Ugreen is expanding its smart home offerings with a new lineup of local AI hubs, capped by the high-end MasterAgent MA100. Built on the Nvidia Jetson Thor platform featuring a Blackwell system-on-module and 128GB of unified memory, the device delivers up to 2,070 TOPS of AI performance. While the retail price is set at $20,000, early purchasers can secure it at a 50 percent discount.
The premium pricing underscores the growing cost of maintaining privacy in the AI era. Although Ugreen NAS community manager Thomas Brown argued that local inference could offset long-term cloud token and storage expenses, the significant upfront investment remains a barrier for many consumers.
All three hubs in the new ecosystem are designed to work seamlessly with ONVIF and Matter-compatible devices. Product planning manager Markus Xie confirmed that Zigbee and Thread support are also forthcoming. This openness allows compatibility with devices from competitors such as Anker and its Eufy subsidiary, which announced its own AI-powered hub on the same day.
Despite these interoperability features, the Ugreen hubs do not currently support Home Assistant, a notable omission given that Anker’s competing hub offers integration with Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and other platforms.
In terms of storage, users must provide their own SATA hard drives for the included bays, with additional M.2 and SD card slots available. Connectivity options include HDMI, Ethernet, and multiple networking ports.
During the launch event, attendees interacted with a single HomeAgent model, successfully controlling smart curtains and lights. However, more advanced capabilities promised by Ugreen, such as voice-based rule creation, were not demonstrated.
Twenty grand for a home hub? That’s definitely a luxury item, not for the average homeowner.
Local AI is the future for privacy, but the upfront cost is a massive barrier. Cloud costs will add up, though.
No Home Assistant support? That’s a huge miss for the DIY crowd. Hard to take this seriously without it.
Did they really skip demonstrating the voice rule creation? Feels like hot air if the cool features aren’t shown.