2026-11-13 04:16:24
Representatives from Nvidia told Illinois representative Bill Foster that it would be technically possible to implement the anti-smuggling measures called for in the Chip Security Act, Foster told MIT Technology Review in an interview on Thursday, even while an industry group claimed they were “potentially infeasible.”
Foster, a Democrat who serves on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, is a cosponsor of the act, which would introduce geotracking requirements to verify the location of advanced AI chips in order to prevent their smuggling to China. It is one of three chip-security bills under consideration for inclusion in the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act, each of which is drawing renewed attention after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation and reported affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
When the Chip Security Act was introduced, in May 2025, lawmakers said the technology to implement it existed, something Nvidia has not publicly confirmed. In March 2026, the Semiconductor Industry Association, of which Nvidia is a member, explicitly opposed the bill and wrote that its mandates for chip tracking were “new, untested, and potentially infeasible.”
But privately, Nvidia representatives working with Foster told the lawmaker that the company could implement them.
“They never put anything in writing,” Foster says, but during technical discussions on the possibility of such safeguards, their reaction was “yeah, of course we can do this.” This private acknowledgment to Foster goes further than anything Nvidia has previously made public.
Other technology Nvidia has built for its customers suggests that the company can indeed offer accurate tracking of its chips’ locations. In December 2025, for example, it announced a new tool called Fleet Intelligence that would allow customers to monitor how its advanced chips were performing across different data center locations. In doing so, the tool could indicate which country chips were in, Nvidia confirmed to Reuters, but the company would not elaborate on whether this technology could be used to prevent smuggling.
Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment or confirmation of Foster’s characterization.
In early October, when lawmakers were reportedly increasingly concerned about Nvidia’s role in smuggling, MIT Technology Review asked the company if Fleet Intelligence could be used to prevent the practice. It declined to answer directly, instead sending a statement: “Governments and media have found insignificant diversion of controlled US products—a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of domestic compute China already has.”
The recent fallout at Nvidia involves a number of people and companies alleged to be involved in chip smuggling. Alice Huang, with whom Jensen Huang reportedly had an affair, runs Megaspeed, a Singaporean firm now under investigation for smuggling advanced GPUs to China. A US Commerce Department inquiry into the company was reportedly halted after invention by Nvidia. Megaspeed reportedly bought chips from Supermicro, a company that packages Nvidia’s chips onto servers.
The Chip Security Act as drafted would require a mechanism to track the locations of chips, either by inspections of facilities, attestations by companies, or ping-based location mechanisms. The ping-based technique, the hardest option to circumvent, would require the GPU to send a signal of its location when it comes online. In September, the Center for Security and Emerging Technology found it would be the most cost-effective option.
Foster said he did not ask Nvidia’s representatives why they weren’t voluntarily adopting such chip-tracking tools if they could technically do so.
But if the requirements of the bill pass as part of the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act, the new tracking mechanisms would only tell investigators where the chips are, not offer a way to disconnect them if it’s revealed they have been smuggled. Foster told MIT Technology Review he intends to introduce new, stricter legislation in the new year that would offer a workaround. The new rule would require licenses to operate advanced GPUs, and before a GPU could connect, its valid license would need to be verified.
In the meantime, the controversy at Nvidia, Foster says, has fueled support among his colleagues for the rules in the bill: “There will be a lot of political pressure, in the wake of everything that’s happened, on the companies to actually do a very good job of the geographic validation of where the chip actually is.”
2026-11-12 21:10:00
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Thousands of delegates, lobbyists, and journalists have gathered in Antalya, Turkey, for COP31, the annual UN climate talks. But this year’s negotiations are taking place against a particularly tense geopolitical backdrop, as the world falls further behind the Paris Agreement’s goals.
Energy prices are soaring, and there are big questions about how countries will tackle the climate crisis. Expect a lot of back and forth on fossil fuels and climate finance, and whether negotiators can agree on meaningful action.
Here’s what you need to know about COP31.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Far-thinking technologists are working on ways to keep your brain going beyond death. MIT Technology Review’s latest Roundtables event explores their ideas, from gradual brain replacement to uploading memories to the cloud.
