Before the Consumer Electronics Show officially opened on January 6, tech’s biggest annual event was already generating major headlines. Monday’s press conferences on January 5 revealed the year’s most significant announcements, with artificial intelligence serving as the overarching theme across chipmakers and consumer brands alike.
AI Takes Center Stage
Artificial intelligence proved to be unavoidable at CES 2026’s media days. NVIDIA’s keynote prioritized AI infrastructure over consumer graphics cards, with CEO Jensen Huang introducing the Vera Rubin supercomputer platform alongside updates to open AI models, robotics tools, and autonomous vehicle systems. The company made clear its vision for “physical AI” and self-driving systems as defining the future of computing.
AMD followed suit with announcements spanning cloud, PC, and edge device applications, positioning its products as more immediately relevant to devices shipping this year. The company unveiled the Ryzen AI 400 Series for next-gen AI PCs, the MI440X GPU for enterprise, and the Ryzen AI Halo developer platform, while committing $150 million to bring AI into more classrooms and communities.
Notable Product Announcements
Beyond chipmakers, several established brands made headlines:
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Sony Honda Mobility: The company showed an updated prototype of its Afeela electric vehicle with expanded delivery plans and deeper entertainment integrations including PlayStation Remote Play. AFEELA 1 deliveries to California customers are scheduled to begin in 2026.
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Lego: In a major shift, the toy company held its first-ever CES press conference to unveil Smart Bricks, which adds sensors, audio, and wireless communication to traditional Lego pieces. The system will launch with Star Wars sets later this year and functions without requiring apps or screens.
Eight companies participated in the official CES Media Days press conferences, including Bosch, Doosan Bobcat, Geely Auto Group, Hisense, Hyundai, LG Electronics, Sony Honda Mobility, and The LEGO Group.
Looking Forward
CES 2026 features more than 400 conference sessions with over 1,300 speakers taking the stage, alongside keynotes from industry leaders and government officials. The inaugural CES Foundry, a new community uniting leaders in AI and quantum computing, opened on Wednesday with two days of programming, demos, and networking.