The official of CES released AI trends: Hardware will become the core carrier for AI implementation.
The countdown has begun for CES 2026, which will be held from January 6th to 9th, 2026, in Las Vegas, USA.
Since its inception in 1967, the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), which has been around for nearly 60 years, has long become the annual event for the global consumer electronics industry and the primary barometer of the global technology industry.
In the previously published CES 2026 "Ultra-Preview" article on the whole network, Lei Technology predicted that AI will still be the core theme throughout this year's exhibition, without a doubt.
Recently, AI giants such as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Baidu have all released information about AI hardware. Hardware has become an inevitable part of AI implementation, and it's no exaggeration to say that it is the core carrier for AI to enter various scenarios. Since consumer electronics, especially hardware, has always been a highlight of CES, we can always see the latest trends in the combination of AI and hardware at each year's CES.
Today, the members of Lei Technology's CES 2026 reporting team received a themed email from CTA (Consumer Technology Association) titled "Meet CES Foundry".
(Image source: CTA)
In the "Meet CES Foundry" themed email received by Lei Technology, the CTA official stated in the first sentence the biggest theme of CES 2026: "AI has been showcased at the CES exhibition for many years, but this year it will become the 'absolute focus'." At CES 2026, there won't be parameter battles or benchmark rankings among large models. What's more worthy of attention is how AI technology can be integrated into different hardware products and industrial scenarios, and how it can bring about experiential changes for end-users (including individual consumers and enterprises)?
Why will AI become the "absolute focus" at CES 2026?
CES Foundry is an innovative exhibition setup launched by CTA to fully embrace the new AI era.
From January 7th to 8th, 2026, CES Foundry will be held at the Fontainebleau Hotel, just a few steps away from the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. There will be two immersive discussions, a series of new technology demonstrations and new product showcases, industry exchange meetings, etc. The detailed topics for group discussions, fireside chats, and thought leader dialogues include "The Future of the AI Industry in the United States", "The Future of Leadership in the AI Era", "From Concept to Reality: How Creative People Use AI to Turn Great Ideas into Reality", "The Real Rewards of AI: Finding the Next Winner", etc.
It's worth noting that although Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, will be absent from CES 2026 (he was the keynote speaker at CES 2025), major companies like NVIDIA will take the stage at the new CES Foundry, which shows their emphasis on cutting-edge AI + hardware technologies, applications, and products. Similarly, it's highly anticipated what new AI technologies and products NVIDIA and other major companies will showcase at the new CES Foundry stage.
Partial list of companies taking the stage at CES Foundry (Source: CTA)
So, how to understand the word "Foundry" in CES Foundry? Lei Technology believes that the CTA official is emphasizing the core role of this new stage: to transform the powerful potential of AI technology and applications into tangible real-world technological and product achievements, which corresponds to the abstract meanings of "foundry", "cradle", and the extended meaning of "innovation workshop" associated with this word.
CES gathers technology industry practitioners, exhibitors, media, and analysts from around the world. They can use the newly built Foundry stage at the exhibition to watch the latest AI technology demonstrations and product showcases, exchange new ideas and progress, especially from the perspective of AI + hardware, thus contributing to the development of the global AI and technology industries in the new year.
Of course, the AI applications and product showcases at CES 2026 are not limited to the newly established Foundry stage. At CES 2026, AI will not only permeate every corner of the venue but also cover smart glasses, PCs, mobile phones, wearables, toys, home appliances, humanoid robots and bring breakthroughs in many fields such as healthcare, transportation, entertainment, and retail. It is also the key link connecting the breakthrough innovations in all industries at the venue.
After CES fully embraces the AI + era, technologies and software applications in the AI field, such as multimodal large models, physical AI, world models, embodied intelligence, and edge AI, will also become new highlights on this grand stage.
The keynote speeches reveal the secrets, and the trend of AI implementation is clear
As the most important speech session of each CES, the CTA has officially announced that eight industry leaders and opinion leaders, including Siemens, Caterpillar, AMD, and Lenovo, will give keynote speeches at CES 2026, and AI will also be the common theme of concern for these industry leaders.
(Image source: CTA)
1. The large-scale implementation of industrial AI applications will become a new growth pole for the industry.
In his keynote speech at CES 2026, Roland Busch, the President and CEO of Siemens, will focus on showcasing Siemens' innovative achievements in the fields of AI, digital twin, and automation technology, explaining how these technologies can drive changes in the real world and lead the manufacturing, infrastructure, and transportation sectors into a new era empowered by AI. He will also explain how to rely on data resources, industry knowledge, and partner ecosystems to promote the large-scale implementation of AI in the real world.
In Siemens' view, industrial AI applications will be a "century-level" opportunity for industrial development. As a pioneer and promoter in this niche AI application field, Siemens said that it is "injecting intelligence into every machine, every device, and every infrastructure", covering various scenarios such as factories, buildings, power grids, and transportation.
