The buzz around Jensen Huang’s keynote at CES 2025 on my company’s Slack was immediate and palpable, including commentary on Jensen’s jacket. 6000 attendees watched on as Nvidia made a slew of GPU and AI announcements, including a personal supercomputer called Digits. It was an event, and a reminder of why these kinds of things matter.

Writing about it, John Gruber says:

There’s magic in a live audience. It just matters. Taylor Swift’s record-setting stadium-filling Eras tour was a worldwide sensation because it was a shared experience between enthusiastic fans. She’d still be insanely popular if she hadn’t done that tour, but she’s more popular because she did.

This is the kind of thing that Apple used to do so well, with Steve Job’s 2007 iPhone announcement being the pinnacle of the form. Of course, Nvidia isn’t yet at the same level as Apple was, but it’s good to see live, in-person keynote events back in force.