFold, offering a 10-inch tablet hidden within a 6.5-inch smartphone form factor, though pricing is expectedto be around $2,500 based on Korean launch costs.
The show marked a clear shift from AI speculation to implementation, with technology leaders committing billions to infrastructure that brings machine intelligence into physical products ranging from data center racks to kitchen counters.
