IFA (*), Europe’s largest consumer electronics trade fair opened its doors on September 4 at Messe Berlin, and the most telling detail was not what filled the halls but what left them. For the first time since 1991, Samsung vacated the main exhibition space, relocating to Humboldt Carré, a venue eight kilometers from the fairgrounds, to focus on trade and media audiences rather than the general public. The company remains present, with Bespoke AI appliances featuring on-device neural processing, but the symbolic shift was unmistakable and opened a vacuum that competitors moved quickly to fill.
Into that vacuum stepped Xiaomi and TCL, two Chinese firms that used the moment to stake claims as leaders in AI-driven consumer technology. Xiaomi made its first appearance at IFA with 3,300 square meters in Hall 6.2, its largest exhibition outside China, displaying more than 380 products under the theme “The Surging Wave of AI.” The company committed hard numbers behind its ambitions, with 7.4 billion euros in AI research spending planned between 2026 and 2028 and 24 billion euros in total research and development by 2030, positioning itself as a direct challenger to Samsung’s long-held dominance at the Berlin fair.
TCL occupied Hall 21A with what it called its broadest product lineup ever, grouped under the theme “AI Inspired Life.” Its Inspiration Habitat showcased an ecosystem spanning Mini LED televisions, NXTPAPER smartphones, tablets, smart glasses, and home appliances designed to work together rather than as standalone devices. Stefan Streit, TCL Europe’s chief marketing officer, framed the approach in deliberately practical terms, saying the goal was not “AI for the sake of AI” but experiences that genuinely help people watch, communicate, and live better, with the flagship X11L Mini LED TV delivering up to 10,000 nits peak brightness.
The broader fair reflected a similar pivot toward artificial intelligence as the organizing logic of nearly every product on display, from washing machines and televisions to humanoid robots walking a catwalk. AMD delivered the opening keynote, unveiling the Ryzen AI Max Pro 400 chip with 192 GB of unified memory for running AI models locally on laptops, while LG introduced ThinQ Claw, a conversational AI home agent. Humanoid robots from Unitree and other Chinese manufacturers walked the “Robots on the Runway” showcase on September 5, and with 1,900 brands from 49 countries and a record 932 Chinese exhibitors, IFA 2026 runs through September 8 as a clear signal of where consumer technology power is concentrating.
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(*) IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung, meaning “International Radio Exhibition”) is Europe’s largest consumer electronics and home appliances trade fair, held annually at Messe Berlin in Germany. Founded in 1924, it is one of the world’s oldest industrial exhibitions and now serves as a major global showcase for new technology — televisions, computers, home appliances, smart devices, and increasingly artificial intelligence products.