Shoppers looking for gadgets and gizmos powered by generative AI technology to gift to their loved ones won’t have many options to choose from this holiday season.

Generative artificial intelligence has taken Silicon Valley by storm since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022. Although startups have raised billions to build new GenAI tools and tech giants have bought millions of Nvidia processors to train AI models, few companies have delivered new hardware built with the new-age tech as its focal point.

There was a lot of optimism over the potential of GenAI gadgets at the CES trade show in January, said Paul Gagnon, vice president for analyst firm Circana. In particular, products from high-profile startups such as Humane and Rabbit, which were marketed as being able to translate, answer questions, take voice memos and set alarms, were drawing buzz, Gagnon said.

But many of these new GenAI devices didn’t work as well as people expected, with reviewers saying that the gadgets were too slow and too prone to failure.

“As we’ve gone through the year, and those kinds of promises — which I’ll be honest, were pretty nebulous to start with — there’s been a bit of a struggle with communicating that to consumers,” Gagnon said.

A key reason GenAI hardware hasn’t had a breakthrough is that current devices are “compute restrained,” meaning they require more powerful silicon chips and related components to perform better, particularly when compared with smartphones, said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, a market research firm.

Additionally, consumers may find current GenAI devices too expensive, and they may be confused about what the devices can actually do, he said.

GenAI devices, such as the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, also typically require a smartphone connection for an accompanying app as well as strong internet access, because a bad internet connection can lead to performance delays that frustrate people, Bajarin said.

While companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Dell and Lenovo have also heavily marketed new lineups of personal computers capable of performing GenAI tasks, consumers have yet to perk up to the sales pitch, said Ryan Reith, an IDC program vice president for mobile devices.

“I don’t think that there’s actually a need for consumers to go out and get one of these more expensive PCs,” Reith said, noting that people may be confused about why they need beefier computers when they can already access tools such as ChatGPT through their current PCs. 

The reality is that while GenAI has captivated Silicon Valley, it’s still “inning zero” in regard to widespread adoption, Bajarin said.

“Even though I can rattle off all these productivity stats of how people are using AI today, it’s a very small number of people,” he said. “This is not mainstream.”

It may not be until 2025 that consumers see a “big explosion” in GenAI computers, smartphones and new gadgets, said Steve Koenig, vice president of research at the Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES.

Despite Silicon Valley not having a breakout year for GenAI hardware, here are a few GenAI devices early adopters can buy.

With the help of the device’s mics and camera, for instance, users can ask the Meta AI digital assistant to recommend a recipe when they walk through a grocery aisle and scan the shelves, the company said in a blog post.

Meta, which makes Facebook and Instagram, is selling certain versions of the glasses for 20% off through Dec. 2. This means that a pair of the Ray-Ban Meta Skyler style of glasses will cost $239.20 instead of $299 if bought online. 

Outfitted with a camera and dual mics, the r1 can record audio clips and set timers or perform more advanced tasks, such as helping users recall details from past conversations, search results and voice recordings. After the device began shipping in March, reviewers criticized the r1 for stumbling at various tasks and failing to outshine smartphones that can do many of the same functions. 

The startup “has used that feedback to rapidly make very significant improvements to the user experience” and has released scores of updates to improve, Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu told CNBC in a statement.

Despite the harsh reviews, Rabbit has “sold more than 100,000 r1 devices when we originally expected to sell only 3,000” and the company is “seeing a return rate of less than 5%, which is very solid for a first-generation product,” Lyu said. 

Rabbit is currently running a deal that gives shoppers free shipping, or $15 off, if they order an r1 by Dec. 4.

Watch: Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement.

Reddit is ramping up efforts to attract more users outside of the U.S., putting countries like India and Brazil in focus as it looks to unlock new advertising opportunities, a top company executive told CNBC.

In a wide-ranging interview, Jen Wong, chief operating officer of Reddit, said other platforms have 80% to 90% of users outside of the U.S. while about half of her company’s current users are based internationally.

“So that points to a lot of our future user growth opportunity definitely outside of the U.S. and local language,” Wong told CNBC. “The opportunity, the way I think about it, is every language is an opportunity for another Reddit.”

Reddit has historically been an English-language platform, but the company is looking to expand its international reach with the help of artificial intelligence translations. This year, Reddit launched a feature that automatically translates its site into different languages.

Wong said that around 20 to 30 languages could be available by the end of the year.

OpenAI is allowing employees to sell roughly $1.5 billion worth of shares in a new tender offer to SoftBank, CNBC has learned.

The new financing will allow the Japanese tech conglomerate to get an even larger slice of the AI startup, and it will allow current and former OpenAI employees to cash out their shares, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Employees will have until Dec. 24 to decide if they want to participate in the new tender offer, which has not previously been reported, one of the people said. The deal was spurred by SoftBank billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who was persistent in asking for a larger stake in the startup after putting $500 million into OpenAI’s last funding round, one of the people said.

The tender offer is not related to OpenAI’s potential plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business, one of the people said.

OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment.

The news underscores Son’s interest in the AI space and in backing the most valuable private players. SoftBank was an early investor in Arm, and Son said at a recent conference that he’s saving “tens of billions of dollars” to make the “next big move” in artificial intelligence. He had previously invested in Apple, Qualcomm and Alibaba.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 recently invested in AI startups Glean, Perplexity and Poolside. SoftBank has about 470 portfolio companies and $160 billion in assets across its two vision funds.

The OpenAI investment matches SoftBank’s eagerness to deploy cash, with a capital-intensive business model, a person close to Son told CNBC.

Even without SoftBank’s deep pockets, OpenAI has had no trouble raising billions in cash. Its valuation has climbed to $157 billion in the two years since launching ChatGPT. OpenAI has raised roughly $13 billion from Microsoft, and it closed its latest $6.6 billion round in October, led by Thrive Capital and including participation from chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and others.

The company also received a $4 billion revolving line of credit, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion. OpenAI expects about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue this year, CNBC confirmed in September with a person familiar with the situation.

Databricks is another private company raising money to allow employees to cash out and avoid public markets pressure, CNBC reported this week.

OpenAI took a more restrictive approach to tender offers in the past, with rules allowing the company to determine who gets to participate in stock sales, CNBC reported in June. Current and former OpenAI employees previously told CNBC that there was growing concern about access to liquidity after reports that the company had the power to claw back vested equity.

But the company reversed its policies toward secondary share sales this summer, and it now allows current and former employees to participate equally in annual tender offers.

The company expects to allow more of these secondary sales, and it will need to tap private markets again in the future based on demand from investors and the capital-intensive nature of the business, according to a person familiar with this week’s tender offer.

OpenAI has faced increasing competition from startups like Anthropic and tech giants like Google. The generative AI market is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade, and business spending on generative AI surged 500% this year, according to recent data from Menlo Ventures.

Last month OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positions the high-powered AI startup to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft’s Bing and Perplexity.

WATCH: OpenAI is the definitive consumer brand for AI at this point, says Bedrock Capital’s Geoff Lewis