CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, with the show floor open to the public after packed days of press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony and AMD and previews from Sunday’s Unveiled event.
As has been the case for the past two years at CES, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of many companies’ messages, although the hardware upgrades and oddities that have long defined the annual event still have their place on the show floor and in the accompanying announcements. We’ll collect the biggest reveals and surprises here, though you can still catch our team’s reactions and thoughts on the ground via our live blog here.
Let’s dive right in, starting with some of Monday’s biggest players.
Nvidia Unveils AI Model for Autonomous Vehicles, Showcases Rubin Architecture
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave an expectedly lengthy presentation at CES, taking a victory lap about the company’s AI-based successes, setting the stage for 2026, and yes, along with some robots.
The Rubin computing architecture, which has been developed to meet the increasing computing demands created by the adoption of artificial intelligence, is set to begin replacing the Blackwell architecture in the second half of this year. It comes with speed and storage upgrades, but our senior AI editor Russell Brandom tackles what makes Rubin stand out.
And Nvidia continued its push to revolutionize AI in the physical world by introducing the Alpamayo family of open source AI models and tools to be used by autonomous vehicles this year. That approach, senior reporter Rebecca Bellan notes, reflects the company’s broader efforts to make Android’s infrastructure general-purpose for robots.
AMD’s keynote highlights new processors and partnerships
AMD President and CEO Lisa Su delivered the first CES keynote, with a presentation that included panelists including OpenAI President Greg Brockman, AI legend Fei-Fei Li, Luma AI CEO Amit Jain and more.
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Beyond the partner showcases, senior reporter Rebecca Szkutak laid out AMD’s approach to extending the reach of artificial intelligence through PCs using the Ryzen AI 400 series processors.
The distinct oddities of CES
Let’s face it, at this point in the show the big announcements have been made, the products have been unveiled, and it’s time to look at some of the most impressive reveals from CES. We started our list with what stood out to us as weird and noteworthy, but we’re open to more suggestions!
Highlights from the CES sessions
CES isn’t all hardware showcases and show floor attractions—there are plenty of additional industry panels and speakers that draw the eye. We watched some notable highlights, ranging from Palmer Luckey’s retro aesthetic, to why the era of “learn once, work forever” may be over, to previews of the new Silicon Valley-based series “The Audacity,” to the expansion of Roku’s $3 streaming service, to All-In bouting a $000 original Theranos device.
Ford’s AI assistant debuts
Ford is launching its assistant in the company’s app ahead of a targeted 2027 rollout in its vehicles, with hosting managed by Google Cloud and the assistant itself built using off-the-shelf LLM. As we noted in the news coverage, however, few details were offered about what drivers should expect from their experience with the assistant.
Caterpillar, Nvidia’s partner in automated manufacturing equipment
As part of the continued push for artificial intelligence’s impact on the natural world, Caterpillar and Nvidia announced a pilot program, the “Cat AI Assistant,” which was unveiled at CES on Wednesday. This system, coming to one of Caterpillar’s excavator vehicles, happens alongside another project to use Nvidia’s Omniverse simulation resources to help plan and execute construction projects.
Handling with Clicks Communicator
One of the show’s most buzzed-about reveals is Clicks’ debut phone, the $499 Communicator, which brings back BlackBerry vibes with its physical keyboard, as well as a separate $79 physical keyboard that can be used with other devices.
Check out our full recap from the show here, but the Communicator makes a good first impression, according to Consumer Editor Sarah Perez:
“In our hands-on testing, the phone felt good to hold — not too heavy or light, and it was easy to grip. Gadway told me that the company settled on the final form of the device after dozens of 3D-printed shapes. The winning design for the phone features a contoured back that makes it easy to grip and hold.
“The device’s display is also somewhat raised from the body, and its chin is curved to create an indentation that protects the keys when placed face down.”
Check out Skylight Calendar 2
This family planning tool caught our eye at the show, not only for its calendar and scheduling capabilities, but also for its AI capabilities that are able to sync calendars from different sources, create new to-dos based on messages or photos, appointment reminders, and more. See our full impressions here.
Boston Dynamics and Google collaborate on Atlas robots
Hyundai’s press conference focused on its robotics partnerships with Boston Dynamics, but the companies revealed that they are working with Google’s AI research lab rather than competitors to train and operate existing Atlas robots, as well as a new iteration of the humanoid robot that was shown on stage. Transportation editor Kirsten Korosec has the full rundown.
Amazon’s AI-focused update with Alexa+ is getting the kind of push you’d expect at CES, with the company launching Alexa.com for Early Access customers who want to use the chatbot through their browsers, along with a similar, revamped bot-focused app. Consumer editor Sarah Perez has the details, along with news on Amazon’s Fire TV refresh and the new Artline TVs, which have their own Alexa+ boost.
On the Ring front, consumer reporter Ivan Mehta takes a look at the many announcements, from fire alerts to an app store for third-party camera integration and more.
Razer joins the AI flood with Project AVA and Motoko
In the past, Razer has been dealing with ridiculous hardware at CES, from laptops with three screens to tactile toy pads in a mask that landed the company with a federal fine. This year, his two attention-grabbing announcements were about Project Motoko, which aims to work similar to smart glasses, but without the glasses.
Then there’s Project AVA, which puts the avatar of an AI companion in your office. We’ll let you watch the concept video for yourself.
The Lego Smart Bricks mark the company’s first appearance at CES
Lego joined CES for the first time to hold a behind-closed-doors showcase of its Smart Play System, which includes bricks, tiles and minifigures that can all interact with each other and play sounds, with the two debut sets having a Star Wars theme. Senior writer Amanda Silberling has all the details here.
