WEF: What Technologies are Reshaping Data Centres in 2025?

The World Economic Forum (WEF), in partnership with Frontiers and the Dubai Future Foundation, releases its Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2025 report, setting out the innovations it believes are shaping industries, infrastructure and societies.

“What makes this report valuable is that we look beyond what these technologies are to envision what they could create,” says Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director of the WEF.

“Each entry includes a strategic outlook that illustrates possible futures if these innovations reach their full potential.

"Developed in collaboration with the Dubai Future Foundation, the forward-looking scenarios help readers see transformative possibilities and inspire the commitment needed to move these technologies from promising concepts to widespread implementation."

Jeremy explains that the focus of this year’s list is on convergence. “The technologies in this edition reveal exciting patterns: combining energy systems with advanced materials, using biological approaches to improve human health, reimagining industrial processes for sustainability and creating new foundations for trust in connected systems.

“Each represents not just a technical advance, but a path towards more resilient and sustainable societies.”

Ten technologies shaping infrastructure and trust

The 10 technologies included in the WEF’s 2025 report are:

• Structural battery composites: materials that integrate energy storage with load-bearing structures, reducing weight and increasing efficiency in transport and infrastructure
  
  
• Osmotic power systems: renewable energy derived from salinity differences in water, offering steady electricity supply
  
  
• Advanced nuclear technologies: including small modular reactors (SMRs) and new cooling systems, positioned as scalable zero-carbon energy sources
  
  
• Engineered living therapeutics: genetically engineered microbes that can produce drugs, enzymes or hormones directly inside the body
  
  
• GLP-1s for neurodegenerative disease: use of existing diabetes and weight-loss drugs for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
  
  
• Autonomous biochemical sensing: continuous, self-powered biosensors to monitor health, food and the environment in real time
  
  
• Green nitrogen fixation: low-carbon processes for ammonia production, reducing the environmental footprint of fertiliser and fuel
  
  
• Nanozymes: synthetic nanomaterials with enzyme-like properties that can be used in medicine and industry
  
  
• Collaborative sensing: interconnected sensor networks supported by AI and 5G to optimise logistics, mobility and city planning
  
  
• Generative watermarking: invisible identifiers within AI-generated content to verify authenticity and counter misinformation

“In exploring these technologies, we invite readers to look beyond technical specifications,” says H.E. Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation.

“Each innovation represents more than an isolated advancement – it is a signal of broader transformations taking shape across our global systems.

“These are not just technologies, but potential catalysts for reimagining how we address complex global challenges.”

Digital trust and data centre security

The WEF places governance technologies at the centre of its 2025 outlook, identifying trust as a critical requirement for digital infrastructure. 

Generative watermarking, embedding invisible markers into AI-generated content, is presented as a key tool to ensure authenticity. The report highlights parallel work by Google, Meta and regulators in China and the EU to establish global provenance standards.

Collaborative sensing also features strongly, enabling interconnected data to be processed in real time. 

By integrating sensors with AI and 5G, these systems are designed to improve traffic management, logistics and emergency response. 

For data centres, the implications extend to intelligent energy distribution, improved monitoring and more adaptive infrastructure.

Energy innovations for resilient infrastructure

Energy systems dominate this year’s list, with direct relevance to data centres, which rely on reliable and efficient power. 

Structural battery composites integrate storage into the structure of vehicles and equipment, reducing overall weight and extending range. Osmotic power systems are advancing through improved membrane materials that generate renewable electricity from water salinity.

Advanced nuclear technologies, particularly SMRs, are highlighted as compact, safer and more flexible alternatives to large-scale reactors. With countries including China, the US and the UK investing in SMRs, these designs aim to complement renewable sources and strengthen grid resilience.

Meanwhile, green nitrogen fixation targets one of the most carbon-intensive industrial processes – ammonia production – and presents low-carbon pathways for agriculture and shipping.

“The integration of energy systems and materials… provides dramatic improvements in functionality and efficiency as seen in this year’s list,” says Mariette DiChristina, Dean and Professor of Journalism at Boston University College of Communication and Bernard S. Meyerson, Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus at IBM, Co-Chairs of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies Steering Group, say in the introduction of the report.

“In structural battery composites, transport gets an upgrade with ‘massless’ energy systems that blend into the load-bearing elements. 

“Turning to other sources of energy, advances in materials for semipermeable membranes enable ‘salt power’ in osmotic power systems. 

“Finally, in the search for non-carbon energy sources, new designs for next-generation nuclear power plants are coming online.”

At its core, the WEF report argues that success in deploying these technologies depends on aligning innovation with regulation, building resilient supply chains and sustaining public trust. For the data centre sector, where energy use, resilience and security remain central, the report outlines the technologies that could directly shape infrastructure in the decade ahead.