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That’s a wrap!
Image Credits:Kirsten Korosec CES 2026 is over and we’re outta here. You should still expect more articles over the coming days that relate back to who we spoke to and what we saw at CES.
This was the year of “physical AI,” in which companies showed off consumer gadgets, robots, and vehicles that put AI front and center. To pull off physical AI, you gotta have compute. And so it certainly made sense that the two keynotes packed with arguably the most news were from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
Robots—specifically humanoid robots—also took center stage, including on the deal flow side of things. Hyundai, which is the majority owner of Boston Dynamics, had an exhibit filled with robots, including its humanoid Atlas. (The line to get into the Hyundai exhibit was never absent, illustrating the interest in robots.)
Finally, as transportation editor, I would be remiss not to comment on cars. CES is no longer a U.S. and European car show, a status it enjoyed for about a decade until last year. But that doesn’t mean vehicles were absent. Several Chinese automakers had exhibits, including Geely Holding, even though vehicles from this region cannot be sold in the United States.
There were plenty of transportation-related announcements and displays — even if they weren’t of the passenger car or truck variety. Autonomous vehicle technology was everywhere, from lidar companies, to startups hawking automated driving software, to industrial applications of the tech, and, of course, robotaxis.
Waymo and Zoox both had booths showcasing their respective robotaxis — and the crowds were consistent and large. Will more robotaxi operators set up shop in the Las Vegas Convention Center next year? My guess is yes and I have a few ideas of which ones will be there.
See ya next time.
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Two ways to put a close to CES 2026
Whether you want to take some time to read through a recap of all of our top CES coverage from this year’s event, or if you’d like to get a recap while tackling some chores this weekend, we have you covered.
Check out our updated rundown of the biggest news from the show right here, or take to your favorite podcast player like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or YouTube (below) to get a dose of CES analysis alongside the rest of the week’s biggest news with the Equity crew.
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Childfree Trust was one of the sleeper surprises at CES Unveiled
By far one of the most unexpected things I came across at the CES Unveiled showcase earlier this week was a new service called “Childfree Trust,” which, as it says on the tin, offers estate planning for people without children.
Some might interpret that as a provocative name, but it’s not intended to be. The idea came to founder Dr. Jay Zigmont after he spent years as a certified financial planner. He noticed that, not only do a large portion of adults — around 20% — not have children, but they also have few options if they try to manage their affairs at the end of their lives.
Childfree Trust fills that gap. Zigmont and his team have partnered with a trust company and offer power of attorney (medical and financial), and the ability to act as executor and trustee of the estate.
The goal is to not only help people who don’t have children manage end-of-life care, but also to cut down on elder abuse, all with around-the-clock support. The subscription service launched this week, and it’s one I’m eager to see play out as Zigmont tries to grow it.
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Nitro coffee gets a CES debut
XBrew Lab debuted its countertop nitro beverage machine, EverNitro, at CES this week. As reporter Lauren Forristal writes, the next machine offers nitro coffee enthusiasts a more accessible way to enjoy the drink — without the waste and expense of traditional cartridge-based machines.
Yes, CES is all about AI and robots this year. But this debut, and many others we have written about this week, is a reminder that consumer gadgets — including technologically innovative ones that lack AI fairy dust — are still a massive component of CES.
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MyCommuters is a new platform for finding the perfect office location
Image Credits:MyCommuters MyCommuters founder Guillaume Acier used to sell commercial real estate in a pretty low-tech way: He had an office with a big map of Paris that highlighted the city’s most desirable areas. This often led to company leadership picking what best suited their desires, which didn’t always line up with what was best for employees.
So Acier built MyCommuters, which pulls together a number of different datasets on how people move through a city. The platform makes it easier for companies to evaluate real estate listings based on average employee commute time and expense. The goal is to help companies find office locations that benefit both existing employees and new hires.
From there, the platform can quickly generate reports about employees’ average carbon footprint (useful for compliance or applying for government subsidies) or help companies more accurately calculate commuter benefits. Another goal is to help companies make more comprehensive plans for hybrid working.
Acier said the companies MyCommuters is already working with in France are seeing a big bump in employee morale, simply from knowing more about how their employers are considering all these factors. “It’s everything,” he said at this week’s show.
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The last day of CES 2026 is here
As folks wind down, check out of their hotels, and head home, I have a few thoughts to share.
It looks like the term “physical AI” is here to stay. For how long? Who knows. It wasn’t that long ago that I heard execs and investors use terms like “robotic AI” and “embodied AI” interchangeably. But thanks to the power and influence of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, physical AI is where the industry seems to have landed.And it is all over CES.
