Samsung C-Lab brings AI startups and agents to CES 2026 stage

Samsung’s latest C‑Lab lineup shows how much of the AGI race is diffusing into applied, edge‑centric use cases. The 2026 CES booth reads like a catalog of where near‑term AI value is: on‑device multimodal LLMs (Univa), enterprise AI video generation (10kM.ai), AI‑driven mental health and scent experiences, and AI‑powered recommendation engines like EZ Reco. ([news.samsung.com](https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-to-showcase-c-lab-startups-at-ces-2026)) Rather than betting on a single flagship model, Samsung is using its incubation program to seed dozens of agent‑like applications that sit on top of, or adjacent to, frontier models.

This matters strategically because Samsung controls immense device distribution in phones, TVs and appliances. By nurturing startups that build AI natively into hardware, biometrics, cybersecurity and financial services, it can help shift some intelligence closer to the edge, reducing reliance on cloud‑only stacks. The 17 CES Innovation Awards and spin‑outs like MangoSlab and StudioLab further validate C‑Lab as a pipeline from lab ideas into commercial AI companies. ([news.samsung.com](https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-to-showcase-c-lab-startups-at-ces-2026))

In the broader race to AGI, Samsung’s approach is a reminder that whoever dominates the agent and application layer on billions of devices can influence which models and platforms win upstream. It also underscores that Korea is positioning itself not just as a chip supplier but as a major hub for AI-native consumer experiences.