At CES 2026, NVIDIA’s partnership announcements were framed around platform alignment rather than finished products or near-term deployments. Across industrial infrastructure, autonomous mobility, and robotics, NVIDIA framed its collaborations around shared architectural foundations, accelerated computing, simulation environments, and AI development frameworks, leaving system design, validation, and deployment firmly in the hands of its partners.

Rather than using CES to signal readiness or commercial scale, NVIDIA used the event to outline how its technology stack is being adopted across industries that operate under complex physical-world constraints. In most cases, the announcements focused on development workflows and system integration, with operational outcomes not addressed in the CES context.

Industrial and Infrastructure Partnerships

NVIDIA’s industrial partnerships at CES 2026 centered on integrating AI and simulation into complex physical systems rather than introducing discrete automation products. These collaborations emphasized digital twins, lifecycle modeling, and AI-assisted optimization across manufacturing and infrastructure environments.

The expanded collaboration with Siemens was framed around what the companies described as an Industrial AI Operating System. An organizing layer intended to connect simulation, AI models, and operational data across design, production, and lifecycle management. NVIDIA’s role focuses on accelerated compute platforms and simulation frameworks, while Siemens contributes industrial software, automation systems, and engineering expertise. The announcement emphasized architectural alignment and tooling integration, leaving commercial availability and validated performance outside the CES narrative.

Above: a photo of the Siemens NVIDIA Keynote (Seating View) at CES 2026 in the Venetian Palazzo Ballroom. Photo by David Aughinbaugh II for CircuitRoute.

Caterpillar’s collaboration with NVIDIA highlighted the application of edge AI and simulation across heavy equipment and manufacturing operations. CES demonstrations focused on localized inference running directly on machines, paired with digital twin models used for design and factory optimization. Rather than presenting autonomous equipment as a completed capability, the companies positioned the work as part of a broader effort to incrementally extend automation and intelligence across fleets and production systems.

Hitachi highlighted NVIDIA as a key AI technology partner supporting the application of advanced AI to physical infrastructure such as energy systems, transportation and industrial operations. Hitachi described NVIDIA’s platforms as enabling perception, simulation and optimization of complex physical environments within its expanded HMAX initiative. While Hitachi’s other CES announcements also referenced cloud and cybersecurity collaborations with other partners, the NVIDIA collaboration was positioned specifically around AI and physical-world modeling rather than cybersecurity integration or product commercialization timelines.

Above: A Photo of NVIDIA Vice President of Robotics and EDGE, AI Deepu Talla, and Caterpillar CEO, Joe Creed during Caterpillar's CES 2026 Keynote. Photo by David Aughinbaugh II for CircuitRoute.

Above: A photo of Caterpillar's Cat 306 CR Mini Excavator on display using NVIDIA's Jetson Thor physical AI platform. Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall. Photo by David Aughinbaugh II for CircuitRoute.

Automotive and Autonomous Vehicle Partnerships

NVIDIA’s automotive announcements followed a consistent internal structure, beginning with autonomous driving developers building full stacks on NVIDIA platforms, then mobility network operators, and finally production vehicle manufacturers. While several of these collaborations predate CES 2026, the event served as a venue to publicly present new vehicle integrations, platform alignments, and system demonstrations built on NVIDIA’s DRIVE architecture.

Lucid, Nuro, and Uber Robotaxi

At CES 2026, NVIDIA highlighted an integrated robotaxi platform that brings together Lucid’s vehicle architecture, Nuro’s autonomous driving system, and Uber’s mobility network, with NVIDIA DRIVE serving as the underlying AI compute foundation. While the individual relationships between these companies were established prior to the show, CES marked the first public presentation of the combined system as a production-intent vehicle platform.

The robotaxi demonstration emphasized how NVIDIA’s DRIVE architecture supports the consolidation of perception, planning, and decision-making workloads within a single compute stack, enabling tighter integration between vehicle hardware, autonomy software, and fleet-level operations. NVIDIA positioned its role squarely at the platform level, providing standardized AI compute and software infrastructure while leaving autonomy development, vehicle engineering, and service deployment to its partners.

Above: a photo of NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion with Lucid, Nuro, and Uber on display at CES 2026. Photo by David Aughinbaugh II for CircuitRoute.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz publicly showcased its MB.DRIVE ASSIST PRO system integrated into the all-new CLA, marking the debut of an advanced driver-assistance capability built with NVIDIA’s AI and computing infrastructure. Mercedes says the MB.DRIVE system was developed in partnership with NVIDIA, and NVIDIA is described as the global partner providing its full-stack DRIVE AV software and accelerated DRIVE AGX compute platform for the next generation of driver assistance technology.

NVIDIA’s own CES announcement confirmed the DRIVE AV software is entering Mercedes-Benz production vehicles with enhanced Level 2 point-to-point assistance, beginning with the CLA in the United States later in 2026.

