Jensen Huang’s CES keynote: real hardware or another AI pep rally?

I’ll be blunt: I’m tired of glossy keynotes that promise the future while delivering slide decks full of marketing. NVIDIA’s CES 2026 slot matters more than most — investors will be watching as closely as developers. If Jensen Huang gives me a concrete Blackwell successor roadmap or real, measurable hardware demos, I’ll be excited. If it’s just more AI branding slapped on racks of GPUs, I’ll keep my skepticism.

There are real things that could change the market this year: generational process wins, power/performance leaps, and software advances that make GPUs easier to deploy in production. But I want data — clocks, power envelopes, memory bandwidth, and actual deployment stories from partners, not vaporized PR language about “AI everywhere.”

What I’ll be watching live and why it matters:

• Blackwell successor details: architecture, node, expected performance uplift vs current Blackwell; timelines that match shipping windows.
• Real demos: robotics and simulation cases that run on production stacks, with open benchmarks and partner validations.
• Power efficiency: real watt/performance numbers — not percent‑claims without context.
• Software & ecosystem: CUDA/tooling updates, deployment tools, and partner integrations that reduce infrastructure friction.

Red flags that make me tune out: vague AI platitudes, demos that can’t be reproduced outside the booth, claims without spec sheets, or products that sound cool but have no shipping plan. Investors love hype — I want engineering.

For the official stream and timing, see NVIDIA’s CES page: NVIDIA CES 2026 keynote and Engadget’s preview coverage: Engadget — How to watch NVIDIA at CES 2026.

My Verdict: I’m cautiously interested. NVIDIA can still move markets with real hardware wins — but I’ll only believe it when I see specs, timelines and reproducible demos. Will you be watching for chip details, software tooling, or the usual AI dazzlers?