TrendForce Outlines 10 Key AI and Tech Trends for 2026

The global technology landscape is set for major shifts in 2026, announced in a press release by TrendForce. The firm identified ten trends expected to shape the industry, from AI chip competition and energy storage to humanoid robotics and next-generation semiconductors.

AI data center demand is projected to rise sharply, driving over 20% growth in AI server shipments. NVIDIA will face stronger competition as AMD introduces its MI400 full-rack solution, and major cloud providers develop in-house ASICs. In China, companies such as ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and Cambricon are accelerating AI chip development amid geopolitical pressures. The increase in chip thermal power is prompting widespread adoption of liquid cooling, expected to reach nearly half of server racks by 2026.

Bandwidth and memory limitations are also being addressed through high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and optical interconnects. HBM4 will expand channel density and I/O bandwidth, while silicon photonics and co-packaged optics will support faster, more efficient AI cluster communication. Optical transceivers of 800G and 1.6T are already in production, with higher-bandwidth systems expected in 2026.

TrendForce also noted advances in energy systems for AI data centers, with energy storage evolving from backup to core infrastructure. Installed capacity is forecast to rise from 15.7 GWh in 2024 to 216.8 GWh by 2030. Data centers are transitioning to 800V HVDC architectures using silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, expected to reach 17% adoption by 2026.

On the semiconductor front, the move to 2nm GAAFET production and 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration is underway, led by TSMC, Intel, and Samsung. Meanwhile, humanoid robot shipments are expected to grow over 700% to surpass 50,000 units, driven by more adaptive AI and scenario-based applications. Additional trends include OLED expansion in premium notebooks, advances in AR glasses with LEDoS displays, and the global expansion of robotaxi services as assisted-driving systems become standard.