Artificial intelligence supercharged data center growth in 2025. In 2026, execution matters more than scale, as supply chains, environmental pressures and the move to inference reshape where and how AI infrastructure gets built.
As AI data centers devour electricity at an unprecedented rate, tech giants are racing to secure energy by reviving shuttered nuclear plants, investing in small modular reactors and experimenting with green energy alternatives.
Mechatronics engineers fuse their knowledge of hardware, software and intelligent automation to build machines that can think, navigate and adapt to the physical world.
After a year of massive spending and mounting backlash, the AI industry should ring in the new year by resolving to curb energy use, invest strategically, develop smarter devices and strengthen its political influence.
Billions of dollars are changing hands between the same few AI companies. That affects everything from compute costs to market volatility — and it’s worth understanding.