Overview
- The fair opened to the public on Friday with about 1,900–2,000 exhibitors and organisers expecting roughly 220,000 visitors, turning Berlin’s Messe into a large hands-on showcase for near-term AI and robot demos.
- Chinese firms form the single largest national contingent with roughly 900 exhibitors, reflecting a shift in global device and robotics supply chains and new ecosystem plays by companies like Xiaomi.
- Humanoid and specialised robots are a major on-floor draw, with public events such as ‘Robots on the Runway’ and the RoboCup demonstrating entertainment, household and industrial tasks that remain technically impressive but often costly.
- Market data presented at the show, including NIQ analysis, say investment in high-performance datacenter chips is reducing capacity for modern consumer processors and high-speed memory, which is narrowing model choice and lifting prices for smartphones, PCs and gaming hardware.
- Wearables and AI glasses are growing fast in shipments, but privacy concerns about camera-equipped devices and complex EU rules are limiting mass adoption even as the IFA leans into lifestyle and creator programming to attract younger visitors.