NVIDIA Unveils Alpamayo AI and Vera Rubin Supercomputer at CES 2026

At CES 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivered a presentation highlighting key developments in artificial intelligence and computing infrastructure. While much of the discussion served as a refresher on ongoing projects, two major announcements stood out: the launch of the Alpamayo AI model family for autonomous driving and the commencement of production for the Vera Rubin supercomputer.

The event underscored NVIDIA's ambition to dominate the autonomous vehicle sector. The company introduced specific tools aimed at solving complex driving logic, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of computational power with its new hardware architecture. Huang also used the platform to reiterate the company's long-term vision for full autonomy across all vehicle types.

NVIDIA officially unveiled Alpamayo, a family of open-source reasoning models specifically engineered to guide autonomous vehicles through difficult driving situations. The release aims to improve how self-driving cars interpret and react to unpredictable environments.

The centerpiece of this release is Alpamayo 1. According to the company, this is a 10-billion parameter chain-of-thought system capable of approaching driving tasks more like a human being would. Rather than processing raw data blindly, the model breaks down unexpected driving situations into a smaller set of distinct problems. It then analyzes these components to determine the safest path forward.

Transparency is a key feature of the system. At every step of the decision-making process, the model is capable of explaining its reasoning, providing insight into the logic behind specific driving maneuvers.

To support the development of these models, NVIDIA also introduced a sister model named AlpaSim. This tool allows developers to perform closed-loop training for driving scenarios that are rarely encountered in real life, ensuring that the AI is prepared for edge cases.

During the presentation, Jensen Huang announced a significant partnership milestone regarding the deployment of NVIDIA's automotive technology. He revealed that the 2025 Mercedes Benz CLA will be the first production vehicle to ship with NVIDIA’s entire AV stack.

This integration will include the newly announced Alpamayo reasoning models. The partnership signifies a major step in bringing advanced AI processing from data centers directly into consumer vehicles.

Huang used the announcement to outline a broad future goal for the industry. He stated, "Our vision is that someday, every single car, every single truck, will be autonomous." This quote emphasizes the company's commitment to scaling autonomous technology across the entire transportation sector.

Following the automotive announcements, NVIDIA shifted focus to high-performance computing with an update on the Vera Rubin architecture. First announced in 2024, the company confirmed that it has now begun production on a supercomputer utilizing this new technology.

The system is built around a custom Vera CPU, which features 88 custom Olympus cores and 1.5TB of system memory. The CPU alone contains a total of 227 billion transistors.

Complementing the CPU is the Rubin GPU, which features 336 billion transistors. According to the specifications provided, each Vera Rubin supercomputer unit includes a pair of both the CPU and GPU components.

The presentation also included a theatrical element, as a pair of BD-1 droids from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order joined Huang on stage, following a similar appearance by a single droid at the previous year's CES.

Despite the high interest in NVIDIA's consumer products, the CES 2026 presentation did not cover gaming hardware. Jensen Huang offered no comments or announcements regarding NVIDIA’s consumer GPUs, such as the GeForce line.

However, the possibility remains open for further news. As CES 2026 continues, there is potential for additional announcements regarding gaming technology to be made later in the event.