AMD vs. NVIDIA: Dueling CES Keynotes

By Rob Enderle, Enderle Group

CES is back. From the look of things, attendance is much stronger than it was last year, even though concerns about the latest Covid 19 variant have kept folks like me away again. What interested me early on was the contrast between NVIDIA's and AMD's keynotes. For once, NVIDIA’s CEO was absent (except as a virtual avatar) and the keynote was canned (and streamed). The AMD keynote was led by its CEO in person with an audience and was promoted by CES leadership.

Let’s contrast the two events and how the two once-similar companies are starting to significantly diverge in terms of focus and strategy. We’ll take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each unique approach.

NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s keynote was delivered before CES actually opened, it was not sanctioned or supported by CES and it was streamed. Advantages to this approach are that it came before any of its competitors presented, thus setting the tone and, by going first and outside of the wave of announcements that would follow, it would likely be better remembered than pitches buried in the mass that was to come.