The Download: our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025

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The Download: our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Introducing: MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025 Each year, we spend months researching and discussing which technologies will make the cut for our 10 Breakthrough Technologies list. We try to highlight a mix of items that reflect innovations happening in various fields. We look at consumer technologies, large industrial-scale projects, biomedical advances, changes in computing, climate solutions, the latest in AI, and more.We’ve been publishing this list every year since 2001 and, frankly, have a great track record of flagging things that are poised to hit a tipping point. It’s hard to think of another industry that has as much of a hype machine behind it as tech does, so the real secret of the TR10 is really what we choose to leave off the list.Check out the full list of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, which is front and center in our latest print issue. It’s all about the exciting innovations happening in the world right now, and includes some fascinating stories, such as: + How digital twins of human organs are set to transform medical treatment and shake up how we trial new drugs.+ What will it take for us to fully trust robots? The answer is a complicated one.+ Wind is an underutilized resource that has the potential to steer the notoriously dirty shipping industry toward a greener future. Read the full story.+ After decades of frustration, machine-learning tools are helping ecologists to unlock a treasure trove of acoustic bird data—and to shed much-needed light on their migration habits. Read the full story. + How poop could help feed the planet—yes, really. Read the full story. Roundtables: Unveiling the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025 Last week, Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, joined our news editor Charlotte Jee to unveil our 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025 in an exclusive Roundtable discussion. Subscribers can watch their conversation back here. And, if you’re interested in previous discussions about topics ranging from mixed reality tech to gene editing to AI’s climate impact, check out some of the highlights from the past year’s events. This international surveillance project aims to protect wheat from deadly diseases For as long as there’s been domesticated wheat (about 8,000 years), there has been harvest-devastating rust. Breeding efforts in the mid-20th century led to rust-resistant wheat strains that boosted crop yields, and rust epidemics receded in much of the world.But now, after decades, rusts are considered a reemerging disease in Europe, at least partly due to climate change. An international initiative hopes to turn the tide by scaling up a system to track wheat diseases and forecast potential outbreaks to governments and farmers in close to real time. And by doing so, they hope to protect a crop that supplies about one-fifth of the world’s calories. Read the full story. —Shaoni Bhattacharya The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Meta has taken down its creepy AI profiles Following a big backlash from unhappy users. (NBC News)+ Many of the profiles were likely to have been live from as far back as 2023. (404 Media)+ It also appears they were never very popular in the first place. (The Verge) 2 Uber and Lyft are racing to catch up with their robotaxi rivalsAfter abandoning their own self-driving projects years ago. (WSJ $)+ China’s Pony.ai is gearing up to expand to Hong Kong. (Reuters)3 Elon Musk is going after NASA He’s largely veered away from criticising the space agency publicly—until now. (Wired $)+ SpaceX’s Starship rocket has a legion of scientist fans. (The Guardian)+ What’s next for NASA’s giant moon rocket? (MIT Technology Review) 4 How Sam Altman actually runs OpenAIFeaturing three-hour meetings and a whole lot of Slack messages. (Bloomberg $)+ ChatGPT Pro is a pricey loss-maker, apparently. (MIT Technology Review) 5 The dangerous allure of TikTokMigrants’ online portrayal of their experiences in America aren’t always reflective of their realities. (New Yorker $) 6 Demand for electricity is skyrocketingAnd AI is only a part of it. (Economist $)+ AI’s search for more energy is growing more urgent. (MIT Technology Review) 7 The messy ethics of writing religious sermons using AISkeptics aren’t convinced the technology should be used to channel spirituality. (NYT $) 8 How a wildlife app became an invaluable wildfire trackerWatch Duty has become a safeguarding sensation across the US west. (The Guardian)+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Computer scientists just love oracles 🔮 Hypothetical devices are a surprisingly important part of computing. (Quanta Magazine) 10 Pet tech is booming 🐾But not all gadgets are made equal. (FT $)+ These scientists are working to extend the lifespan of pet dogs—and their owners. (MIT Technology Review) Quote of the day “The next kind of wave of this is like, well, what is AI doing for me right now other than telling me that I have AI?” —Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, tells Wired a lot of companies’ AI claims are overblown. The big story Broadband funding for Native communities could finally connect some of America’s most isolated places September 2022 Rural and Native communities in the US have long had lower rates of cellular and broadband connectivity than urban areas, where four out of every five Americans live. Outside the cities and suburbs, which occupy barely 3% of US land, reliable internet service can still be hard to come by. The covid-19 pandemic underscored the problem as Native communities locked down and moved school and other essential daily activities online. But it also kicked off an unprecedented surge of relief funding to solve it. Read the full story. —Robert Chaney We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + Rollerskating Spice Girls is exactly what your Monday morning needs.+ It’s not just you, some people really do look like their dogs!+ I’m not sure if this is actually the world’s healthiest meal, but it sure looks tasty.+ Ah, the old “bitten by a rabid fox chestnut.”

