CES 2026 kicked off with a spectacular display of technological innovations, featuring key figures from the tech industry, including AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su. In her keynote address, Su advanced the conversation to showcase the cutting-edge developments in computing technology. She stressed the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) as it relates to our future. The event featured dazzling guest performances including OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Dr. Fei-Fei Li, co-founder of World Labs. Plenty of other big names joined in as well.
The excitement in the air at CES 2026 was palpable. Attendees clamored to see the newest advances in smart technology and robotics. The event featured a variety of presentations and demonstrations, leading to discussions about the future of computing and its implications across industries. Creative firms such as BirdBuddy and Birdfy added a fun, interactive touch to this year’s exhibit hall. They launched phenomenal new products that helped them generate serious buzz and interest from everyone attending the event.
Keynote Highlights from Lisa Su
Lisa Su’s keynote address was a focal point of CES 2026, where she delivered insights into AMD’s vision for the future of technology. She emphasized the importance of AI, declaring it “the most important technology of the last 50 years,” and confirmed that it remains AMD’s top priority.
“AI is the most important technology of the last 50 years, and I can say it’s absolutely our number one priority at AMD.” – Lisa Su
Su discussed how AI is beginning to permeate all sectors, from healthcare to manufacturing. She expressed optimism about its potential, stating that “AI is going to be everywhere over the next few years” and stressing that it should be accessible to everyone.
“It’s already touching every major industry, whether you’re going to talk about health care or science or manufacturing or commerce, and we’re just scratching the surface, AI is going to be everywhere over the next few years. And most importantly, AI is for everyone.” – Lisa Su
In responding to the challenges that AI development presents, she hit squarely on Greg Brockman’s worries about computational needs. Su recognized that the industry has a responsibility to address increasing compute needs just to stay ahead of innovation.
“Now, I would say, I think every single time I see you, you tell me you need more compute.” – Lisa Su
The Call for More Compute
OpenAI CEO Greg Brockman joined us on stage during Su’s keynote, discussing his view on the urgent need for increasingly powerful computational capabilities. He envisioned a world in which every person could experience the transformative capability of high-end computing power.
“The world is going to require far more compute than we have right now.” – Greg Brockman
Brockman expressed his aspiration for universal access to GPUs (graphics processing units), recognizing their potential to deliver significant value across various applications. He emphasized the monumental scale needed to fulfill this demand.
“Like, I would love to have a GPU running in the background for every single person in the world, because I think it can deliver value for them, but that’s billions of GPUs. No one has a plan to build that kind of scale.” – Greg Brockman
Famed AI researcher Dr. Fei-Fei Li further punctuated the conversation by speaking to the need for high-speed computation to power AI applications. In response to particular aspects of generative AI, she commented about the unseen difficulties involved in creating new models and features.
“What you don’t see here behind the scene is how much computation and why inference speed really matters.” – Fei-Fei Li
Brockman described the internal battle organizations go through when first adopting new technologies. Now paired with government funding, compute limitations are the major bottleneck to their progress,” he stressed.
“Every time we want to release a new feature, want to produce a new model, we want to bring this technology to the world, we have a big fight internally over compute because there are so many things we want to launch and produce for all of you that we simply cannot, because we are compute constrained.” – Greg Brockman
Showcasing Innovative Products
The event showcased hundreds of groundbreaking products set to revolutionize and improve daily life thanks to technology. Among them was BirdBuddy, which introduced its latest smart bird feeders: BirdBuddy 2 and BirdBuddy 2 Mini. At $199 and $129 respectively, these feeders are meant to fascinate users with the wonders of nature, all while appealing to our high-tech hearts.
Birdfy introduced a smart hummingbird feeder with 4K video and slow-motion features. This array of products is a positive indication that the trend towards smart home devices that integrate technology with environmental stewardship is gaining momentum.
Amidst these product launches, AMD sponsored a hack-a-thon in collaboration with Hack Club, encouraging students’ creativity and innovation in tech development. Su hand-delivered $20,000 education grants to many of the exceptional students’ teams to achieve on the occasion.
The event featured a really cool robot vacuum that functions as a home fragrance dispenser. This two-in-one device reinvents the traditional air freshener, presenting users with three unique scent experiences, with refill subscriptions for ongoing use. This creativity is a sign of increasing interest in multifunctional kitchen appliances to promote health and climate.
Speaking during her keynote address, Su also introduced a new server design explicitly optimized for high-performance computing. This wonderful double-wide rack was born from a partnership with Meta.
“This is no regular rack, okay. This is a double wide design based on the OCP open rack wide standard developed in collaboration with Meta, and it weighs nearly 7,000 pounds.” – Lisa Su
Vibe, a startup financed by HSG, caused a stir at CES 2026. To do that, they released an innovative new physical bot, complete with a camera. This milestone is a harbinger of things to come, where robotics will be deeply interwoven into our daily lives at home and work.
