After a year dominated by megadeals, the action is shifting to the middle market. Private equity firms are now overwhelmingly confident and planning to initiate a wave of new acquisitions, particularly in tech and financial services.
CES 2026 showcases a major transition where artificial intelligence moves out of the cloud and into physical products. The focus is on practical robotics, spatial computing, and energy independence, signaling a move from novelty to utility.
Asus is teaming up with Kojima Productions for a special edition of its ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet. The design is pure Yoji Shinkawa, with a metallic gold and black color scheme and Death Stranding-inspired details. It’s slated to launch in mid-to-late Q1 2026.
Wayland is now the standard desktop experience for several major Linux distributions. The transition happened quietly for most users, marking a decisive shift away from the older X11 architecture.
Array Labs has secured $20 million in Series A funding to produce low-cost radar satellites. The company uses clusters of small satellites to create 3D maps, day or night. They’re betting manufacturing scale can finally bring synthetic aperture radar to broader markets.
Saratoga Spring Water is making a major brand pivot. They’re moving beyond Michelin-starred chefs to pop-ups in 7-Eleven and partnerships with athletes, all leading to a new ad campaign launching January 5.
TCL is launching a new flagship TV that aims to leapfrog the RGB LED tech dominating CES. The X11L uses new quantum dots and a special filter to hit 100% of major color gamuts without crosstalk. It’s also incredibly bright and supports future Dolby Vision 2.
Enterprise adoption of Wi-Fi 7 is now accelerating rapidly after a slow start. This comes as the industry roadmap points to a Wi-Fi 8 standard arriving around 2026, with a focus on reliability over raw speed.
ASUS has partnered with XREAL to launch the ROG XREAL R1 AR glasses, targeting gamers who want a portable, large-screen experience. The specs are impressive, but the success of such wearables is far from guaranteed.
The coiner of the term “vibe coding,” Andrej Karpathy, admits the AI tools he helped pioneer are now moving faster than he can keep up with. It’s a sentiment many programmers are grappling with as AI assistants become central to their workflow.