In case you missed it, check out our Equity podcast, which I co-host. Senior reporter Sean O’Kane, weekend editor Anthony Ha, and I chatted about the latest deals as well as our impressions and takeaways at CES 2026.
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Recapping everything we’ve seen so far at CES 2026
There’s plenty more to discover across Las Vegas, and within the depths of our live blog, but for a quick glance at some of the standout headlines from panel discussions at CES, or some of the most interesting products we got our hands on, check out our updated summary post here, including a hands-on with one of the biggest attention-getters from the show: the Clicks Communicator.
Image Credits:TechCrunch -
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The eufyMake UV printer will make you an arts and crafts god
While perusing CES’s pantheon of startups at Eureka Park, I came across Anker’s eufyMake E1 UV printer, and boy was it fun.
UV printers use UV light to print a special kind of ink directly onto objects. Basically, if you’re interested in running a business on Etsy, this is the contraption for you. The user provides the material (while I was at the exhibit, I saw phone cases, cologne bottles, coasters, water bottles, a canvas board, and a metal sheet), and the printer then etches whatever particular image or pattern onto it that you want. So if you want to make 200 coffee mugs with a picture of your cat on it, I do believe this thing can handle it.
UV printers have been around for quite a long time, but for much of their existence, they’ve been used in industrial settings and have been prohibitively expensive. This device is relatively compact, and Anker says you can preorder it for $2,299 (an on-site staffer told me it would be available later this year). It also seems relatively simple to use. It comes with a software suite, where the user can select from a variety of templates or create their own unique image to print on the surface of their choice.
EufyMake has been funding the gadget via Kickstarter and says it has already raised a whopping $46 million.
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Up close with LG’s new AI-powered home robot
Electronics giant LG announced a new bot, dubbed CLOid, that it claims will revolutionize household chores (as in, you won’t have to do them anymore). TechCrunch reporter Lucas Ropek checked out CLOid, which LG describes as an AI-powered home robot.
According to Ropek, the robot is designed to assist its user with a wide variety of domestic tasks — from folding laundry to making breakfast to patrolling a home for signs of trouble.
Read the full story here to learn more about the bot and our impressions.
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Vocci throws its hat into the note-taking ring battle
Last year, we saw companies like former Meta employee Sandbar and Pebble announce rings designed to help users take notes. While those are more for personal note-taking, Vocci is showing off a ring this year at the Consumer Electronics Show that is more of a Plaud competitor.
Image Credits:Vocci The company said the ring can take notes with up to five meters of range and eight hours of continuous recording time. The ring will also ship with a case that will charge it when you are not wearing it, giving it an extra battery boost. While the company hasn’t released the product publicly yet, it aims to open up preorders in the coming weeks and then start shipping after Q1 2026. The ring is expected to cost under $200, according to Vocci.
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CES Day 3 is here
Morning all! CES 2026 is in its third day, traditionally when many of the high-profile execs have left the event — or are in the process of leaving. That doesn’t mean there isn’t action. Eureka Park, where thousands of startups are located, is busy as ever. The Las Vegas Convention Center is hopping and its various halls are still packed with people.
A quick recap of stuff we saw and wrote about yesterday. I interviewed Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson and Hirschbach Motor Lines president Richard Stocking onstage at CES yesterday, focusing on autonomous vehicle technology and, more specifically, self-driving trucks.
Then there was news from Ford about an AI assistant and upgrades to its advanced driver-assistance system, Caterpillar CEO Joe Creed held a keynote and talked about its relationship with Nvidia and plans to use AI, AMC previewed its new show focused on Silicon Valley, Waymo rebranded its Zeekr robotaxi, and Roku founder, chairman, and CEO gave an update on the company’s new streaming channel Howdy. Plus loads more.
Follow along with all of TechCrunch’s CES coverage here.
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Gaming device maker Backbone is going beyond mobile controllers
Image Credits:TechCrunch Backbone founder and CEO Maneet Khaira is at CES showing off his company’s newer device, the Backbone Pro, and talking to partners and developers. The company isn’t yet ready to share its plans, but we can confirm they’re going to be notable. This is going to be a big year for the gaming device maker as it moves toward the next phase of its business beyond selling its mobile controllers.
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CES 2026: Follow live for the best, weirdest, most interesting tech as this robot and AI-heavy event wraps up
CES 2026, the annual consumer tech conference held in Las Vegas, is here. And lucky for you, we have TechCrunch editors and reporters on the ground to cover the news, scout out the interesting, weird, and relevant (and some not so relevant) tech, and of course the people working on it. AI has been at the center of most of the action, whether it’s Nvidia and AMD’s announcements or Amazon and Google’s push for its use in the physical world. Follow our live updates as we share all the reveals and new hardware as it happens.
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