At Davos 2026, the conversation around manufacturing changed. What used to be a slow debate about “AI readiness” turned into a clear message from governments, generals, and technology leaders: defence, energy, and industrial AI are now one system. And factories sit at the centre of it.

Germany and Japan announced hundreds of billions for power grids, data centres, semiconductors, and AI gigafactories. NATO quietly reframed manufacturing capacity as part of national resilience. Jensen Huang explained why real value sits in domain-specific industrial AI, not generic models. And Elon Musk showed what happens when you scale those layers—where abundance, robotics, and energy limits all converge.

The gap between AI hype and manufacturing reality collapsed. If you’re running a factory, the message was simple: the window to modernise is short, and the cost of waiting has changed. Your systems are no longer operational choices. They’re strategic assets in a world that’s accelerating.