Technologies

Big Tech at COP26: Here’s who attended the climate talks and what roles they played

If you blinked, you could’ve easily missed them. But all the biggest US tech companies were in attendance at the UN climate summit last week.

These days, when the world’s most important and powerful people gather to talk about matters of global consequence, executives from the world’s most powerful tech companies are usually in the room.

Discussions about Climate change are no exception. From power-hungry data centers to planet-spanning supply chains, tech can be a carbon-intensive business if not run correctly. And as the effects of the climate crisis — fires, floods, hurricanes and droughts — are being more keenly felt, technology companies have been increasingly vocal in the conversation about how to tackle the climate crisis.

Beyond making commitments to reducing their own carbon footprints, this means showing up at events like COP26, the UN climate summit, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, the first two weeks of November.

Though world leaders and energy company execs took the most vocal roles at COP26, many of the biggest US tech companies also attended the summit, even though their levels of visibility varied.

Here’s what they were up to.

The Bezos in the room

By far the most visible tech figurehead at COP26 was former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — perhaps to his detriment. His presence at the UN summit got a mixed reception.

During his brief trip to Glasgow (he attended the two-week-long summit for somewhere between one to two days) Bezos announced that through his climate foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund, he’d donate an additional $2 billion toward landscape restoration and food systems transformation after being inspired to take care of the Earth after seeing it from the edge of space.

This made headlines but failed to impress climate activists, many of whom seemed deeply frustrated by the way Bezos engaged with the summit. It wasn’t so much his presence at COP26 that bothered them, but the fact that he used it as a PR opportunity rather than as a chance to listen to the voices of those most affected by the crisis, they said.

«These kinds of people, they shouldn’t be here giving speeches, they should be here and being targeted as responsible for these changes,»said Txai Surui, a 24-year-old Indigenous activist from Rondônia in Brazil.

«Why does he have more voice than young people that are suffering, or will suffer the consequences of the climate crisis?» asked Nicki Becker, a climate activist from Argentina. «Of course he has to be included in the conversation because he needs to first change his lifestyle.»

She added that billionaires and other top 1% earners like Bezos are most responsible for the climate crisis, so it’s hypocritical for them to turn up with purported solutions without making any effort to change their ways (Bezos flew in and out of Glasgow on his private jet).

Throughout the marches and climate protests that took place over the course of the summit, multiple people were carrying signs bearing variations on the words «We’re burning the wrong Amazon.»

The other billionaire

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates had a quieter presence at the summit than Bezos, attracting less criticism (even though he, too, appeared to fly in and out on a private jet).

Gates addressed world leaders, updating them on the progress of his climate initiative Breakthrough Energy Ventures and calling on them to come together to start a «green industrial revolution.»

He said he was spending his three days at the summit trying to encourage people to scale clean technology. «If we’re going to avoid the worst effects of a climate disaster, it’s not enough to invent zero-carbon alternatives — we need to make sure they’re affordable and accessible enough for people all over the world to use them,» he said.

He also urged rich- and middle-income countries to do more to help the areas that’ve done the least to cause climate change but are most affected by it.

It’s not clear, though, whether Gates spent any time at the summit talking with people from these areas. A criticism of many white, male leaders at the summit has been that they spent too much time talking and not enough time listening — especially to young black and Indigenous women who are leaders in the climate justice movement.

«Everybody brings us a different perspective on this,» Microsoft Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa said in an interview, commenting on the role tech figureheads could play at COP. «Some of these individuals, they’ve grown businesses from nothing not just to global scale,» but to a scale that the world’s never seen before. «That is exactly what the world needs to do in its transition, when you look at renewable energy penetration in the markets, for instance.»

Behind the scenes

Ahead of the summit Apple, Facebook, Google and other companies announced new pledges to further improve their own sustainability credentials. But at the event they kept a fairly low profile.

Apple’s VP of Sustainability Lisa Jackson, posted on Twitter about attending COP26 and meeting with US President Joe Biden while there. At the summit Apple and Amazon signed on to the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition, which aims to scale up emerging technologies essential to transitioning the globe’s economy to net-zero carbon by 2050.

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement that joining the Coalition would «help further accelerate our efforts to decarbonize our operations through real business change and innovation.» (Jassy didn’t attend COP, but other execs from the company did.)

