Las Vegas, NV
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Robots took over the ground at the largest know-how present of the yr: I watched a towering humanoid robotic march ahead, spin its head and wave at an excited crowd. Then I nearly bumped right into a four-legged doglike robotic behind me.
They’re only a couple of the numerous robots I encountered this week designed for a variety of functions, from enjoying chess to performing spinal surgical procedure. These are widespread occurrences on the Las Vegas Convention Center’s present ground throughout CES, which wrapped on Friday. Every January, firms from all over the world collect to flaunt new applied sciences, services.
The present is simply as a lot spectacle as it’s substance; many of essentially the most eye-catching wares both haven’t come to fruition (like flying automobiles) or are wildly costly and impractical (suppose TVs that price tens of hundreds of {dollars}). But CES gives a glimpse into the bets being made by business giants like Nvidia, Intel, Amazon and Samsung.
AI as soon as once more dominated the convention. Companies confirmed off every thing from humanoid robots they declare will workers factories to fridges you may open together with your voice to the next-generation chips that may energy all of it. CES, in some methods, turned the Strip right into a bubble of its personal, shielded from AI skepticism.
NCS requested a handful of tech executives at CES about an AI bubble and the way it would possibly affect their companies. Some stated their companies aren’t related to the bubble considerations, whereas others expressed optimism about AI’s potential and stated they’re targeted on constructing merchandise that present it.
“We’re in the earliest stage of what’s possible. So when I hear we’re in a bubble, I’m like… This isn’t a fad,” stated Panos Panay, Amazon’s units and providers chief. “It’s not going to pass.”
Tech firms poured greater than $61 billion into information middle investments in 2025, in keeping with S&P Global, fueling considerations that investments could also be far outpacing demand.
And investments are solely anticipated to develop, with Goldman Sachs reporting that AI firms are estimated to take a position greater than $500 billion in capital expenditures this yr. Julien Garran, researcher and companion for analysis agency MacroStrategy Partnership, stated in a report final yr that the AI bubble is 17 times bigger than the dot com bubble.
Most of the considerations round an AI bubble have centered on investments in information facilities constructed for AI duties which might be too power-hungry for units like laptops and smartphones to deal with alone. Nvidia, the poster baby of the AI growth and the corporate at the middle of the bubble debate, announced at CES that the subsequent model of its computing platform that powers these information facilities is arriving in the second half of this yr.
When requested in regards to the AI bubble, executives from chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm pointed to their respective firms’ efforts to enhance how computer systems course of AI duties domestically moderately than in the cloud.
Qualcomm, which makes chips for smartphones and different merchandise, introduced final yr that it’s increasing into information facilities. But that represents a really small half of its enterprise.
“As far as we’re concerned, where we operate is not where the bubble conversation exists,” Akash Palkhiwala, Qualcomm’s chief monetary officer and chief working officer, informed NCS.
Intel is concentrated on merchandise which might be vital to its shoppers, like chips that increase laptop computer efficiency, moderately than making an enormous wager “that takes a lot of investment that may or may not make it,” stated its consumer computing group head, Jim Johnson.
CK Kim, government vice chairman and head of Samsung’s digital home equipment enterprise, stated in an interview by means of an interpreter that it’s not for him to say whether or not the business is in an AI bubble. He added that the corporate is extra targeted on whether or not AI is bringing worth to shoppers.
AI and the hunt for the subsequent massive factor
What that “value” appears like is precisely what the hundreds of exhibitors at CES tried to reveal this week. Humanoid robots had been an enormous half of that equation for firms like Nvidia, Intel, Hyundai and Qualcomm, all of which introduced new tech to energy human-shaped robots.
Boston Dynamics and Hyundai debuted Atlas, a humanoid robotic developed in partnership with Google’s DeepMind AI division designed for industrial work like order success. It’ll be deployed to Google DeepMind and Hyundai’s Robotics Metaplant Applications middle in the approaching months, and extra prospects will undertake it in early 2027.
“With one investment, we can explore any application in the world, from industrial use cases to retail use cases to home use cases,” Aya Durbin, who leads Boston Dynamics’ humanoid software product technique, stated in an interview at Hyundai’s sales space when requested what’s driving the curiosity in humanoid robots. (Hyundai owns a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics.)
Tech firms have additionally been chasing the subsequent massive product following the smartphone and suppose AI may very well be key to discovering it. At CES, a wave of firms launched discrete listening units that may report conversations or voice notes. These merchandise included AI jewellery from a startup referred to as Nirva, the Index 01 ring from smartwatch maker Pebble and the now Amazon-owned wristband from Bee.
Speaking to devices is usually quicker than typing, however Amazon and Nirva additionally see their units as one other means to assemble information that may present insights a few consumer’s life, although doing so will certainly elevate privateness considerations.
Business leaders appear to agree that AI is right here to remain — even for these like Pete Erickson, CEO of tech occasions and schooling firm Modev, who stated the business is certainly in a bubble.
But Erickson additionally believes AI is “just a part of our lives” now.
“I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” he stated.
NCS International’s Leif Coorlim contributed to this report.