There were plenty of AI announcements at CES 2025 and while some were charming -- like the robot vacuum that can pick up dirty socks, or TVs that can generate recipes -- none of them has the power to transform society like Nvidia. Calling Nvidia the chipmaker powering the AI revolution is no overstatement, which is why its Cosmos AI model won the official Best of CES award not only for AI, but for the entire show. The CNET Group, which is made up of CNET, PCMag, ZDNET, Mashable and Lifehacker, is the official awards partner for CTA, which puts on the annual mega tech show.
Back to the robot for a moment: If Roborock and Dreame are making home tech cleaning helpers that use AI to identify clutter that doesn't belong and ledges to "climb" over with their respective robot arms and legs, then Nvidia is the engine that is openly releasing models to allow robots like these to function in the real world.
Not solely robots, either. Also smart glasses to process speech and images in the surrounding world and in cars -- Nvidia and Toyota have already inked a deal to use the Cosmos AI model to train cars. (The company also released powerful new graphics cards.)
As ZDNET Editor-in-Chief Jason Hiner put it, "Nvidia Cosmos demonstrates the biggest and boldest ambition we've seen at CES 2025 for how technology could help people and communities in the years ahead."
Earlier this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took the stage to unveil Cosmos, the foundational AI model that helps robots and autonomous vehicles understand the physical world, calling it "the ChatGPT moment for robotics."
Huang also announced a new chip named Thor for cars and trucks that uses AI to process visual information coming in from cameras and lidar sensors to lead the way in Level 4 autonomous driving. And he revealed the 50-series lineup of gaming and laptop GPUs that promises to deliver massive leaps in performance and "breakthroughs in AI-driven rendering" at a lower cost than the 40 series (in most cases).
CES is the largest consumer technology show in North America. Held annually in Las Vegas, it brings in the world's top tech makers to show off devices and concepts that may or may not ever reach consumers. It's also a way for smaller companies to get in front of the press and fans to demo what they've been working on. AI was the major trend last year. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, it showed general consumers what generative AI was capable of. What followed were all the major tech companies releasing AI products of their own and seeing stock valuations jump in the process.
Now, seemingly every company is wanting to integrate AI into its products in some fashion as a way to court investor and consumer interest, even as consumers shrug at AI-powered iPhones. Amidst the miasma of AI goop flowing through the showrooms in Las Vegas, the iterative remixes of existing AI tech can sometimes end up having a snake-oil-like quality.
But people chose to stand in long lines to see Huang, who has achieved tech celebrity status in his own right. His quirky announcement videos attract millions of views and his down-to-earth demeanor, plus his adornment of leather jackets, make him a likable hawker of cutting-edge gaming graphics. And it's paying off for Nvidia.
In early January of 2023, Nvidia stock hovered around $15. With the AI revolution, companies have been scrambling to buy Nvidia chips over the past two years to power their servers. After Huang's keynote on Monday, the stock hit record highs above $150 before cooling off a bit, but still representing about a tenfold increase in just two years.
It's also worth noting how Nvidia's tech has seemingly pushed aside other players in the GPU space. Nvidia is so heavily dominating the GPU market that AMD and Intel have been relegated to competing in the midrange category. AMD did announce a series of new midrange GPUs, but changed the naming convention to better match Nvidia. For example, the AMD RX 9070 is taking clear shots at the 5070 cards, making it easier for consumers to compare the two. Intel just recently entered the dedicated GPU card market after failing to meet the moment on the CPU space against Qualcomm, AMD and Nvidia. But it's only trying to carve out a space in the budget GPU category.
Thankfully, this past year has shown that AI hype can only go so far. AI wearables failed to impress and the market cooled on throwing billions at companies releasing AI-polka-dotted press releases. Next year's CES will likely have its fair share of AI bloat, most of which will likely be met with yawns -- maybe it should be renamed as Nvidia Greenlight.
For the best of CES 2025, check out our must-see products from the show and the most innovative products that you can actually buy now.