(Image source: Siemens China)
At WAIC 2025 (2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference), Xiao Song, the Chairman, President, and CEO of Siemens (China), explained in detail the industrial AI applications that Siemens is vigorously promoting.
It is reported that more than 1,500 AI experts at Siemens are collaborating with customer teams and global AI leading companies. Relying on Siemens' rich multimodal industrial data and profound industry knowledge and experience, they are accelerating the research and development of industrial basic models and using them as the foundation to empower more vertical models and applications focusing on niche scenarios, thus accelerating the large-scale implementation of industrial AI.
Betting on the era of industrial AI applications, Siemens even acquired two software companies, Altair and Dotmatics, with a total value of $15 billion, further expanding its AI capabilities in key fields such as data science, electromagnetic simulation, and biomedicine.
Similarly, Joe Creed, the CEO of Caterpillar, who will also give a keynote speech, will talk about how this century-old industrial leader is integrating AI, machine learning, and autonomous operation technologies to redefine the capabilities of heavy machinery.
2. The "three-way battle" among AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel will accelerate the construction of the "full-stack AI capabilities" basic platform.
Dr. Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, will represent AI chip and whole-machine platform companies and give a keynote speech at CES 2026.
In her keynote speech at CES 2026, Dr. Lisa Su will showcase how AMD's CPUs, GPUs, and AI solutions drive the intelligent transformation from the cloud to the edge and provide the necessary computing power to address global complex challenges.
According to reports, AMD will showcase its 3D V-Cache chip stacking technology and new APU (integrated CPU and GPU) products at CES 2026 to consolidate the technical advantages of its AM5 platform. The expected Ryzen AI 400 "Gorgon Point" is said to have up to 12 Zen 5 cores and an enhanced NPU, ensuring that new ultra-thin laptops launched in 2026 will not be limited by the new Copilot+ product threshold in terms of AI computing power.
It should be noted that at CES 2026, AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel will not just showcase a few new products or technologies but will present their comprehensive and three-dimensional AI platform strategies for the new year.
(Image source: Internet)
As leaders in the AI chip and whole-machine platform fields, AMD and Intel will also compete with NVIDIA on the key stage of building the "full-stack AI capabilities" basic platform.
3. Lenovo takes the spotlight, and hardware manufacturers intensively release new AI strategies.
At CES 2026, a grand showcase, not only will Yang Yuanqing, the Chairman and CEO of Lenovo, give a keynote speech, but Lenovo will also bring its Lenovo Tech World to Las Vegas.
During CES 2026, Lenovo will hold its highest-ever specification innovation technology conference at the Sphere, a landmark building in Las Vegas.
(Image source: Lenovo)
According to Yang Yuanqing, during CES 2026, Lenovo will show the audience how Lenovo's AI technology "profoundly" affects F1 races, the plans for the first FIFA World Cup event driven by AI technology in 2026, how to create a "hyper-personalized" Agent intelligent native experience for individuals, and how to unleash the advantages of Lenovo's platform integrating AI technology for enterprise customers.
In addition to Lenovo, at CES 2026, it is also worth looking forward to what AI technologies, applications, products, and strategies Midea, Hisense, TCL, Changhong, Haier and other domestic hardware giants will showcase.
Will the new AI hardware species stage a comeback after the pioneers became martyrs?
In previous years' CES, new form hardware products such as Rabbit R1 and AI Pin, which are equipped with AI large model technologies, were once popular and were more fashionably called "new AI hardware species".
Lei Technology recently reported that Rabbit, a former star company at CES, has been rumored to have unpaid salaries for several months, and some employees and outsourcing teams have gone on strike.
(Image source: Rabbit)
Against the backdrop of companies like Rabbit going from "pioneers" to "martyrs", Lei Technology still believes that more "new AI hardware species" will emerge at CES 2026. Perhaps we can call them native AI hardware categories. It's hard to imagine what product forms they will take for now, and we can wait for Lei Technology's CES reporting team to reveal the answer in a month.
In the popular creative hardware field in the past two years, Insta360, a rival of DJI, which usually doesn't attend CES, has confirmed its participation in CES 2026. At CES 2026, Insta360 will at least showcase new products such as the Antigravity A1 drone. It will be a highlight to see what AI technologies and capabilities are applied to its first drone and whether it can gain the favor of the North American consumer market. The wireless microphone brand HOLLYLAND Mammoth upgraded its global brand this year and will debut with a new image at CES 2026. It's worth looking forward to what new AI technologies will be adopted in its new technologies and products.
Lei Technology also noticed that among the announced list of CES 2026 Innovation Award products, the number of winners in the AI category is the largest.
(Image source: CTA)
Among the 343 Innovation Award winners at CES 2026, there are many well-known products, such as Anker's power banks, Dreame's robotic vacuum cleaners, Lenovo's convertible laptops, AfterShokz/TempoTalk's earphones, and of course, chips from Qualcomm, Samsung, AMD, and ASUS's AI PCs.
(Image source: Lei Technology)