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Introducing: MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025

Each year, we spend months researching and discussing which technologies will make the cut for our 10 Breakthrough Technologies list. We try to highlight a mix of items that reflect innovations happening in various fields. We look at consumer technologies, large industrial-scale projects, biomedical advances, changes in computing, climate solutions, the latest in AI, and more.

We’ve been publishing this list every year since 2001 and, frankly, have a great track record of flagging things that are poised to hit a tipping point. It’s hard to think of another industry that has as much of a hype machine behind it as tech does, so the real secret of the TR10 is really what we choose to leave off the list.

Check out the full list of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, which is front and center in our latest print issue. It’s all about the exciting innovations happening in the world right now, and includes some fascinating stories, such as:

+ How digital twins of human organs are set to transform medical treatment and shake up how we trial new drugs.

+ What will it take for us to fully trust robots? The answer is a complicated one.

+ Wind is an underutilized resource that has the potential to steer the notoriously dirty shipping industry toward a greener future. Read the full story.

+ After decades of frustration, machine-learning tools are helping ecologists to unlock a treasure trove of acoustic bird data—and to shed much-needed light on their migration habits. Read the full story.

+ How poop could help feed the planet—yes, really. Read the full story.

Roundtables: Unveiling the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025

Last week, Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, joined our news editor Charlotte Jee to unveil our 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025 in an exclusive Roundtable discussion. Subscribers can watch their conversation back here. And, if you’re interested in previous discussions about topics ranging from mixed reality tech to gene editing to AI’s climate impact, check out some of the highlights from the past year’s events.

This international surveillance project aims to protect wheat from deadly diseases

For as long as there’s been domesticated wheat (about 8,000 years), there has been harvest-devastating rust. Breeding efforts in the mid-20th century led to rust-resistant wheat strains that boosted crop yields, and rust epidemics receded in much of the world.

But now, after decades, rusts are considered a reemerging disease in Europe, at least partly due to climate change.

An international initiative hopes to turn the tide by scaling up a system to track wheat diseases and forecast potential outbreaks to governments and farmers in close to real time. And by doing so, they hope to protect a crop that supplies about one-fifth of the world’s calories. Read the full story.

—Shaoni Bhattacharya

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Meta has taken down its creepy AI profiles
Following a big backlash from unhappy users. (NBC News)
+ Many of the profiles were likely to have been live from as far back as 2023. (404 Media)
+ It also appears they were never very popular in the first place. (The Verge)

2 Uber and Lyft are racing to catch up with their robotaxi rivals
After abandoning their own self-driving projects years ago. (WSJ $)
+ China’s Pony.ai is gearing up to expand to Hong Kong. (Reuters)

3 Elon Musk is going after NASA
He’s largely veered away from criticising the space agency publicly—until now. (Wired $)
+ SpaceX’s Starship rocket has a legion of scientist fans. (The Guardian)
+ What’s next for NASA’s giant moon rocket? (MIT Technology Review)

4 How Sam Altman actually runs OpenAI
Featuring three-hour meetings and a whole lot of Slack messages. (Bloomberg $)
+ ChatGPT Pro is a pricey loss-maker, apparently. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The dangerous allure of TikTok
Migrants’ online portrayal of their experiences in America aren’t always reflective of their realities. (New Yorker $)

6 Demand for electricity is skyrocketing
And AI is only a part of it. (Economist $)
+ AI’s search for more energy is growing more urgent. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The messy ethics of writing religious sermons using AI
Skeptics aren’t convinced the technology should be used to channel spirituality. (NYT $)

8 How a wildlife app became an invaluable wildfire tracker
Watch Duty has become a safeguarding sensation across the US west. (The Guardian)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Computer scientists just love oracles 🔮
Hypothetical devices are a surprisingly important part of computing. (Quanta Magazine)

10 Pet tech is booming 🐾
But not all gadgets are made equal. (FT $)
+ These scientists are working to extend the lifespan of pet dogs—and their owners. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The next kind of wave of this is like, well, what is AI doing for me right now other than telling me that I have AI?”

—Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, tells Wired a lot of companies’ AI claims are overblown.

The big story

Broadband funding for Native communities could finally connect some of America’s most isolated places

September 2022

Rural and Native communities in the US have long had lower rates of cellular and broadband connectivity than urban areas, where four out of every five Americans live. Outside the cities and suburbs, which occupy barely 3% of US land, reliable internet service can still be hard to come by.

The covid-19 pandemic underscored the problem as Native communities locked down and moved school and other essential daily activities online. But it also kicked off an unprecedented surge of relief funding to solve it. Read the full story.

—Robert Chaney

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Rollerskating Spice Girls is exactly what your Monday morning needs.
+ It’s not just you, some people really do look like their dogs!
+ I’m not sure if this is actually the world’s healthiest meal, but it sure looks tasty.
+ Ah, the old “bitten by a rabid fox chestnut.”

Stay Ahead

Explore More Insights

Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy, bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

Lumen: Upstream network visibility is enterprise security’s new front line

“Threat actors can, for pennies, cycle through IP addresses to get fresh positive-reputation IP addresses minute to minute and use them for their wares at various parts of the attack lifecycle, whether it’s brute forcing, whether it’s leveraging known positive credentials, or whether it’s exfiltrating information at the end of

Nvidia Rubin GPUs may be delayed, slowing the next phase of AI infrastructure

The Rubin platform was expected to see early adoption among hyperscalers and AI-native companies, which have the infrastructure to support high-density systems, advanced cooling, and tightly integrated architectures. Hyperscalers to absorb shock Typically, hyperscalers lead early adoption of advanced GPUs, deploying them internally and through cloud platforms, with enterprises gaining

Intel bets on Terafab to help it reassert itself in the AI chip race

Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI say that Terafab will be the largest chip manufacturing facility ever, outputting 1TW a year of compute power and “combining logic, memory and advanced packaging under one roof.” Intel’s ability to “design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale” will help accelerate those 1TW/year ambitions, the

Cisco joins Anthropic’s multivendor effort to secure AI software

In addition to model usage credits, Anthropic donated $2.5 million to Alpha-Omega and OpenSSF through the Linux Foundation, and $1.5 million to the Apache Software Foundation “to enable the maintainers of open-source software to respond to this changing landscape.” “Partners will, to the extent they’re able, share information and best

United States and Australia meet for Mining, Minerals and Metals Investment Ministerial

We, the Australian Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, the Hon Madeleine King MP, and Secretaries and senior representatives from the United States, including Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin, Chairman of the U.S. Export Import Bank John Jovanovic, and Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson, held our inaugural Mining, Minerals, and Metals Investment Ministerial in Tokyo on 14 March 2026, to advance cooperation under the landmark bilateral agreement, the United States–Australia Framework for Securing Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths (the Framework). Under the Framework, Australia and the United States are delivering concrete outcomes to strengthen, secure, and diversify critical minerals and rare earth supply chains. Within six months of agreement of the Framework, we have each taken measures to provide at least USD $1 billion in financing to key critical minerals projects. By mobilising government and private sector capital, these investments support the development of our shared industrial base and strengthen longer term supply for defence, manufacturing, and energy supply chains. To build resilience, enhance stability, and bolster economic security in support of our shared critical minerals interests, Australia and the United States today announce the establishment of the Critical Minerals Supply Security Response Group and commit to deeper cooperation between our key agencies. In line with the Framework, the Critical Minerals Supply Security Response Group, led by senior representatives from the United States Department of Energy and the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources, will cooperate on priority minerals and supply chain vulnerabilities and coordinate efforts to accelerate the delivery of processed minerals under the Framework. Australia and the United States also commit to leveraging shared policy and interagency regulatory tools and, where appropriate, investments to secure critical minerals supply, including through cooperation between Australia’s

Energy Security for Indo-Pacific Endurance, a Global Growth Center of the 21st Century

