​Digital systems and services account for around 4% of global energy consumption today—a figure that could rise to nearly 25% by 2030 if nothing is done. With everything from phones and cars to entire factories going digital, the number of connected devices and the associated data traffic are growing extremely rapidly. Which means higher energy consumption—much higher. In fact, the amount of energy used by digital systems and services will have to be reduced by a factor of 100 to 1,000 within the next decade to keep energy consumption under control.

This is a huge challenge that will require substantial technological breakthroughs—and hardware innovation is the only way through it. Significant advances will have to be made in embedded AI hardware, for example, an area where power consumption still has much room for improvement. AI is particularly power-hungry, especially during learning, which is currently mainly done in cloud computing configurations. Quantum computing is another area that will need attention if it is to deliver on its promise of high-performance computing at a reasonable cost.