Las Vegas, NV
Robots took over the ground at the largest expertise 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 spread of functions, from taking part in chess to performing spinal surgical procedure. These are widespread occurrences on the Las Vegas Convention Center’s present flooring throughout CES, which wrapped on Friday. Every January, corporations from world wide collect to flaunt new applied sciences, services and products.
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 vehicles) 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 employees factories to fridges you’ll be able to open together with your voice to the next-generation chips that can 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 impression their companies. Some mentioned their companies aren’t related to the bubble considerations, whereas others expressed optimism about AI’s potential and mentioned they’re centered 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,” mentioned Panos Panay, Amazon’s gadgets and providers chief. “It’s not going to pass.”
Tech corporations poured greater than $61 billion into knowledge middle investments in 2025, in line 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 corporations are estimated to speculate greater than $500 billion in capital expenditures this yr. Julien Garran, researcher and associate for analysis agency MacroStrategy Partnership, mentioned 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 knowledge facilities constructed for AI duties which are too power-hungry for gadgets 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 knowledge facilities is arriving in the second half of this yr.
When requested concerning the AI bubble, executives from chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm pointed to their respective corporations’ efforts to enhance how computer systems course of AI duties regionally fairly than in the cloud.
Qualcomm, which makes chips for smartphones and different merchandise, introduced final yr that it’s increasing into knowledge 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 targeted on merchandise which are essential to its shoppers, like chips that increase laptop computer efficiency, fairly than making a giant guess “that takes a lot of investment that may or may not make it,” mentioned its shopper computing group head, Jim Johnson.
CK Kim, government vp and head of Samsung’s digital home equipment enterprise, mentioned in an interview by 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 centered on whether or not AI is bringing worth to shoppers.
AI and the hunt for the subsequent massive factor
What that “value” seems to be like is strictly what the hundreds of exhibitors at CES tried to exhibit this week. Humanoid robots had been a giant half of that equation for corporations 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 clients 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 utility product technique, mentioned 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 corporations 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 corporations launched discrete listening gadgets that may report conversations or voice notes. These merchandise included AI jewellery from a startup known as Nirva, the Index 01 ring from smartwatch maker Pebble and the now Amazon-owned wristband from Bee.
Speaking to devices is commonly quicker than typing, however Amazon and Nirva additionally see their gadgets as one other means to assemble knowledge 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 training firm Modev, who mentioned 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 mentioned.
NCS International’s Leif Coorlim contributed to this report.