CES is tech’s great three-ring circus, sprawling and fluorescent.
Three rings is, of course, a spectacular understatement. There are always a couple big acts (this year, Nvidia and Delta, the latter flanked by Lenny Kravitz), while companies hold dozens of press conferences opening with instrumental versions of pop songs like Dua Lipa’s “Levitating.” Thousands of exhibitor sideshows spring up featuring new TVs that look like old TVs, wearables tracking blood rushes to the head, and John Deere’s just-announced robot lawnmowers. (Aren’t all lawnmowers technically robots? Is this a grass-shaving, job-stealing Roomba?)
The Consumer Technology Association serves as invisible ringmaster, every year pitching this honking, multi-venue tent, where a distorted reality unfurls. It’s not that what you see at CES isn’t real, it’s just that it’s hard to tell what’s enduring. When you get that TV into the hands of customers, will it stay there? Will that wearable be discarded or treasured? CES is filled with fun house mirrors—what you see is the shape of something that exists, but the form it’ll take in the real world over time is achingly unclear.
I don’t mean this all as an insult, by the way, but rather as a statement of aesthetic fact. On the Las Vegas Strip, the fate of everything—from tech conferences to Guy Fieri-branded restaurants and the nightmare-fuel New York, New York roller coaster—is to become a carnival attraction.
With nine hours of holiday jet lag weighing on the front of my skull, I’m processing Sin City’s sensory overload and the first wave of CES news through my own peculiar lens. Light is confusing and diffuse, and interacting with others is a heightened agony, because if you’re me, you have the nagging sense you’re about to say something irretrievably weird. And I question my perspective on what’s weird and what’s normal as I sit inside the indoor convention center writing this and a pigeon bops across the tile floor, into a Dunkin’ Express.
And it is all a matter of perspective. CES is filled with announcements that could be small or could be world-changing: Toyota is doubling down on Japan’s space industry and its futuristic city is ready for tenants, Siemens is partnering with next-gen airline company JetZero as it pursues industrial AI, and Samsung and LG’s deluge of AI-branded TVs. And AI is, predictably, everywhere.
Perhaps I’m getting the all-you-can-eat buffet version of what it feels like to be a VC? A conveyor belt of flashy novelties all screaming for your attention and claiming to be game-changers. (As far as my capital goes though, most of my investments here will be made at the blackjack table.)
Nvidia banners are omnipresent, heralding the presence of tech’s hottest attraction, Jensen Huang. The leather-jacket wearing chip boss embodies the ultimate aspirational tech fever dream—the founder, who became a public company CEO, who became an icon. (At CES, among other things, Huang and Nvidia unveiled a new set of gaming cards, a new superchip, and its plans around physical AI. The company’s stock soared in the lead-up to the keynote.)
Looking at the Nvidia banners and the deluge of gadgets floating around, it seems fair to say: Tech and Vegas are both worlds rife with optical illusion. CES is expansive, but it’s also devoted to applied technology—what we see as a use case today, right now. When it comes to long-term change, products are fundamentally a proxy for underlying technology, right? Sure, I still buy books on Amazon, but that’s far from why the company has remade the world. Nvidia is a case in point: Huang was considered crazy for investing billions in CUDA, the project that would eventually underpin Nvidia’s AI dominance but was criticized as being “just for video games.”
To wit, the odd trick of CES is that we don’t actually know what’s asinine and what’s real, even with use cases and gadgets right in front of us. Every year, we show up by the thousands anyway, ready for the show.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- Digital Edge, a Singapore-based data centers developer and operator in Asia, raised $640 million in funding from Stonepeak and others.
- Buk, a Santiago, Chile-based HR technology company for Latin America raised $50 million in Series B funding. Headline led the round and was joined by Workday and existing investors Greenoaks and Base10.
- Matic Insurance Services, a Columbus-based insurtech platform, raised $30 million in funding from Vistara Growth.
- RoboForce, a Milpitas, Calif.-based robotic labor system developer, raised $10 million in funding from Myron Scholes, Gary Rieschel, and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Dataships, a Dublin and San Francisco-based data compliance platform for Shopify stores, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Osage Venture Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors.
- Renais, a London-based gin brand, raised £4.95 million ($6.2 million) in funding from InvestBev and Jean-Sebastien Robicquet.
- Flagright, a Singapore-based AML compliance and risk management AI platform, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Frontline led the round and was joined by existing investors Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Moonfire Ventures, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Battery Ventures acquired a majority stake in RetailNext, a Campbell, Calif.-based in-store shopping analytics provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Colibri Group, backed by Gridiron Capital, acquired Boston Institute of Finance, a Newton, Mass.-based financial planning and wealth management education provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Blackhawk Group, a portfolio company of New State Capital Partners, acquired the maintenance, repair, and overhaul business of Glendale Aero Services, a Glendale, Ariz.-based airport and aircraft services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Advent International agreed to acquire Sauer Brands, a Richmond, Va.-based condiments and seasonings brands portfolio, from Falfurrias Capital Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Altaris acquired Minaris Regenerative Medicine, an Allendale, N.J.-based cell therapy contract development and manufacturing organization, from Resonac. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- One Equity Partners acquired EthosEnergy, a Houston-based rotating equipment provider for the power, oil and gas, industrial, and aerospace markets, from John Wood Group and Siemens Energy. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Tata Consulting Engineers acquired CDI Engineering Solutions, a Houston-based engineering, procurement, and construction management firm, from AE Industrial Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Waud Capital Partners acquired Mopec Group, a Madison Heights, Mich.-based anatomic and forensic pathology equipment, technology, and services provider, from Blackford Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Yellow Point Equity Partners acquired Rextag, a Houston-based energy mapping and data solutions provider, from Hart Energy. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Zebra Technologies agreed to acquire Photoneo, a Bratislava, Slovakia-based robotic vision sensors and intelligence software provider, from Photoneo Brightpick Group. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- GrabAGun, a Coppell, Texas-based firearms and ammunition online retailer, and Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a Palm Beach, Fla.-based special acquisition company, agreed to merge in a transaction valued at $150 million.
- Elite acquired Tranch, a New York City-based invoice automation and payments platform for law firms. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- NVIDIA acquired Run:ai, a Tel Aviv-based GPU orchestration software company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Smithfield Foods, a Smithfield, Va.-based meat products producer, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. The company posted $14.2 billion in sales for the year ending Sept. 30, 2024. SFDS UK Holdings backs the company.
PEOPLE
- Hunter Point Capital, a New York City-based investment firm, added Peter Rosenbloom as managing director, head of Asia Pacific. Previously, he was at Investcorp.
- Oak HC/FT, a Stamford, Conn.-based venture capital and growth equity firm, promoted Allen Miller, Andy Smith, and Oivind Lorentzen to partner; Charlotte Black and Eliza Adams to principal; and Jade Nguyen and Maddie Hilal to vice president.
- Odyssey Investment Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, promoted Jonathan Hall and Vivian Hadis to managing principal; Paul Ampofo, Zack Coleman, Jake Gillman, and Kelly Rafkin to principal; Kyle Dedrick, Lacey Goodman, Katie Kupersmith, and Christian Pinto to vice president; and Abby Staker to senior associate.
- 645 Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm, promoted Mendy Yang and William Hess to vice president and Yasmeena Faycurry to senior associate.