Join science editor Mary Beth Griggs and senior editor for biomedicine Antonio Regalado for this subscriber-only discussion.
Tune in live on Tuesday, November 17 at 5:00 p.m. GMT / 12:00 p.m. EST / 9:00 a.m. PST.
Want to join the conversation? Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to all our Roundtables.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Nvidia is reportedly preparing to oust CEO Jensen Huang
The board will meet as soon as today to determine his future. (WSJ $)
+ Nvidia’s stock slid 8% after the report was published. (BI)
+ Huang allegedly also had an affair with an Nvidia colleague.(NYT $)
+ His exit could send shockwaves across the AI industry. (Axios)
+ Stakes are high in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The Nvidia spy scandal is set to tighten chip exports
But Commerce Secretary Lutnick has stalled the curbs. (CNBC)
+ China has signaled it will retaliate if they pass. (FT $)
+ Chinese firms have started stockpiling Nvidia chips. (Reuters $)
+ Democrats appear to be preparing an investigation. (Politico)
3 A startup has built an AI to detect AI-made bioweapons
It runs offline on a laptop with a USB gene sequencer. (Wired $)
+ Ukraine is opening up its battlefield data to train AI weapons. (NYT $)
+ AI is making bioweapons easier to create. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anduril says its satellite can track spacecraft in orbital night
It uses an infrared sensor to detect hidden satellites. (Ars Technica)
+ Anduril is also making smart glasses for warfare. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Ukraine has reported new restrictions on SpaceX’s Starshield
Zelenskyy says they’re hampering drone defenses. (NBC News
6 Even remote Brazilian wildlife has microplastics in its blood
Animals 100 km from waste sites carried them. (Nature)
+ AstroTurf is increasing microplastic levels. (MIT Technology Review)
7 A NASA space camera can spot invasive plants from orbit
It detects how different species’ leaves reflect light. (Economist $)
8 Astronomers have found an “invisible” object that defies stellar theory
It’s likely an ultra-rare supermassive neutron star. (404 Media)
+ New research has corroborated the first black hole image. (New Scientist $)
+ The search for dark matter has been blown open. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Life may have started with metabolism, not genes
Self-sustaining chemical cycles could have come first. (Quanta)
10 Brain surgery has left a man seeing cat eyes on people
Researchers used AI to render what he sees. (Gizmodo)
Quote of the day
—Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO, tells Politico that he’s a devoted Democrat despite recently backing Trump.
One more thing
China’s short drama industry is fueled by bite-sized, melodramatic, and smutty shows built for smartphone scrolling. Now, many are being made entirely with AI: no actors, camera operators, cinematographers, or CGI specialists required.
An average of 470 AI-generated short dramas were released every day in January. Production timelines have shrunk from months to weeks, while costs have dropped by up to 90%. Storytelling is also increasingly driven by performance data.
The format is rapidly expanding overseas while reshaping the work of writers and production crews. Read the full story on AI’s dramatic impact on China’s short drama industry.
—Caiwei Chen
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Watch Rome grow from 1000 BCE to the present day in a mesmerising 3D timelapse.
+ Hold your breath watching a skateboarder’s record-breaking 94.3mph run down a Québec hill.
+ A captivating photo essay has captured the heart-wrenching wail of flamenco at the Seville Biennial.
+ A majestic Chinese mural has sparked a rare US-China collaboration that unearthed new secrets from art history.
2026-11-12 01:00:00
It’s that time of year again: Thousands of delegates, lobbyists, and journalists are gathered for the annual UN climate talks, taking place this time in Antalya, Turkey.
COP31 officially kicked off on November 8, marking the beginning of negotiations on one of the biggest stages of the climate world. Turkey and Australia are cohosting this year’s talks, which are scheduled to wrap up on November 20.
This annual gathering can often serve as an indicator of where the world stands on addressing and adapting to the climate crisis. And this year’s talks are sure to be a doozy—expect a lot of back and forth on fossil fuels and climate finance in particular. Here’s what you should know about COP31.
