MIT Technology Review Reveals 2026 Innovators Under 35
MIT Technology Review names its 2026 Innovators Under 35; the newsletter also covers Claude's theorem proof, Mistral's $3.5B raise and Europe's Starlink-rival effort.
The list appears in The Download, the publication's weekday newsletter. According to the review, by identifying top young innovators and learning what they are focused on, the annual feature aims to show readers the advances to expect in the years ahead. The selected individuals have already made clear progress toward their goals.
The same issue also rounds up a number of consequential developments in technology. Nature reports that Anthropic's Claude AI system has formalized a proof of Fermat's last theorem in just 11 days, generating a computer-verified proof that is 13 million lines long. The work is an example of how artificial intelligence is starting to discover new mathematics, MIT Technology Review noted.
Another highlight is Mistral's $3.5 billion funding, which CNBC said is the largest equity round ever raised by a private European technology company. The French startup is betting on open AI models while its U.S. rivals keep their models closed, and it is shifting strategy to focus more on AI infrastructure, according to Reuters and The New York Times. Le Monde has reported criticism of that pivot to data centers and services.
Europe's biggest carriers — Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica — are in talks to build a rival to Starlink, creating a satellite-to-mobile venture. Bloomberg and Reuters reported the discussions. Other briefs from the newsletter covered a proposed Australian law that would allow users to switch off social-media algorithms, the release of a 5.6-trillion-pixel map covering three-quarters of the sky, and NASA's plans for acoustic testing of its quiet supersonic jet this year, with the goal of producing a soft thump rather than a sonic boom.
In a separate feature, MIT Technology Review published an analysis of AI's energy footprint. The magazine said its reporters interviewed two dozen experts, evaluated different AI systems and prompts, and reviewed hundreds of pages of projections and reports. The analysis offers an unprecedented look at how much energy the AI industry uses now and how its carbon footprint could change as adoption of the technology grows.