Investment in several critical technology trends is poised for significant growth, with at least five domains on pace to more than double their investment between 2025 and 2026. According to McKinsey’s Michael Chui, Roger Roberts, and Tanguy Catlin, agentic software development and the future of space technologies are projected to see the most dramatic increases, with investment potentially multiplying by more than 12 times. Other areas, including AI infrastructure, AI for scientific discovery, and robotics, are also on track for substantial growth, signaling that investors are betting frontier technologies will deliver value in the coming years.
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Bar charts compare 2025 investment with first-half and extrapolated full-year 2026 investment across 14 technology trends. Five trends are on pace to more than double investment: agentic software development (12.8×), future of space technologies (12.1×), AI infrastructure and model architectures (5.3×), AI for scientific discovery and engineering (3.2×), and future of robotics (2.1×). AI infrastructure and model architectures has the largest projected investment, rising from about $145 billion in 2025 to roughly $770 billion in 2026. Advanced connectivity is the only trend not projected to increase year over year.
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Source: PitchBook; McKinsey analysis
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To read the report, see “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2026,” September 15, 2026.