CES 2026: AI Enters The Hardware Phase

WHAT’S INSIDE THIS SPECIAL EDITION

Top Tech News: 30–50M barrels from Venezuela; the Fed split; CA ban on AI toys

Feature: CES 2026 shows AI is moving from software stage into hardware production-ready robots, AI PCs, TVs, advancements in autonomous vehicles, and home tech.

Company Watch: xAI $20B raise at $200B+; Swap raises $100M to take on Shopify; Articul8 midway through $70M round at a $500M

Buzzy Tools: Samsung Galaxy Book 6, HP Omnibook Ultra 14, Rokid “Style” AI smartglasses, Meta Ray-Ban Display adds teleprompter + EMG handwriting.

Buzzy Tech: Atlas humanoids; Space Forge factory in orbit; solar hydrogen + more

Crypto: ETFs flipped negative; Rumble + Tether wallet; Ripple rules out an IPO

TECH NEWS TRENDING THIS WEEK

Venezuelan Oil Rush — Trump announced the U.S. will receive 30 - 50M barrels of oil from Venezuela as he plans discussions with U.S. oil firms for investments. Trump also said the defense budget should increase by 50% to $1.5 trillion next year.

Fed's Split Decision — Two-thirds of Federal Reserve regional banks voted to keep the discount rate unchanged in December, opposing a policy rate cut.

China Chip Snub — China has urged tech firms to halt orders for Nvidia's H200 AI chips amid U.S. export policy tensions, pushing for domestic alternatives.

ChatGPT Health — OpenAI unveils a tool connected to medical records and wellness apps for personalized health advice developed with 260 physicians.

AI Toys on Hold — California Senator Steve Padilla has proposed a four-year ban on AI chatbot toys for children under 18 to create time for safety guidelines.

Saudi Market Opens — Saudi Arabia has lifted restrictions on foreign investors in its equity market, removing the $500M asset requirement. to boost capital inflows.

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CES 2026: AI Enters The Hardware Phase

Sriram Muthu For The Tech Buzz

CES 2026 this week in Las Vegas has demonstrated clearly that AI in 2026 moving out of the software stage and shifting focus into hardware. Products broke mold from the prototyping stage into production-ready robots, AI PCs, TVs, advancements in autonomous vehicles, and home appliances, all shipping with new intelligence features. AI is everywhere, but instead of being a buzzword, it's more focused and becoming a quiet part of the product rather than the spotlight. 

From Apps to Machines

Hyundai and Boston Dynamics showed off the latest fully electric Atlas platform as an industrial humanoid designed for factory/warehouse duties. Atlas also moved away from earlier hydraulic designs and into a more subtle electric setup, intended to operate near people while handling lifting, carrying, and inspection tasks. The pitch here is Atlas augmenting specific repetitive tasks, removing mundane work and allowing workers to focus their attention on more important tasks.

LG also introduced CLOiD, a wheeled home robot with two arms and five finger hands, designed to integrate within the ThinQ smart home ecosystem. LG is leveraging their current infrastructure and building on top of it. CLOiD was shown in the demos handling cooking, folding laundry, and other chores, while connecting LG devices through the company’s existing app. Another home-scale humanoid counterpart was SwitchBot’s Onero H1 that uses visual, depth, and tactile sensing to handle tasks such as cleaning, moving, and basic prepwork.

Qualcomm announced DragonWing iQ10, also a humanoid robotics platform, becoming the foundation for other companies to build their own bipedal and multi-joint robots. DragonWing accomplishes this by bundling reference hardware and software for locomotion, sensing, and power management, and this is being marketed as a standardised electronics stack for new robots.

These new innovations in the Hardware/AI space are forming a new market and proving physical AI can become accessible with new humanoid robots and chip companies offering platforms to build on. These upcoming products will determine which markets robots will start transforming first, and based on the results of this year’s CES conference it seems it’ll narrow down to warehouses, retailers, and high-income households.

On-Device Compute: New Endeavor for Chipmakers

Driving many of these products are still the main drivers of the whole AI race, the chips and computing power that allow these devices to run. And now, much more will be possible as for on-device AI workloads, Intel released the Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” processors, and they’re marketing it at CES 2026 as the new foundation for AI PCs. Intel has fallen behind in the race to its competitors such as AMD and NVIDIA, it will be interesting to see this new initiative and how it plays out.

AMD focused their CES 2026 releases on new Ryzen AI parts for notebooks that emphasize generative video editing, real-time translation, and office automation through AI workflow acceleration. While, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and related Windows on Arm platforms focus on lower power draw and continuous 24/7 AI load like notification summarization and offline voice commands. Across major PC brands, AI acceleration powers sit on the spec sheet up there next to RAM and resolution standards.