In recent years, the tension always feels high when COP rolls around. (COP stands for “Conference of the Parties.”) But this year feels especially charged: The world is still grappling with the ongoing war in Iran, which has disrupted the Middle East and sent economic shock waves around the world as energy prices have spiked.
This year’s COP will be the second without a formal delegation from the US. President Trump formally withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement earlier this year and is in the process of withdrawing from the UN Framework Committee on Climate Change. That’s the treaty that allows formal participation in negotiations.
Meanwhile, things aren’t looking good for the Paris Agreement, which was established at UN climate talks 11 years ago, setting a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C over preindustrial levels. In a report published in September, the UN Environment Program acknowledged that global warming is set to exceed that 1.5 °C goal, “likely within the next few years.”
So as climate talks kick off, there’s an obvious, urgent question looming about how to quickly cut emissions to limit warming. There’s also the major issue of how to pay for efforts to address emissions and to help a warming world endure the inevitable damage.
Two years ago, talks ended in a goal of mobilizing $300 billion per year by 2035 to help pay to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. (Rich nations provided $136.7 billion in 2024, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.) And last year, the COP30 agreement included a goal of tripling the money for adaptation over that period. (Such funding has been quite flat over the past few years.)
The world got a tragic reminder of just how high the stakes are earlier this year, when a glacier collapse caused devastating flooding in the Himalayas. The flood killed approximately 1,500 people, left over 5,000 missing, and caused nearly $5 billion in damage. The UN loss and damages fund committed $20 million to helping Nepal recover (less than 1% of the total estimated cost to the country).
Another key trend to watch is how the formal negotiations engage with the topic of fossil fuels. Three years ago, the final agreement text explicitly called for a transition away from them. But it felt as if things took a step back last year, when the final agreement didn’t even mention the phrase “fossil fuels” once. This will be an interesting conversation, especially because cohosts Turkey and Australia have both faced criticism over their relationships with these fuels—Australia is a major exporter of coal and natural gas, and Turkey’s grid relies heavily on fossil fuels, including coal.
Outside the formal negotiations, COP31 president Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister, is spearheading a side agenda, including two informal initiatives that will be worth watching. These wouldn’t be part of the official agreement text, but countries could sign on to signal support.
One is a pledge to make AI more sustainable; this is almost comically squishy, even as voluntary COP pledges go. The text includes explicit wording that it creates no new obligations for countries, so don’t expect anything resembling enforcement there.
The COP leadership is also pushing to make electricity a larger part of member countries’ energy use. Today, only about 23% of global energy is used in the form of electricity. Fossil fuels, like gasoline in vehicles or natural gas for heating, make up the bulk of the rest. Shifting to more electricity use, and relying on cleaner sources for that electricity, could help drive down emissions. The new pledge’s target is for electricity to make up 35% of total energy consumption by 2035.
With leadership billing this as an “implementation COP,” it would be great to see some real, tangible progress on the global challenge of addressing climate change. I’m not expecting anything groundbreaking, but we’ll be tuned in to see what the final agreement shapes up to be.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
2026-11-11 21:10:00
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
As we age, we forget most of what we’ve experienced, yet there’s still undeniable continuity: At 30, or 50, or 70, you will still be you.
To preserve that elusive continuity of self, some far-thinking technologists are exploring ways to keep the brain going, even beyond death. Their ideas range from freezing brains in liquid nitrogen to augmenting living ones and uploading our memories to the cloud.
Here are six possible paths for keeping your mind going, and how feasible they might be.
—Antonio Regalado
This story is from the Impossible edition of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get every issue as soon as it lands.
Anthropic recently released a report arguing that a powerful new model released by the Chinese company Z.ai, poses a major cyberattack risk. Its core concern was that it is freely available for anyone to download and modify.
The warning was the latest flashpoint in the debate over open frontier AI models. Critics warn that bad actors can misuse them, while supporters argue they prevent a handful of companies from controlling the technology. The debate, however, is more complicated than it seems.
