The Dual Drive of Energy and Computing Power — Battery and AI Innovations Among the Breakthrough Technologies of 2026

Recently, the 2026 edition of the MIT Technology Review list was released. Its content shows a clear shift in values: technological development is no longer solely about pursuing performance iterations, but rather about finding a balance between innovation and ethics, efficiency and sustainability. Among these trends, the iterative upgrading of battery technology and the restructuring of AI infrastructure are not only the core of current industrial competition, but also jointly support the green transition and intelligent upgrading of future societies, emerging as the two most representative directions in the technological wave.

In the energy sector, the industrialization breakthrough of sodium-ion batteries is addressing the long-standing resource constraints faced by lithium-ion batteries. As a periodic-table neighbor of lithium, sodium is widely distributed and low-cost, extractable from the vast oceans as well as ordinary salt fields, effectively avoiding the pain points of limited lithium reserves, concentrated mining, and volatile prices. Their working principle is similar to that of lithium-ion batteries, storing and releasing energy through the movement of ions between two electrodes. Although their current energy density is slightly lower than that of high-end lithium batteries, they can already meet the needs of small passenger vehicles, logistics vehicles, and low-speed transportation. They also hold advantages in thermal stability and cycle life, making them particularly suitable for grid energy storage scenarios.

U.S. startup Peak Energy has begun deploying grid-scale sodium-ion energy storage systems, demonstrating the technology’s enormous potential in clean energy storage. As production scales up, the cost advantages of sodium-ion batteries will be gradually released, making them an important complement to lithium batteries and providing a more resilient path for the global transition to new energy.

Corresponding to the energy support provided by battery technology, breakthroughs in AI are restructuring computing infrastructure and interaction paradigms, with ultra-large-scale AI data centers becoming the core carrier. To meet the explosive demand for training and running large language models, tech giants such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to build supercomputing clusters specifically designed for AI. These data centers bundle hundreds of thousands of GPU chips into collaborative clusters, use hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables to construct high-speed communication networks, and are paired with large-capacity storage systems that continuously deliver data, forming the “computing base” that supports AI development. Governments in China, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions are also increasing their investment to promote the construction of this new type of infrastructure.

Behind this staggering computing power lie severe energy and environmental challenges. A single large ultra-scale AI data center can consume more than 1 gigawatt of electricity, equivalent to the demand of an entire city. Moreover, in the current energy mix, fossil fuels account for more than half, while renewable energy can meet only a little over a quarter of the demand. Intensively running chips generate extremely high levels of heat; ordinary air conditioning is no longer sufficient for cooling, prompting the industry to adopt solutions such as cold plates and coolant baths, and even explore innovative approaches like seawater immersion and space-based solar power. Some companies are turning to nuclear energy, attempting to balance the contradiction between computing expansion and sustainable development through a more stable energy supply. At the same time, the expansion of data centers has also triggered issues such as soaring community energy bills, water shortages, and noise pollution, making the social costs of technological progress increasingly prominent.

The evolution of AI is also extending from infrastructure to application scenarios, showing a shift from “black boxes” to controllability, and from tools to partners. In terms of mechanistic interpretability, research teams have developed tools similar to “microscopes” that can trace the reasoning paths of large models, effectively addressing the problem of AI “hallucinations” and enhancing technological credibility. AI companion technologies, leveraging multimodal perception and long-short-term memory capabilities, are moving from passive response to active empathy, but they have also raised psychological risks such as “AI-induced delusions,” prompting regulators to introduce safety mechanisms including parental controls and content guardrails. These developments confirm the core logic of the 2026 technology trends: innovation must go hand in hand with responsibility, and the value of technological breakthroughs must ultimately be realized within the framework of social ethics.

The breakthroughs in sodium-ion batteries and ultra-large-scale AI data centers may seem to belong to two separate fields—energy and computing—but in reality they form a tightly coupled synergy. Advances in battery technology provide cleaner, more economical energy support for AI infrastructure, while AI can accelerate battery R&D and application through simulating material properties and optimizing energy storage scheduling. The development of both technologies faces the dual challenges of industrialization and sustainability, requiring not only continuous efforts by enterprises to tackle core technologies, but also joint efforts by governments and society to build sound regulatory and supporting systems.

In the balance between technology and ethics, electrical energy technologies and AI are together driving human society toward a more intelligent and greener future. This is precisely the core value conveyed by the MIT Technology Review list: truly breakthrough technologies will ultimately achieve long-term value by solving real-world challenges.