We, the ministers and representatives of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Timor-Leste, United States, and Vietnam met in Tokyo, Japan, on March 14–15, 2026, to hold the historic Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum. The forum was co-hosted by the Chair and Vice Chair of the U.S. National Energy Dominance Council, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa Ryosei. We affirm our shared determination to work collectively to ensure stable and secure energy supply in the Indo-Pacific region. To this end, we focused on three key themes: reliable energy for Indo-Pacific growth and security; securing energy supply chains, infrastructure and maritime routes; and enabling trade and investment. To support these goals, Ministers affirm the value of: The necessity of reliable, affordable, secure and dispatchable energy from all sources depending on each country’s situation, in meeting the region’s surging energy demand. Promoting quality as a key procurement mechanism to mitigate risk of operational liabilities. Protecting against rising cyber threats to the security of the energy grid, critical infrastructure, vehicles, and devices. Investment in comprehensive energy infrastructure that encompasses the entire energy supply chain from upstream development facilities to downstream equipment to support an affordable, reliable, and secure energy supply including baseload electricity. Continuing to supply affordable and reliable energy sources in the Indo-Pacific region, including through emergency response measures, to benefit both producers and consumer countries. While maintaining strong relations with current partners, expanding and diversifying energy suppliers and fuel types in order to strengthen energy security. Promoting transparent, long-term energy contracts that reduce market volatility. As the global economy expands, so too does demand for energy driven by AI and electrification, we, as countries committed to a free and

Energy Department Issues Funding Opportunity to Strengthen American Critical Minerals and Materials Supply Chain

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO) today announced a funding opportunity of up to $69 million for technologies or processes that advance the domestic production and refining of critical materials. Projects selected through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will address the greatest technical obstacles to a stronger critical materials supply chain. “This funding will help establish a more secure and affordable supply of the critical minerals and materials that are foundational to American energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) Audrey Robertson. DOE is seeking projects that bridge the gap between bench-scale innovations and commercially viable technologies. Selected project teams will form industry-led partnerships and conduct research and development with support from the U.S. national laboratories. The NOFO, which is part of DOE’s Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Program and jointly funded by CMEI’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office and HGEO’s Office of Geothermal, has three primary topic areas: Production and material efficiency for critical materials including rare earth elements Processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide Cost-competitive direct lithium extraction, separation, and processing CMEI will host an informational webinar on April 16, 2026, to discuss the NOFO and application requirements. Letters of intent are due on April 21, 2026, by 5 p.m. ET. Deadlines for full applications will be staggered based on topic area, starting in May 2026. For more details on sub-topics and deadlines, visit the NOFO landing page. The Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator is one of several programs developed through DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative. This NOFO is part of $1 billion in critical materials funding announced by DOE in August 2025, and follows the Manufacturing Deployment Office’s announcement

Latin America returns to the energy security conversation at CERAWeek

With geopolitical risk central to conversations about energy, and with long-cycle supply once again in focus, Latin America’s mix of hydrocarbons and export potential drew renewed attention at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston. Argentina, resource story to export platform Among the regional stories, Argentina stood out as Vaca Muerta was no longer discussed simply as a large unconventional resource, but whether the country could turn resource quality into sustained export capacity. Country officials talked about scale: more operators, more services, more infrastructure, and a larger industrial base around the unconventional play. Daniel González, Vice Minister of Energy and Mining for Argentina, put it plainly: “The time has come to expand the Vaca Muerta ecosystem.” What is at stake now is not whether the basin works, but whether the country can build enough above-ground capacity and regulatory consistency to keep development moving. Horacio Marín, chairman and chief executive officer of YPF, offered an expansive version of that argument. He said Argentina’s energy exports could reach $50 billion/year by 2031, backed by roughly $130 billion in cumulative investment in oil, LNG, and transportation infrastructure. He said Argentine crude output could reach 1 million b/d by end-2026. He said Argentina wants to be seen less as a recurrent frontier story and more as a future supplier with scale. “The time to invest in Vaca Muerta is now,” Marín said. The LNG piece is starting to take shape. Eni, YPF, and XRG signed a joint development agreement in February to move Argentina LNG forward, with a first phase planned at 12 million tonnes/year. Southern Energy—backed by PAE, YPF, Pampa Energía, Harbour Energy, and Golar LNG—holds a long-term agreement with SEFE for 2 million tonnes/year over 8 years. The movement by global standards is early-stage and relatively modest, but it adds to Argentina’s export

Market Focus: LNG supply shocks expose limited market flexibility

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Libya’s NOC, Chevron sign MoU for technical study for offshore Block NC146

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What is AI networking? How it adds intelligence to your infrastructure