This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 COP31’s flagship pledge to electrify 35% of energy use is sinking
Only around a dozen nations are reportedly ready to sign it. (Politico)
+ It requires quadrupling the pace of electrification. (New Scientist $)
+ John Kerry says the US must follow China on clean energy. (Guardian)
+ But the US skipped the talks entirely for a second year. (NYT $)
+ What’s the future of electricity? (MIT Technology Review)
2 The Nvidia spy scandal reportedly involves $7.5 billion of chips
Alice Huang allegedly obtained 240,000 restricted chips. (Information $)
+ Trump was told of Huang’s spy link on Air Force One. (NYT $)
+ Experts warn the scandal could erode America’s AI lead. (Verge)
+ Nvidia’s slide has let Microsoft overtake it in value. (Reuters $)
3 Studies found AI agents go rogue because they’re “incorrigible”
Their training rewards them for finishing tasks at any cost. (NYT $)
+ This is why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anthropic has scaled back its IPO valuation to $1.4 trillion
It aimed for $2 trillion before the recent AI jitters. (Guardian)
5 Drone strikes have wiped out 3% of Yandex’s cloud customer data
Ukraine hit three of its data centers in October. (Reuters $)
+ Ukraine’s drones are fighting data centers for fiber. (Ars Technica)
6 Moderna says its new vaccine could prevent cancer in high-risk people
The company’s CEO calls it the “holy grail” of cancer prevention. (FT $)
+ Hong Kong is testing a next-gen ultrasound cancer treatment. (SCMP)
7 Scientists have slowly reversed human cells’ ages by decades
One age marker was set back as far as 60 years. (Wired $)
+ “Reprogramming” is the buzziest de-aging idea. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Robot vessels are hunting for mines in the Strait of Hormuz
AI helps them spot mines camouflaged on the seabed. (BBC)
9 Life may have started inside a tiny bubble
That’s the idea behind the “lipid first” origin theory. (Quanta)
10 As Voyager 1 reaches a light day from Earth, here’s what it’s taught us
Its discoveries rewrote textbooks in real time. (New Scientist $)
Quote of the day
—Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, accuses President Donald Trump of ignoring warnings about the alleged relationship between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and a Chinese spy.
One more thing
Bananas may not be chilled in the grocery store, but they’re the ultimate refrigerated fruit. It’s only thanks to a network of thermal control that they’ve become a global commodity. And that salad bag on the shelf? It’s not just a bag but a highly engineered respiratory apparatus.
According to Nicola Twilley—a contributor to The New Yorker and cohost of the podcast Gastropod—refrigeration has wrecked our food system. Thankfully, there are promising alternative preservation methods.
Read the full story on her research.
—Allison Arieff
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ A whisky made like wine is wowing the spirits world.
+ Britain lost in the fog makes for hauntingly beautiful photos.
+ Chronophoto is a fiendishly addictive game that challenges you to date old photos to the year.
+ Dozens of saxophonists met up in New York to play the gloriously cheesy riff from George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.”
2026-11-10 21:10:00
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
—Grace Huckins
As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored legislation aimed at curbing the risks of advanced AI. Now, after winning a tight congressional race for Nancy Pelosi’s open San Francisco seat, he could play a key role in setting federal AI policy.
I spoke with Wiener only a few hours after he had been declared the victor. But he was already thinking about AI risk: during our 20-minute conversation, he used the phrase “recursive self-improvement” half a dozen times.
“We need to slow this down,” he told me. “Because it’s moving very quickly, and we could sleepwalk into a disaster.” Still, he describes himself as only “cautiously optimistic” about Congress’s ability to rein in AI. Here’s what he plans to do about it.
—James O’Donnell
As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s largest data center hub. It’s also where the backlash sweeping the country arguably first began to take shape.
Big Tech has framed the data center uproar as a culture war over progress. But a few days in Ashburn convinced me the real fault line may be electricity: drawing it from the grid or generating it onsite provokes different forms of blowback.
The industry can improve its image, but it can’t escape the consequences of its enormous appetite for electricity. Find out why.
