How Technology, Materials, and Manufacturing Will Redefine 2026

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Matt Kelly, chief technology officer and vice president of standards and technology for the Global Electronics Association, explores how technology, supply chains, sustainability, and standards are redefining the electronics ecosystem. This is the latest installment in a blog series exploring the future of the global electronics industry.

Global Electronics Ecosystem 

Electronics continues to infiltrate every industry as automotive, aerospace, defense, and energy sectors become compute-intensive. The electronics ecosystem will expand far beyond traditional boundaries. Next-generation semiconductors and advanced packaging architectures are the central nervous system of modern vehicles, aircraft, and infrastructure.

Supply Chain 

Single-region dependency becomes unacceptable. Companies will build multi-regional, multi-tier resilience with unprecedented visibility into second and third-tier suppliers. The new competitive advantage isn't just efficiency; it's redundancy and agility across supplier networks.

Sustainability 

Critical materials recovery will shift from pilot projects to an industrial scale. As supply pressures intensify, electronics manufacturers will invest heavily in reclaiming rare earths, critical metals, and substrates, turning end-of-life products into strategic reserves against future shortages.

Materials 

Advanced packaging is the new frontier, and it demands new materials. Growth in 3D stacking, chiplets, and photonics will drive rapid innovation in advanced dielectrics, substrates, and photonic technologies. Material science is as critical as semiconductor design.

Manufacturing 

Smart manufacturing goes mainstream. Digital twins, autonomous process control, and AI/ML optimization will continue to transform production floors, boosting yield, speed, and agility while separating industry leaders from those stuck in legacy operations.

Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure and Data Centers

AI workloads will reshape the entire electronics stack, driving demand for next-gen semiconductor nodes, advanced 3D packaging, chiplets, and high-bandwidth memory. Meanwhile, AI-HPC's escalating power and thermal demands will force data center reinvention: liquid cooling goes mainstream, power delivery gets reimagined, and site geography shifts as operators chase locations with abundant energy and cooling capacity at economically viable costs.

Looking Ahead

Success in the electronics industry will depend on systems thinking. Companies will need to align their technology roadmaps, innovate with materials, enhance manufacturing intelligence, and develop new guidelines and standards across a significantly expanded ecosystem. As AI, sustainability, and resilience come together, those businesses that invest early in interoperable technologies and globally coordinated supply networks will help establish the guidelines for the next era of electronics.