A year ago, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said the ‘ChatGPT moment’ for robotics was around the corner. Now he says it’s ‘nearly here.’ But is it?

Nvidia-watchers had plenty to celebrate at CES this week, with news that the company’s latest GPU, Vera Rubin, is now fully in production. Those powerful AI chips—the picks and shovels of the AI boom—are, after all, what helped make Nvidia the world’s most valuable company.

But in his keynote address, CEO Jensen Huang once again made clear that Nvidia does not see itself as simply a chip company. It is also a software company, with its reach extending across nearly every layer of the AI stack—and with a major bet on physical AI...