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The FBI is investigating Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair
But Trump says he doesn’t think Huang needs to worry. (AP News)
+ Huang hired a PR firm known for handling sex scandals last year. (Wired $)
+ The allegations will likely spur new chip export restrictions. (Reuters $)
+ They also raise questions about Huang’s lobbying on China. (Verge)
+ And threaten the fate of the economy. (WP $)
2 France has accused Iran of hacking its supermarket fridges
Prosecutors are investigating the leaders of an Iranian cyber unit. (NPR)
+ Hackers are shifting to manipulating physical equipment. (Axios)
+ Is your smart kitchen next? (Wired $)
3 The Iran war has triggered a drop in global emissions
The main driver is energy supply constraints. (New Scientist $)
+ But the decline will likely prove temporary. (Gizmodo)
+ Our climate models have a big blind spot. (MIT Technology Review)
4 The FDA has ordered GLP-1s to carry warnings about blindness
It says the drugs may increase the risk of vision loss. (NBC News)
+ GLP-1s could also exacerbate eating disorders. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Australia is mulling criminal penalties for rogue AI
The proposals follow an AI agent hacking government systems. (BBC)
6 The Pentagon is planning to patrol the Moon
The project’s first five satellites could launch in 2029. (Ars Technica)
7 Two US cities have voted to ditch Flock surveillance cameras
York, Maine, and League City, Texas, have voted to ban them. (Vox)
+ What Flock’s defenders are missing. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Constant surveillance is changing how children grow up
Tracking apps can fuel anxiety and undermine resilience. (Atlantic $)
9 A tiny RNA molecule could explain how life began
Some researchers believe life emerged from self-copying molecules. (Quanta)
10 A sci-fi novel has won the Booker Prize for the first time
The End of Everything was awarded the prestigious honor. (Gizmodo)
Quote of the day
—Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein, tells Reuters why it will be so difficult to replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia CEO.
One More Thing
Just a short ferry ride from the Chinese port city of Yantai sits Genghai No. 1, a strange offshore complex that combines a tourist attraction with an industrial fish farm. It even has a seven-story visitor center shaped like a cartoon starfish. But its main purpose is to breed fish and release them into the ocean.
Genghai is part of China’s ambitious marine ranching program. Since 2015, the country has built 169 demonstration ranches and released at least 167 billion juvenile fish and shellfish. But the approach has also proved controversial.
Dive into China’s divisive plans to restore the seas with marine ranches.
—Matthew Ponsford
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ “Earth artist” David Popa has created a new land-art portrait in the mountains of Norway.
+ The winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year capture both the power and fragility of nature.
+ A Minnesota man who stopped a runaway school bus got surprised with a $1,000 cheque from Superman.
+ After more than two decades without regular star shows, Frank Lloyd Wright’s only planetarium has been restored.
2026-11-10 21:00:00
The metals industry has experienced transformational moments before: the Bessemer process, flash smelting, electric arc furnaces, and modern continuous casting all changed what was possible.
Yet, for more than a century, most extraction processes rely on techniques and pathways that would be familiar to metallurgists from generations ago. Processes have become larger and control systems smarter, but the fundamental science behind separating metals from ores has changed less than many realize.
Today’s materials challenges are different from those of the 20th century, but why are critical metals still produced using largely the same scientific foundations?
EvoMaterials, a technology platform developed by Outokumpu—the global leader in sustainable stainless steel and the producer of ferrochrome with 67% lower carbon footprint than the industry average—is exploring that question by rethinking how metals can be extracted:
“We decided to go beyond the current constraints and look fundamentally at what’s the best way to do this with the benefit of the scientific engineering knowledge and hindsight that we have today,” says Caspar Stinn, technical director for extractive metallurgy at Outokumpu. “We’re looking at how we can reimagine metals production.”
As economies expand and the world becomes increasingly electrified, data and scientific models point to rising demand for many minerals, driven by technologies ranging from data centers to aerospace, water treatment, energy systems, and defence. According to Antoine Allanore, professor of metallurgy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this coincides with many Western economies having reduced their domestic processing capacity for the very metals those industries depend on.