NVIDIA, as expected, announced many more unique innovations across sectors. On the embedded side, platforms including DRIVE target vehicles and industrial systems, aiming to accommodate much more adequate AI workloads. While open source reasoning models such as the Alpamayo family are meant to help autonomous devices have stronger on device AI powers, and structured agentic decision marking skills. This release of open source models ties in very closely with NVIDIA’s recent endeavors including their acquisition of an AI chip competitor and inference provider Groq. Over the next few years, this move towards on-device compute is set to make considerable differences in latency, privacy standards, and 24/7 assistance.

TVs, Displays, and Home Screens in 2026

TVs remained one of the most visible categories at CES 2026, but this year the changes were more about integration than radical panel shifts. Samsung’s lineup includes new Micro RGB and Micro LED models at very large sizes, a refreshed S95H OLED, and updated Neo QLED sets. The company is stressing higher brightness, better anti‑reflection coatings, and AI‑assisted picture processing while framing its TVs as hubs for Samsung’s smart home platform.​

Samsung is also updating the Freestyle+ portable projector and expanding its audio range with Music Studio wireless speakers and new soundbars that link directly into its TV ecosystem. LG is bringing a new Wallpaper‑style W‑series OLED with an ultra‑thin panel and separate box for power and inputs, along with brighter G‑series and C‑series OLEDs that support current HDR and gaming features. TCL, Hisense, and others are broadening their mini‑LED lines with more dimming zones, higher peak brightness, and gaming‑oriented refresh rates.​

Most of these sets also double as smart home dashboards, offering camera views, device control, and status readouts alongside streaming apps. If this continues, the TV is likely to become the main shared interface for the home network, while phones and assistants handle more personal and voice‑driven control.

AI Embedded Living: Smarter Homes & Appliances

In the smart home segment, the emphasis was on systems that share context. Samsung is starting to drive a narrative of an “AI living” model where TVs, refrigerators, laundry machines, and other appliances connect to both local processing and cloud models. New refrigerators add internal cameras and recognition software for tracking items and nudging tasks like grocery shopping, while laundry machines start adjusting cycles based on what they detect inside. 

SwitchBot’s “Smart Home 2.0” layout keeps its familiar smart curtains, locks, and sensors, but includes in the new humanoid robot as a bridge to legacy devices that are not integrated in the loop. Other brands present at CES 2026 introduce targeted components such as smart ceiling lights for rooms without windows and updated bulbs with better colour accuracy and scene presets. This is essentially an extension of physical AI that we covered earlier, and again it relies on on-device compute power and the ability of these new chips. Smart home and appliance products are a very near futuristic innovation, although as always pose a significant integration challenge as security and privacy concerns will be huge, especially with the older generation. This serves to expose why on-device compute power and AI workloads are essential to increase the privacy standard and wean reliance off of current tech that is susceptible to privacy and security concerns.

Wearables, Health Devices, and Everyday Sensors

Wearables and health devices at CES 2026 mostly refine existing categories. Withings is showing Body Scan 2, a smart scale and health hub that tracks body composition and cardiovascular indicators and syncs them into its app over time. Several companies including Garmin are updating smart rings and fitness‑focused watches that focus on sleep, recovery, and stress metrics, while leaning on mobile apps and cloud dashboards for analysis.​

Audio wearables include neck‑worn speakers like JBL’s Soundgear Clips and a new wave of true wireless buds with incremental gains in noise cancellation and battery life. Multiple vendors are also showing smart glasses with built-in microphones and speakers for notifications, voice assistants, and, in some cases, basic real‑time translation. These glasses are positioned for travellers and professionals rather than mass adoption, but the underlying display and chip advances are slowly moving them toward more general use.​

If integration with health systems, employers, and insurers progresses, these devices are likely to matter less as fashion items and more as always‑on sensor platforms that sit underneath other services.

Mobility, Vehicles, and Drones

In mobility, CES 2026 continued the pattern of treating vehicles as rolling computers. Automakers and suppliers are showing EVs with large dashboard screens, built‑in assistants, and advanced driver‑assist features tied to high‑performance compute platforms like NVIDIA DRIVE. LG is demonstrating an in‑car system concept where parts of the windshield become a display for navigation, media, and commerce when autonomous functions are active.​

Nvidia revealed Alpamayo, a 10-billion-parameter AI model at CES 2026 for autonomous vehicles. This open-source model enhances reasoning capabilities, includes 1,700+ hours of driving data, and uses the AlpaSim simulation framework. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized its significance in advancing Nvidia's role in autonomous vehicle infrastructure.