The end goal is to make networks more reliable, efficient and performant. Enterprises are already seeing notable results when AI is applied to IT operations, including shorter deployment times, a decrease in trouble tickets, and faster time to resolution. With the help of AI, networks will become more autonomous and self-healing (that is, able to address issues without the need for human intervention). In fact, Tier 1 and Tier 2 infrastructure is moving toward ‘no human in the loop,’ Nick Lippis, co-founder and co-chair of enterprise user community ONUG, recently told Network World. In time, humans will only need to step in for policy exceptions and high-risk decisions. “Layering in AI capabilities makes LAN management applications easier to use and more accessible across an organization,” Dell’Oro Group analyst Sian Morgan said. Gartner predicts that, by 2030, AI agents will drive most network activities, up from “minimal adoption” in 2025. The firm emphasizes that leaders who overlook the AI networking shift “risk higher MTTR [meantime to repair], rising costs, and growing security exposure.” The core components of AI networking It’s important to note that the use of AI and machine learning (ML) in network management is not new. AI for IT operations (AIOps), for instance, is a common practice that uses automation to improve broader IT operations. AI networking is specific to the network itself, covering domains including multi-cloud software, wired and wireless LAN, data center switching, SD-WAN and managed network services (MNS). The incorporation of generative AI, in particular, has brought AI networking to the fore, as enterprise leaders are rethinking every single aspect of their business, networking included.

Aria Networks raises $125M and debuts its approach for AI-optimized networks

That embedded telemetry feeds adaptive tuning of Dynamic Load Balancing parameters, Data Center Quantized Congestion Notification (DCQCN) and failover logic without waiting for a threshold breach or a manual intervention. The platform architecture is layered. At the lowest levels, agents react in microseconds to link-level events such as transceiver flaps, rerouting leaf-spine traffic in milliseconds. At higher layers, agents make more strategic decisions about flow placement across the cluster. At the cloud layer, a large language model-based agent surfaces correlated insights to operators in natural language, allowing them to ask questions about specific jobs or alert conditions and receive context-aware responses. Karam argued that simply bolting an LLM onto an existing architecture does not deliver the same result. “If you ask it to do anything, it could hallucinate and bring down the network,” he said. “It doesn’t have any of the context or the data that’s required for this approach to be made safe.” Aria also exposes an MCP server, allowing external systems such as job schedulers and LLM routers to query network state directly and integrate it into their own decision-making. MFU and token efficiency as the target metrics Traditional networking is often evaluated in terms of bandwidth and latency. Aria is centering its platform around two metrics: Model FLOPS Utilization (MFU) and token efficiency. MFU is defined as the ratio of achieved FLOPS per accelerator to the theoretical peak. In practice, Karam said, MFU for training workloads typically runs between 33% and 45%, and inference often comes in below 30%. “The network has a major impact on the MFU, and therefore the token efficiency, because the network touches every aspect, every other component in your cluster,” Karam said.

New v2 UALink specification aims to catch up to NVLink

But given there are no products currently available using UALink 1.0, UALink 2.0 might be viewed as a premature launch Need to play catch up David Harold, senior analyst with Jon Peddie Research, was guarded in his reaction. “While 2.0 is a significant step forward from 1.0, we need to bear in mind that even 1.0 solutions aren’t shipping yet – they aren’t due until later this year. So, Nvidia is way ahead of the open alternatives on connectivity, indeed ahead of the proprietary or Ethernet based solutions too,” he said. What this means, he added, is that non-Nvidia alternatives are currently lagging in the market. “They need to play catch up on several fronts, not just networking. … I can’t think of a single shipping product that meaningfully has advantages over a Nvidia solution,” he said. “Ultimately UALink remains desirable since it will enable heterogeneous, multi-vendor environments but it’s quite a way behind NVLink today. ” There are plenty of signs that organizations will find it hard to break free of the Nvidia dominance, however. A couple of months ago, RISC-V pioneer SiFive signed a deal with Nvidia to incorporate Nvidia NVLink Fusion into its data center products, a departure for RISC companies. According to Harold, other companies could be joining it. “Custom ASIC company MediaTek is an NVLink partner, and they told me last week that they are planning to integrate it directly into next-generation custom silicon for AI applications,” he said. “This will enable a wider range of companies to use NVLink as their high-speed interconnect.” Other options And, Harold noted, Nvidia is already looking at other options. “Nvidia is now shifting to look at the copper limit for networking speed, with an interest in using optical connectivity instead,” said Harold.

