Industrial robotics has long been associated with automation, productivity gains, and cost reduction. This was true when robots appeared in manufacturing. The first commercially successful industrial robot, Unimate, was deployed in 1961 on a General Motors assembly line in Trenton, New Jersey, to handle tasks that were dangerous or monotonous for human workers, such as unloading die-cast metal parts from production equipment. This early application marked the beginning of a long trajectory in which robots were used to execute repetitive, hard-coded tasks in factories, especially in automotive...

The semiconductor industry stands at a pivotal juncture, having become a decisive arena for technological leadership, economic security, and geopolitical competition. Today, semiconductor manufacturing is strikingly concentrated: around 75% of global capacity lies in China and East Asia, an area vulnerable to geopolitical friction and natural disruptions. Even more narrowly, all leading-edge chips – those fabricated below 10 nanometers – are produced exclusively in Taiwan (92%) and South Korea (8%). As governments and private actors race to secure access to chips and fabrication capacity,...

What happens to people? The decade to 2030 will not simply be a technical transition — it will be a social and economic one. How we manage it will determine whether AI widens inequality or helps create a more productive, fairer economy. Recent global employer surveys and industry analyses show a twin reality: new jobs will emerge even as many job tasks are automated. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2025 reports that hundreds of millions of roles will shift, with roughly 170 million new jobs created by macro trends this decade — but large-scale task reallocation and skill churn...

The Harvard Belfer Center’s Critical and Emerging Technologies Index 2025 recently showed that biotech is the sector where China has the closest opportunity to overtake the U.S., propelled by four pillars: genetic engineering, vaccine R&D, pharmaceutical production, and human capital. Evidence confirms that power in this domain now depends on building innovation systems that scale. As we previously illustrated on LinkedIn, for the U.S., the challenge lies in brilliant science fragmented by weak strategic coordination, while Europe risks becoming a subcontractor unless it streamlines...

The world’s largest pharmaceutical companies are quietly—and sometimes loudly—choosing sides. Not in a geopolitical war of banners, but in a pragmatic contest for capital, talent, regulatory advantage and market access. Over the last two years, investment flows show three different but overlapping plays: doubling down in the United States, defending and reshaping European R&D and production, and engaging China both as a market and a source of innovation. The result is not just competition for sales, but a race for capabilities that will determine who controls tomorrow’s critical medicines. What’s...

Subsea (or submarine) cables are fiber-optic cables laid on the seabed between land-based stations. Long before the digital age, the first global network emerged in 1866 with the transatlantic telegraph cable, linking Europe and North America. This breakthrough enabled near-instant communication, marking the start of global reliance on undersea information infrastructure. Fast forward to the present: more than 95% of international data traffic, which includes internet, phone, financial, and cloud services, travels through a vast web of fiber-optic submarine cables. These cables remain...

Why does this matter? Generative AI, as a term, refers to artificial intelligence that has been specifically built to generate new content in one form or another. Unlike traditional AI systems focused on classification or prediction, generative AI creates novel content, including text, image, video, audio, and code, instead of merely recognizing or predicting outcomes. Generative AI — powered by models such as ChatGPT, Mistral, Claude or Gemini — is increasingly embedded in the daily operations of businesses. Whether through content generation, code development, HR support, customer service...

Dans un contexte de dérèglement climatique et de raréfaction des ressources, la France et de nombreux pays à travers le monde doivent réinventer leurs modèles de développement pour concilier croissance économique, justice sociale et préservation de la planète. Cet article propose un tour d’horizon des grands enjeux et des initiatives actuelles, en France et à l’étranger, qui dessinent les contours d’un futur plus durable. La Trajectoire Française : Ambitions et Défis La loi « Énergie-Climat » et le plan France 2030 sont deux initiatives majeures en France visant à transformer le...

As global infrastructure demands accelerate and traditional construction practices face mounting inefficiencies, digital solutions are emerging and reshaping the construction sector. Once viewed as an analogue-heavy industry, construction is now entering an era of intelligent automation, data-driven design, and predictive decision-making. Innovation is opening new ways of thinking, as the construction sector increasingly collaborates with tech visionaries. Digital tools are now embedded at every stage of the building process, challenging and reimagining conventional approaches. But there...

In an effort to address this vulnerability, the European Commission presented, on 25th March 2025, an initial list of 47 key projects aimed at improving the extraction and processing of rare earths and critical raw materials within Europe.   The goals are to secure Europe’s supply chains and safeguard its strategic autonomy, and also to develop Europe’s capacity to source and refine strategic materials directly on the continent. Lithium, cobalt, tungsten… These materials are now indispensable to modern industry, particularly for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, solar panels,...

For several years, European industry has been grappling with a significant rise in energy costs, severely impacting its competitiveness on the global stage. In contrast, the United States benefits from much lower energy prices, giving its industries a clear competitive edge. This article explores the disparities in energy costs between Europe and the U.S., examines the root causes behind these differences, and suggests simple ways to improve Europe’s energy competitiveness. Energy prices in Europe are significantly higher than in the U.S. According to Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the...

Tech startups have become powerful disruptors in the global economy, reshaping investment trends and transforming venture capital flows. AI dominates the tech landscape, absorbing nearly half of U.S. venture capital in 2024, with AI-related companies securing $5.7 billion in January 2025 alone, accounting for 22% of overall funding. As competition intensifies, investors are shifting towards smaller, strategic investments to promote steady growth and prevent overvaluation. Corporate giants like Alphabet and Microsoft are investing in startups to access cutting-edge technologies quickly. Climate...