Metallurgy is now strategically important, shaped not only by cost and availability but also by carbon footprint, geographic origin and supply-chain resilience.
That reality is particularly relevant for chromium and other specialty metals used in high-temperature and extreme environments. Chromium-based materials play a critical role in aerospace systems, power generation, corrosion-resistant infrastructure and defense technologies, where materials must perform under demanding conditions.
For decades, metallurgical innovation largely focused on improving yields, energy efficiency and process control. EvoMaterials is based on the idea that some metallurgical processes may benefit from entirely different chemical pathways.
The platform originates from research into sulfidation-based processing technologies, initially pursued to reduce carbon emissions associated with ferrochrome production. Laboratory work revealed broader potential.
Lab-scale trials demonstrated that these alternative process chemistries could potentially do more than lower emissions. They could recover valuable metals from lower grade resources and industrial side streams while fundamentally altering how separation processes are performed. The opportunity is to rethink how mineral resources are used and how much value can be extracted from them, bringing in greater resource efficiency and stronger industrial competitiveness.
Source: Outokumpu
Development of the technology began in the United States in 2021 for chromite from Outokumpu’s Kemi mine in Finland, the only chrome mine in the European Union and one of the few such operations across the Western world. Since then, Outokumpu has evolved the technology through extensive research and development, combining new process chemistries with proprietary metallurgical expertise, supported in part by a non-exclusive patent license agreement from MIT.
“The technology is a new application for separating metallic elements from materials,” explains Allanore. Historically, that separation has been achieved using carbon- and energy-intensive approaches. The new method creates a different chemical environment that enables more efficient extraction with fewer losses and fewer unwanted by-products, recovering critical materials from resources considered waste.
EvoMaterials sits at the intersection of several scientific disciplines, a combination that strongly resonates with Stinn, who completed his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, where his research focused on low-carbon metals processing and recycling technologies.
Modern materials innovation draws on a growing mix of chemistry, materials science, physics, computational modeling, and engineering. With advanced simulation tools and AI helping researchers identify promising directions, scientific discovery still depends on experimentation and testing in the lab—on getting your hands dirty and doing the hard work.
“Science today is much more interdisciplinary than it was, and the collaboration across disciplines reveals new scientific opportunities,” says Stinn. Engineering can translate those opportunities into more efficient and cost-competitive metals production.
A technically significant aspect of EvoMaterials is that it’s not a single process, but a technology platform. Allanore compares EvoMaterials to platform technologies in other industries, where a single scientific breakthrough can enable multiple downstream applications.
Once a new extraction pathway has been mastered for one material system, the same scientific principles may be adapted to entirely different metals and mineral resources. The initial application becomes only the starting point.
“The future and the potential impact might be much broader than the original and current developments that are happening,” Allanore explains.
That possibility is increasingly important as industries seek secure supplies of nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and other strategic materials needed for advanced manufacturing.
The broader implication extends beyond metallurgy. Companies that develop proprietary process technologies may create value through production but also through intellectual property and scientific expertise.
Based on Outokumpu’s technology leadership, that transition could create entirely new categories of value, enabling the production of high-value critical materials from ores and resource streams that previously appeared uneconomical or inaccessible.
The result would be a fundamental shift in how metals are manufactured, where sustainability, resource efficiency, supply security, and economic value become outcomes of the same technological architecture rather than separate objectives.
The next step for EvoMaterials is pilot-scale validation, with a pilot plant in New Hampshire to begin operations in the first half of 2027. The facility will scale the proprietary technology from laboratory to one-ton production, providing a step toward industrial-scale deployment targeted for 2030. Beyond producing low-CO2, chromium-enriched ferrochrome and chromium metal, the platform could be adapted to other strategic materials, including nickel and molybdenum.
The work raises a broader question—how many of today’s metallurgical processes would look the same if they were invented from scratch? Or could those routes be designed differently today?
The next revolution in materials may begin by rethinking how to extract the metals that society depends on.
Read more about this topic and hear more from Caspar Stinn and Antoine Allanore.
This content was produced by Outokumpu. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.