In an interview, Facebook Director of Global Sustainability Edward Palmieri said his role at the summit was to ensure the company was engaging in the right partnerships and coalitions to tackle the climate crisis.

«Our foundational work on sustainability, if it has taught us anything it’s that we not only have to take care of our own house and make sure that we’re in order from a sustainability perspective, but that global solutions are going to take us all working together to kind of get it done,» he said.

One of Palmieri’s focuses at the event was learning more water stewardship, so Facebook is able to meet its goal of restoring more water than it consumes by 2030. Water plays a huge role in cooling and maintaining the right level of humidity in Facebook’s global data centers, but the company says it recognizes water is also a shared community resource that needs to be restored so it doesn’t become polluted or scarce.

Microsoft also came to the summit hoping to learn as well as contribute, said Joppa. He was spending a portion of his time in Glasgow learning more about carbon removal and carbon accounting.

«The carbon removal markets today are wildly oversubscribed, and we need to fix that for the world and for Microsoft to meet its own goals,» he said. «We need much more common kinds of standards and definitions around the way we do accounting.»

Playing to the crowd

Microsoft was one of COP26’s principal sponsors, so as well as having its logo everywhere, it also had a stand in the «Green Zone» (the part of the summit open to the public). At its booth, it welcomed school children and other attendees to explore the company’s different initiatives as it works toward its goal of becoming carbon negative by 2030. The space also provided a platform for smaller companies to showcase their climate tech. These included NCX, a company Microsoft has invested in that uses aerial imagery and AI to survey forests.

Financing these companies is important, said Joppa, but so is giving them exposure to clients and customers via Microsoft’s platform. «How you all kind of hold hands and lift each other up is to actually help people become aware of all the solutions that are out there,» he said.

Other tech companies also focused their COP26 efforts on trying to use their reach to broaden access to the summit.

Google used its Arts and Culture project to take people from all over the world inside the Green Zone. Meanwhile, Facebook livestreamed conversations about climate science from a small booth within the UN pavilion at the summit.

Public awareness has been growing around COP for several years, and Facebook’s platforms can be harnessed to make and keep conversations around what happens at the UN climate summits on a global level, said Palmieri.

Instagram, in particular, has been a crucial platform for young climate activists from all over the world to engage their audiences and educate them about the climate crisis. During COP26, Emma Watson used her own Instagram presence to introduce her followers to many of these activists, who as well as doing vital work in their own communities, form a loosely grouped online activist network.

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But one thing Palmieri hopes to see happen is ensuring that information flows in both directions.

«What’s really important, and that I’m hoping our platform will be able to do more and more of, is to bring some of the experiences of climate change from certain parts of the world that maybe are less represented to decision makers and communities that are wealthier and have more of a voice,» he said.

Technologies

Today Only You Can Get the Super Mario Galaxy 2-Pack at $14 Off

Enjoy two of Nintendo’s best Mario games in one package with a decent amount off.

Best Buy has a deal on at the moment that knocks the price of Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 on Nintendo Switch down to $56. That’s a $14 discount, which is a lot on a first-party Nintendo game.

Nintendo Switch games are notorious for never really going down in price, which makes every deal that happens worth at least considering. Last time this was on sale, it was for $59; this is $3 cheaper than that, making the value even better. That’s two all-time-classic games for $28 each, basically, which is fantastic.

The only problem with this is that it’s a Best Buy daily deal, which means that it runs out tonight. So, if you do want to pick this up at this price, you’re going to need to be quick.

In his review, CNET’s Scott Stein was a big fan of both revamped Mario titles included in this bundle, but less so the $70 asking price. This deal goes a long way to helping fix that problem and gives you the chance to add two classic Mario titles to your collection at a discount.

Originally released on the Wii, both Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 have been updated with higher-resolution visuals, an improved interface and new content, so there’s never been a better time to play them. And unlike the originals, you can play these Switch games anywhere and at any time.

Why this deal matters

Mario games are like no other, and they’re great for adults and kids alike. This bundle includes two of the best, and right now you can pick it up at a price that makes them an even better buy than they already were. Whether you played them the first time around, you’re looking to see what all the fuss was about or want to introduce them to a new generation of Mario fans, this is the deal for you.