Above is a photo of the NVIDIA Drive Mercedes-Benz CLA MB.DRIVE ASSIST PRO at CES 2026. Photo by David Aughinbaugh II for CircuitRoute. 

Robotics and Physical AI

Robotics partnerships at CES 2026 were grouped under NVIDIA’s broader Physical AI framework, centered on simulation-first development and embodied intelligence across a range of robot form factors and application domains. Rather than announcing a single partnership model, NVIDIA used CES to highlight how its AI and simulation platforms are being adopted within diverse robotics development pipelines.

Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind

Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind announced a CES partnership focused on applying large-scale AI models to humanoid robotics. While NVIDIA did not announce a new partnership with Boston Dynamics at CES 2026, NVIDIA’s CES Physical AI release cited Boston Dynamics among developers that have integrated its newly introduced Jetson Thor platform into existing humanoid systems. In this context, NVIDIA’s role was positioned as a compute infrastructure supporting training and development workflows, rather than as a provider for an end-to-end robotic platform.

AgiBot

AgiBot introduced its Genie Sim 3.0 simulation platform at CES, describing it as a system for training humanoid robots in virtual environments prior to physical deployment. The company explicitly referenced NVIDIA’s simulation and compute platforms as part of its development workflow, positioning NVIDIA as a foundational infrastructure rather than a runtime control provider. The focus remained on development efficiency and capability validation.

Franka Robotics

Franka Robotics showcased industrial and research manipulators using NVIDIA’s embodied AI models and simulation tools. The collaboration emphasized developer workflows and research environments, with NVIDIA’s GR00T and Isaac platforms supporting skill learning and system validation. CES demonstrations highlighted technical capability rather than commercial rollout.

LEM Surgical

LEM Surgical was featured in NVIDIA’s exhibition area as part of the company’s physical AI showcase, highlighting its Dynamis Robotic Surgical System. The system is described by LEM as the world’s first surgical humanoid optimized for spinal and orthopedic procedures. According to LEM Surgical’s CES announcement, the system has received FDA 510(k) clearance for specific indications and is currently in clinical use, positioning its CES appearance as a commercially deployed medical robotic platform rather than a prototype.

LEM Surgical’s press materials state that the Dynamis system incorporates NVIDIA technologies, including the Jetson Thor robotics computer and NVIDIA healthcare-focused AI and simulation frameworks, to support perception, coordinated multi-arm control, and physical AI-driven robotic workflows.

Hugging Face

NVIDIA also highlighted its collaboration with Hugging Face as part of the Physical AI ecosystem at CES 2026, focusing on open-source robotic models, tooling, and frameworks. NVIDIA’s press materials noted that Hugging Face’s open-source humanoid Reachy 2 will be interoperable with the NVIDIA Jetson Thor robotics computer, enabling developers to run vision-language-action (VLA) models and other open robotics workflows on accelerated edge hardware. Similarly, the open-source Reachy Mini tabletop robot is compatible with NVIDIA DGX Spark, allowing custom robotics experiences using NVIDIA’s large-language and vision models in combination with physical agents.

In addition, NVIDIA has worked to integrate its Isaac and GR00T tech into Hugging Face-hosted robotics frameworks like LeRobot, helping developers fine-tune and evaluate open models within familiar open-source environments. The presence of these interoperable tools and example robots reflects a broader ecosystem orientation, enabling community-driven robotics development with NVIDIA compute and models rather than proprietary, closed stacks.

CES 2026 Partnership Overview

Across NVIDIA’s CES 2026 partnership announcements, the company consistently framed its role as providing shared compute platforms, AI models, and simulation environments, stopping short of presenting finished systems or deployment commitments. In industrial and infrastructure contexts, collaborations with companies such as Siemens, Caterpillar, and Hitachi emphasized digital twins, lifecycle modeling, and AI-assisted optimization of complex physical systems, with CES demonstrations focused on tooling integration rather than validated operational outcomes in live environments.

In automotive and autonomous mobility, NVIDIA’s disclosures centered more directly on runtime autonomy stacks and vehicle integration. CES served as a venue to present how established partnerships with Lucid, Nuro, Uber, and Mercedes-Benz are converging around NVIDIA’s DRIVE architecture, highlighting production-intent vehicle platforms, advanced driver-assistance systems, and on-road testing and validation milestones, while leaving deployment timelines and service operations with partners.

Robotic partnerships were presented under NVIDIA’s Physical AI framework, with a consistent focus on simulation-first development, embodied AI models, and reuse of shared platforms across diverse robotic domains. Across humanoid systems, industrial manipulators, medical robotics, and open-source research platforms, NVIDIA’s role was positioned as enabling training, validation, and system development through compute and simulation infrastructure, rather than directing deployment behavior or operational control.

Taken together, NVIDIA’s CES 2026 partnerships reflected the growing role of AI technologies across a wide range of industries and applications. Collectively, the announcements offered a clear view into how those technologies are being integrated into complex, real-world systems today.