University of Kwazulu-Natal

Ai To Reshape The Global Technology Landscape In 2026 Says Trendforce

Bonisiwe Shabane
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ai to reshape the global technology landscape in 2026 says trendforce

TrendForce has identified 10 key technology trends that will define the tech industry's evolution in 2026. The highlights of these findings are outlined below: AI Chip Competition Intensifies as Liquid Cooling Gains Widespread Adoption in Data Centers In 2026, the high demand for AI data center construction—fueled by increased capital spending by major North American CSPs and the rise of sovereign cloud projects worldwide—is anticipated to boost AI server shipments by... NVIDIA, the leading name in AI today, will face stronger competition ahead. AMD plans to challenge NVIDIA by introducing its MI400 full-rack solution, which mirrors NVIDIA’s GB/VR systems and is aimed at CSP clients.

Meanwhile, major North American CSPs are increasing their in-house ASIC development. In China, geopolitical tensions have sped up the drive for technological self-sufficiency, with companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and Cambricon boosting efforts to create their own AI chips. This is set to intensify the global competition. Thermal design power (TDP) per chip is increasing rapidly as AI processors become more powerful, jumping from 700W for NVIDIA’s H100 and H200 to over 1,000W for the upcoming B200 and B300. This increase in heat output is leading to a widespread adoption of liquid-cooling systems in server racks, with usage expected to reach 47% by 2026. AI to Reshape the Global Technology Landscape in 2026, Says TrendForce Corp.

Why this matters: - The surge in demand for AI servers and data-center capacity (with shipments forecast to grow over 20% YoY) suggests that companies and cloud providers are positioning for massive AI workload... - Competition in AI silicon is heating up — with hardware makers beyond current leaders entering the race — which could lead to more innovation, better performance, and potentially lower costs for AI infrastructure. - This transformation is likely to ripple into many other tech sectors (storage, networking, enterprise software), reshaping how companies build, deploy, and scale technology. Our take: This forecast feels realistic and exciting — 2026 could be a real inflection point when AI moves from being a “special project” to becoming the backbone of mainstream technology infrastructure. The hardware race and infrastructure demand could drive tremendous innovation, but companies need to prepare now (in terms of architecture, data readiness, and governance) to fully benefit. What do you think?

Do you expect this wave of AI-infrastructure expansion to reach emerging markets (like India) quickly, or will it remain concentrated in major tech hubs first before spreading globally? Read More:- https://lnkd.in/dXdDWWZa #TrendForce #AI2026 #TechForecast #AIInfrastructure #CloudComputing #AIChips #FutureOfTech #aitp #aitechnology #artificialintelligence #technology #aitech #machinelearning TAIPEI, Nov. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TrendForce has identified 10 key technology trends that will define the tech industry's evolution in 2026. The highlights of these findings are outlined below: AI Chip Competition Intensifies as Liquid Cooling Gains Widespread Adoption in Data Centers

In 2026, the high demand for AI data center construction—fueled by increased capital spending by major North American CSPs and the rise of sovereign cloud projects worldwide—is anticipated to boost AI server shipments by... NVIDIA, the leading name in AI today, will face stronger competition ahead. AMD plans to challenge NVIDIA by introducing its MI400 full-rack solution, which mirrors NVIDIA's GB/VR systems and is aimed at CSP clients. Meanwhile, major North American CSPs are increasing their in-house ASIC development. In China, geopolitical tensions have sped up the drive for technological self-sufficiency, with companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and Cambricon boosting efforts to create their own AI chips. This is set to intensify the global competition.

Thermal design power (TDP) per chip is increasing rapidly as AI processors become more powerful, jumping from 700W for NVIDIA's H100 and H200 to over 1,000W for the upcoming B200 and B300. This increase in heat output is leading to a widespread adoption of liquid-cooling systems in server racks, with usage expected to reach 47% by 2026. TrendForce has identified 10 key technology trends that will define the tech industry’s evolution in 2026. The highlights of these findings are outlined below: AI Chip Competition Intensifies as Liquid Cooling Gains Widespread Adoption in Data Centers In 2026, the high demand for AI data center construction—fueled by increased capital spending by major North American CSPs and the rise of sovereign cloud projects worldwide—is anticipated to boost AI server shipments by...

NVIDIA, the leading name in AI today, will face stronger competition ahead. AMD plans to challenge NVIDIA by introducing its MI400 full-rack solution, which mirrors NVIDIA’s GB/VR systems and is aimed at CSP clients. Meanwhile, major North American CSPs are increasing their in-house ASIC development. In China, geopolitical tensions have sped up the drive for technological self-sufficiency, with companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and Cambricon boosting efforts to create their own AI chips. This is set to intensify the global competition. Thermal design power (TDP) per chip is increasing rapidly as AI processors become more powerful, jumping from 700W for NVIDIA’s H100 and H200 to over 1,000W for the upcoming B200 and B300.

This increase in heat output is leading to a widespread adoption of liquid-cooling systems in server racks, with usage expected to reach 47% by 2026. This article was featured in the Think newsletter. Get it in your inbox. A year in tech can feel like a decade anywhere else. Think about it: a year ago, we were discussing how ChatGPT wasn’t able to count the number of “r”s in “strawberry.” Reasoning models from Chinese frontier labs (like DeepSeek-R1) hadn’t taken the world by... Claude’s dedicated coding agent didn’t exist yet.

IBM’s Granite 3.0 had only just arrived. And the agent conversation was only beginning: MCP had just gained traction in the spring, with a notable endorsement from Sam Altman. Meanwhile, in the world of infrastructure, chips and compute resources were becoming scarce, giving new territories a competitive advantage. AI in 2026: Scalable Dreams and Potential Pitfalls As we look toward 2026, AI continues its upward trajectory, promising economic expansion and technological breakthroughs, yet grappling with geopolitical tensions and infrastructure hurdles. This article dives into the anticipated scaling of AI models, the challenges posed by power demand in data centers, and the US-China tech race.

Key developments like Nvidia's strategic acquisitions and OpenAI's ambitious Stargate project illustrate a tech landscape rife with opportunities and obstacles alike.

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