Omicron causes Amazon, Nvidia and others to drop plans to attend CES 2022
The massive CES tech expo in Vegas has once again fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic, with high-profile attendees including Amazon, Meta (formerly Facebook), Nvidia and lead sponsor T-Mobile announcing that they won't be attending CES 2022 in person due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
This year's show, which opens on January 5, was meant to herald a return to normality, with in-person attendance making a comeback after CES 2021 was relegated to being an online-only affair. However, several big-name tech companies have now announced that they won't have a physical presence at the show.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Amazon blamed the “quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the Omicron variant” for its decision to change its plans. Meta, T-Mobile and Twitter cited similar concerns in their statements outlining why they're no longer sending staff to CES 2022.
CES's organizers had planned to implement a slew of health protocols for the event, including requiring that all attendees prove they’re vaccinated against Covid-19; however, it looks like that wasn't sufficient reassurance for the aforementioned companies, and others, who've chosen to play it safe and attend this year's show virtually.
TechRadar has also decided that we won't be covering CES 2022 in person, out of concern for the health and wellbeing of our journalists. However, you can rest assured that we'll still be bringing you extensive coverage of the event, delivering minute-by-minute breaking news of product launches and other major announcements, and in-depth analysis of the new tech you need to know about.
Despite the high-profile no-shows, CES's organizers have yet to announce any plans to change the format of this year's show – we've reached out to CES for an updated statement, and we'll bring that to you here as soon as we receive it.
Who has pulled out of CES 2022?
Below is a list of the most high-profile CES attendees that have so far announced that they won't be attending CES 2022 in person. As the situation develops we'll likely see more companies update their plans, so expect to see this list grow in the build-up to CES 2022's start date.
- Meta
- Amazon
- T-Mobile
- Nvidia
- iHeartRadio
Is CES 2022 canceled?
So far there have been no announcements that suggest CES 2022 won't go ahead as planned; and even if the event organizers ultimately decided to scrap the in-person event altogether, we'll likely see the show go ahead in a virtual format, as it did last year.
We'll bring you all the latest news on the event as we get it – and remember, tune in to TechRadar for in-depth coverage of CES 2022, whatever format it appears in.
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