John Deere showcased advancements in autonomous heavy machinery, with systems in agriculture expanding into construction. Led by Deanna Kovar, the company emphasizes efficiency and policy stability, introducing a battery-electric autonomous tractor prototype for 2026 deployment.

Sony Honda Mobility unveiled the Afeela 1 sedan and an electric SUV prototype, indicating a market launch. The Afeela 1 targets California and Arizona deliveries this year, Japan by 2027, featuring advanced driver assistance for future Level 4 autonomy.

eVTOL aircraft, delivery drones, and inspection drones were also present this week, but are still being discussed as longer‑term bets that depend on regulation and infrastructure. Over the next few years, the way these systems roll out will determine which cities see meaningful gains from autonomy first versus those that continue to rely on conventional fleets.

Beyond AI Agents: 2026 The Year of Physical AI

The common thread at CES 2026 was ultimately one of moving on from 2025: the year of agents, into the year of physical AI and on-device compute. With robots slated for factories and homes, vehicles treated as autonomous platforms, and appliances and TVs acting as front-ends for systems that sense and act in the real world. This event does not redraw the tech world in simply a week of innovation announcements, yet it is a clear signal that AI this year is shifting from application dominance to embedded in machines, spaces, and infrastructure. 

Companies To Watch

xAI's Mega Round — xAI raised $20B Series E at over $200B valuation, backed by Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, Qatar Investment Authority, Nvidia, and Cisco, to expand data centers and advance AI models.

Anthropic — Reportedly raising $10B at a $350B valuation, highlighting its rapid growth and significant impact in the AI sector.

LMArena — Raised $150M in Series A to boost its AI evaluation platform. The platform, with 50M+ votes and 400+ model evaluations, aims to enhance features and user experience amid rising demand.

Swap Commerce — The London and NY-based startup secured $100M just six months after a $40M round. It offers an AI-powered platform for brands, notably luxury clothing, to manage storefronts and transactions, challenging Shopify.

Articul8 — An Intel AI-focused spinout aiming to enhance AI systems for regulated industries has raised over half of a $70M Series B round at a $500M valuation led by Adara Ventures. Surpassed $90M in total contract value and expects $57M+ ARR.

Warner Bros. — The entertainment giant has dismissed a second $77.9B takeover bid from Paramount, instead urging shareholders to consider a $72B Netflix offer.

Buzzy Tools and Tech To Watch

Buzzy Tools

Samsung — Galaxy Book 6 series with Intel Panther Lake chips.

HP Omnibook Ultra 14 — 14-inch laptop with 3K OLED, 64GB RAM, $1,550.

Rokid — "Style" AI smartglasses support multiple AI engines 12-hr life.

Meta — Ray-Ban Display glasses add teleprompter, EMG handwriting.

Bee — Wearable AI device for conversation summarization, insights.

Acer Swift 16 — World's largest haptic touchpad; 16-inch 3K OLED display.

Buzzy Tech

Atlas Robot — Autonomous humanoid robots in Hyundai's Georgia factory.

Hyphen Automated Makelines — Chipotle, Cava invest in automated assembly.

Space Forge — Microwave-sized factory in orbit produces ultra-pure semis.

3D-Printed Light Cages — Quantum memory with room temperature photonics.

Solar Hydrogen — Plastic particles enable sustainable, cheap hydrogen production.

CRYPTO NEWS

Bitcoin ETF Outflows — U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $243M in net outflows, halting a two-day inflow streak. Fidelity's FBTC led with $312.24M in outflows, while BlackRock's IBIT gained $888M this year.

Rumble & Tether — Launched a non-custodial crypto wallet on Rumble for tipping creators with Bitcoin, USDT, and Tether Gold. Powered by MoonPay, it bypasses traditional systems, enhancing free speech and de-fi.

Ripple's IPO Stance — Ripple plans to stay private, backed by a robust financial standing and a recent $500M round. In 2025, it invested ~$4B in acquisitions.

[OPEN DEAL] WYDE’s $EAT Impact Token Special Feature

The WYDE $EAT Token Open Deal

We have been shouting from the rooftops these past few weeks about Wyoming Decentralized Exchange (WYDE), marking it as one of the key innovators we see in the crypto and blockchain sector as well as in the wider charity and impact space.

Since we first covered WYDE pre-launch in December, its first Impact Token, $EAT (End Hunger) has gone on to reach a $10M market cap at its peak, while already funding over 4000 meals for registered charities helping to combat food insecurity in the US. Here they are pitching Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong the concept, jump into the thread and help them to get his attention.

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