Nvidia’s SchedMD acquisition puts open-source AI scheduling under scrutiny

Is the concern valid? Dr. Danish Faruqui, CEO of Fab Economics, a US-based AI hardware and datacenter advisory, said the risk was real. “The skepticism that Nvidia may prioritize its own hardware in future software updates, potentially delaying or under-optimizing support for rivals, is a feasible outcome,” he said. As the primary developer, Nvidia now controls Slurm’s official development roadmap and code review process, Faruqui said, “which could influence how quickly competing chips are integrated on new development or continuous improvement elements.” Owning the control plane alongside GPUs and networking infrastructure such as InfiniBand, he added, allows Nvidia to create a tightly vertically integrated stack that can lead to what he described as “shallow moats, where advanced features are only available or performant on Nvidia hardware.” One concrete test of that, industry observers say, will be how quickly Nvidia integrates support for AMD’s next-generation chips into Slurm’s codebase compared with how quickly it integrates its own forthcoming hardware and networking technologies, such as InfiniBand. Does the Bright Computing precedent hold? Analysts point to Nvidia’s 2022 acquisition of Bright Computing as a reference point, saying the software became optimized for Nvidia chips in ways that disadvantaged users of competing hardware. Nvidia disputed that characterization, saying Bright Computing supports “nearly any CPU or GPU-accelerated cluster.” Rawat said the comparison was instructive but imperfect. “Nvidia’s acquisition of Bright Computing highlights its preference for vertical integration, embedding Bright tightly into DGX and AI Factory stacks rather than maintaining a neutral, multi-vendor orchestration role,” he said. “This reflects a broader strategic pattern — Nvidia seeks to control the full-stack AI infrastructure experience.”

Two New England states say no to new data centers

It’s getting harder and harder for governments to ignore the impact that data centers are having on their communities, consuming vast amounts of water and driving up electricity prices, experts say. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024, more than 4% of total U.S. electricity use. That demand is projected to more than double to 426 terawatt-hours by 2030. The impact is significant. In 2023, data centers consumed about 26% of Virginia’s electricity supply, although Virginia is notable for having an extremely dense collection of data centers. Alan Howard, senior analyst for infrastructure at Omdia, says he is not surprised at all. “The amount of national press coverage regarding what is arguably a limited number of data center ‘horror’ stories has many jurisdictions and states spooked over the potential impacts data center projects might have,” he said. It’s an evolution that’s been coming for some time whereby local legislators have embraced the idea that they don’t want to learn the hard way as others already have, he argues. “All that said, it seems unlikely that there will be broad bans on data center development that would cripple the industry. There’s lots of places to go in the U.S. and developers have warmed up to siting projects in places amenable to their needs, although not ideally convenient,” said Howard.

Nscale Expands AI Factory Strategy With Power, Platform, and Scale

Nscale has moved quickly from startup to serious contender in the race to build infrastructure for the AI era. Founded in 2024, the company has positioned itself as a vertically integrated “neocloud” operator, combining data center development, GPU fleet ownership, and a software stack designed to deliver large-scale AI compute. That model has helped it attract backing from investors including Nvidia, and in early March 2026 the company raised another $2 billion at a reported $14.6 billion valuation. Reuters has described Nscale’s approach as owning and operating its own data centers, GPUs, and software stack to support major customers including Microsoft and OpenAI. What makes Nscale especially relevant now is that it is no longer content to operate as a cloud intermediary or capacity provider. Over the past year, the company has increasingly framed itself as an AI hyperscaler and AI factory builder, seeking to combine land, power, data center shells, GPU procurement, customer offtake, and software services into a single integrated platform. Its acquisition of American Intelligence & Power Corporation, or AIPCorp, is the clearest signal yet of that shift, bringing energy infrastructure directly into the center of Nscale’s business model. The AIPCorp transaction is significant because it gives Nscale more than additional development capacity. The company said the deal includes the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, West Virginia, a site of up to 2,250 acres with a state-certified AI microgrid and a power runway it says can scale beyond 8 gigawatts. Nscale also said the acquisition establishes a new division, Nscale Energy & Power, headquartered in Houston, extending its platform further into power development. That positioning reflects a broader shift in the AI infrastructure market. The central bottleneck is no longer simply access to GPUs. It is the ability to assemble power, cooling, land, permits, data center

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

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