Technologies

I’ve Seen It With My Own Eyes: The Robots Are Here and Walking Among Us

The «physical AI» boom has created a world of opportunity for robot makers, and they’re not holding back.

It’s been 24 years since CNET first published an article with the headline The robots are coming. It’s a phrase I’ve repeated in my own writing over the years — mostly in jest. But now in 2026, for the first time, I feel confident in declaring that the robots have finally arrived.

I kicked off this year, as I often do, wandering the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and its hotel-based outposts on the lookout for the technology set to define the next 12 months. CES has always been a hotbed of activity for robots, but more often than not, a robot that makes a flashy Vegas debut doesn’t go on to have a rich, meaningful career in the wider world.

In fact, as cute as they often are and as fun as they can be to interact with on the show floor, most robots I’ve seen at CES over the years amount to little more than gimmicks. They either come back year after year with no notable improvements or are never seen or heard from again.

In more than a decade of covering the show, I’ve been waiting for a shift to occur. In 2026, I finally witnessed it. From Hyundai unveiling the final product version of the Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot in its press conference to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s focus on «physical AI» during his keynote, a sea change was evident this year in how people were talking about robots.

«We’ve had this dream of having robots everywhere for decades and decades,» Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse and simulation told me on the sidelines of the chipmaker’s vast exhibition at the glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel. «It’s been in sci-fi as long as we can remember.»

Throughout the show, I felt like I was watching that sci-fi vision come to life. Everywhere I went, I was stumbling upon robot demos (some of which will be entering the market this year) drawing crowds, like the people lining up outside Hyundai’s booth to see the new Atlas in action.

So what’s changed? Until now, «we didn’t have the technology to create the brain of a robot,» Lebaredian said.

AI has unlocked our ability to apply algorithms to language, and it’s being applied to the physical world, changing everything for robots and those who make them.

The physical AI revolution

What truly makes a robot a robot? Rewind to CES 2017: I spent my time at the show asking every robotics expert that question, sparked by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles, drones and intelligent smart home devices.

This exercise predated the emergence of generative AI and models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but already I could see that by integrating voice assistants into their products, companies were beginning to blur the boundaries of what could be considered robotics.

Not only has the tech evolved since that time, but so has the language we use to talk about it. At CES 2026, the main topic of conversation seemed to be «physical AI.» It’s an umbrella term that can encompass everything from self-driving cars to robots.

«If you have any physical embodiments, where AI is not only used to perceive the environment, but actually to take decisions and actions that interact with the environment around it … then it’s physical AI,» Ahmed Sadek, head of physical AI and vice president of engineering at chipmaker Qualcomm told me.

Autonomous vehicles have been the easiest expression of physical AI to build so far, according to Lebaredian, simply because their main challenge is to dodge objects rather than interact with them. «Avoiding touching things is a lot easier than manipulating things,» he said.

Still, the development of self-driving vehicles has done much of the heavy lifting on the hardware, setting the stage for robot development to accelerate at a rapid pace now that the software required to build a brain is catching up.

For Nvidia, which worked on the new Atlas robot with Boston Dynamics, and Qualcomm, which announced its latest robotics platform at CES, these developments present a huge opportunity.

But that opportunity also extends to start-ups. Featured prominently at the CES 2026 booth of German automotive company Schaeffler was the year-and-a-half-old British company Humanoid, demonstrating the capabilities of its robot HMND 01.

The wheeled robot was built in just seven months Artem Sokolov, Humanoid’s CEO, told me, as we watch it sort car parts with its pincerlike hands. «We built our bipedal one for service and household much faster — in five months,» Sokolov added.

Humanoid’s speed can be accounted for by the AI boom plus an influx of talent recruited from top robotics companies, said Sokolov. The company has already signed around 25,000 preorders for HMND 01 and completed pilots with six Fortune 500 companies, he said.

This momentum extends to the next generation of Humanoid’s robots, where Sokolov doesn’t foresee any real bottlenecks. The main factors dictating the pace will be improvements in AI models and making the hardware more reliable and cost effective.

Humanoid hype hits its peak

Humanoid the company might have the rights to the name, but the concept of humanoids is a wider domain.

