At CES 2026, Nvidia pushes ‘physical AI’ and says its Vera Rubin platform is in production; AMD unveils new Ryzen AI chips

From chatbots to machines: ‘physical AI’ takes center stage

CES 2026 put a spotlight on what Nvidia calls “physical AI,” a push to train AI models in simulated environments using synthetic data and then deploy them into real-world systems like robots and vehicles. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described tools intended to help models learn the rules of physics and environment interaction, positioning the approach as a pathway from digital assistants to autonomous machines that can safely operate outside the data center.

The theme aligns with a broader industry shift: companies want AI that can do more than generate text or images, and instead can perceive, plan, and act in complex settings such as factories, warehouses, and roadways. That ambition drives demand for both new model architectures and specialized compute platforms.

Vera Rubin platform and partnerships

Huang said Nvidia’s next-generation AI superchip platform, dubbed Vera Rubin, is in full production, and he also pointed to new partnership activity — including a tie-up with Siemens — as Nvidia seeks to deepen its role in industrial and enterprise deployments. The announcements are part of Nvidia’s effort to stay ahead as competitors and major customers expand their own chip plans.

Alongside the platform talk, Nvidia showcased model efforts framed as foundational building blocks for simulation and robotics, reinforcing the idea that the next wave of AI competition will be fought across hardware, software, and integrated systems.

AMD targets the AI PC wave

AMD CEO Lisa Su announced a new line of Ryzen AI processors as the company pushes deeper into AI-powered personal computers. That market has become a strategic battleground as PC makers add dedicated AI features and as enterprise buyers look for local inference capabilities for privacy, latency, and cost reasons.

For consumers, the practical question is which workloads truly benefit from on-device AI acceleration. For chipmakers, the stakes are larger: AI features are increasingly a primary reason to upgrade hardware, and platform ecosystems formed now can set multi-year competitive positions.

• CES 2026 theme: Nvidia emphasizes ‘physical AI’ and simulation-driven training.
• Nvidia update: Vera Rubin platform described as in full production; Siemens partnership highlighted.
• AMD update: new Ryzen AI processors aimed at the AI PC market.