Wedbush says AI revolution moves into focus at CES as consumer moment nears
Wedbush expects CES this week in Las Vegas to underline a pivotal shift in artificial intelligence, with the technology moving beyond infrastructure and enterprise use cases towards consumer-facing products, robotics and physical AI.
The tech-focused investment bank argues that CES opens with a clear focal point: the keynote from Jensen Huang. In the bank’s view, Nvidia remains at the heart of the artificial intelligence ecosystem and is increasingly being treated as the “backbone” of the AI revolution.
The note highlights expectations that Huang will concentrate on data centres, physical AI and robotics, as well as updates around Nvidia’s Cosmos platform. Wedbush describes these developments as critical to the next phase of AI, where systems are designed not only to generate text or images but to interact with the physical world through autonomous machines and intelligent devices.
From enterprise build-out to consumer adoption
According to Wedbush, the dominant AI story over the past two years has been enterprise infrastructure, with hyperscalers and large organisations investing heavily in compute, networking and software. CES, however, is expected to showcase the early stages of what the bank calls the “consumer AI moment”.
The note points to robotics, smart glasses, digital health devices and intelligent consumer electronics as areas where AI is beginning to surface in everyday products. Wedbush views this transition as a key inflexion point, widening AI’s total addressable market well beyond data centres and corporate software.
Capital spending remains the key driver
Wedbush reiterates its belief that the AI cycle is being fuelled by an unprecedented wave of capital expenditure. The bank estimates that between $3 trillion and $4 trillion of global spending could be directed towards AI infrastructure and applications over the next three years.
This investment is not limited to US technology giants. Wedbush notes that CES has become a meeting ground for global technology leaders, with significant participation from companies across Asia, including China and Korea. In the bank’s assessment, this underlines both the scale of the opportunity and the intensity of global competition around AI.
AMD and the broader chip ecosystem
While Nvidia dominates Wedbush’s AI thesis, the note also flags Lisa Su and Advanced Micro Devices as important contributors to the CES narrative. Wedbush expects AMD’s presence at the show to reinforce the role of advanced semiconductors in supporting AI workloads across PCs, servers and emerging edge devices.
The bank frames the semiconductor sector as the critical foundation of the AI era, comparing high-end chips to strategic commodities in the digital economy. Control over compute capacity, in Wedbush’s view, remains the defining competitive advantage.
Robotics, vehicles and China’s growing visibility
Wedbush also draws attention to the increasing prominence of Chinese technology companies at CES, particularly in robotics and smart vehicle technologies. The note references flying car concepts and advanced robotics platforms as evidence that innovation is becoming more globally distributed.
For Wedbush, this trend reinforces the idea that AI is moving rapidly into physical applications, where success depends on execution, integration and real-world performance rather than model size alone.
A defining CES for a multi-decade shift
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Overall, Wedbush describes this year’s CES as one of the most important in decades. The bank characterises artificial intelligence as the largest technology transformation in more than 40 years and stresses that the industry is still in the early innings of adoption.
If earlier CES events were about laying the groundwork for AI, Wedbush believes this week’s show will demonstrate how that groundwork is translating into tangible products and commercial opportunities, setting the tone for the next phase of the AI revolution.