By the end of last year, the commercialization of humanoid robots had entered an «explosive phase of growth,» with a 508% year-on-year increase in global market revenue to $440 million, according to a report released by IDC this month.

At CES, Qualcomm’s robot demonstration showed how its latest platform could be adapted across different forms, including a robotic arm that could assemble a sandwich. But it was the humanoids at its booth that caused everyone to pull out their phones and start filming.

«Our vision is that if you have any embodiment, any mechatronic system, our platform should be able to transform it to a continuously learning intelligent robot,» said Qualcomm’s Sadek. But, he added, the major benefit of the humanoid form is its «flexibility.»

Some in the robotics world have criticized the focus on humanoids, due to their replication of our own limitations. It’s a notion that Lebaredian disagrees with, pointing out that we’ve designed our world around us and that robots need to be able to operate within it.

«There are many tasks that are dull, dangerous and dirty — they call it the three Ds — that are being done by humans today, that we have labor shortages for and that this technology can potentially go help us with,» he said.

We already have many specialist robots working in factories around the world, Lebaredian added. With their combination of arms, legs and mobility, humanoids are «largely a superset of all of the other kinds of robots» and, as such, are perfect for the more general-purpose work we need help with.

The hype around robots — and humanoids in particular — at CES this year felt intense. Even Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter acknowledged this in a Q&A with reporters moments after he unveiled the new Atlas on stage.

But it’s not just hype, Playter insisted, because Boston Dynamics is already demonstrating that they can put thousands of robots in the market. «That is not an indication of a hype cycle, but actually an indication of an emerging industry,» he said.

A huge amount of money is being poured into a rapidly growing number of robotics start-ups. The rate of this investment is a signal that the tech is ready to go, according to Nvidia’s Lebaredian.

«It’s because, fundamentally, the experts, people who understand this stuff, now believe, technically, it’s all possible,» he said. «We’ve switched from a scientific problem of discovery to an engineering problem.»

Robot evolution: From industry to home

From what I observed at the show, this engineering «problem» is one that many companies have already solved. Robots such as Atlas and HMND 01 have crossed the threshold from prototype to factory ready. The question for many of us will be as to when will these robots be ready for our homes.

Playter has openly talked about Boston Dynamics’ ambitions in this regard. He sees Atlas evolving into a home robot — but not yet. Some newer entrants to the robotics market — 1X, Sunday Robotics and Humanoid among them — are keen to get their robots into people’s homes in the next couple of years. Playter cautions against this approach.

«Companies are advertising that they want to go right to the home,» he said. «We think that’s the wrong strategy.»

The reasons he listed are twofold: pricing and safety. Playter echoed a sentiment I’ve heard elsewhere: that the first real use for home humanoid robots will be to carry out care duties for disabled and elderly populations. Perhaps in 20 years, you will have a robot carry you in and out of bed, but relying on one to do so when you’re in a vulnerable state poses «critical safety issue,» he said.

Putting robots in factories first allows people to work closely with them while keeping a safe distance, allowing those safety kinks to be ironed out. The deployment of robots at scale in industrial settings will also lead to mass manufacturing of components that will, at some point, make robots affordable for the rest of us, said Playter (unlike 1X’s $20,000 Neo robot, for example).

Still, he imagines the business model will be «robots as a service,» even when they do first enter our homes. Elder care itself is a big industry with real money being spent that could present Boston Dynamics with a market opportunity as Atlas takes its first steps beyond the factory floor.

«I spent a lot of money … with my mom in specialty care the last few years,» he said. «Having robots that can preserve autonomy and dignity at home, I think people will actually spend money — maybe $20K a year.»

The first «care» robots are more likely to be companion robots. This year at the CES, Tombot announced that its robotic labrador, Jennie, who first charmed me back at the show in 2020, is finally ready to go on sale. It served as yet another signal to me that the robots are ready to lead lives beyond the convention center walls.

Unlike in previous years, I left Vegas confident that I’ll be seeing more of this year’s cohort of CES robots in the future. Maybe not in my home just yet, but it’s time to prepare for a world in which robots will increasingly walk among us.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Jan. 29, #1685

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Jan. 29, No. 1,685.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle was a tough one for me. I never seem to guess three of the letters in this word. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.