The first week of every month, DTN will highlight some of the best writing in technology and soon-to-be-released books that are worth ordering early.
Articles
From The Atlantic
The Great Data Center Rebellion: Could a New Populist Movement Help Save Democracy? (Subscription Required)
Published: September 30, 2026
By: George Packer
Clinton, Iowa, is probably going to get a large AI data center complex. It’s a financial lifeline that has angered citizens, frustrated government officials, and broken friendships. But in all the tension, Packer finds something interesting. The restoration of a viable democracy.
From Data Centre Magazine
Oracle’s Project Jupiter to Share Public Environmental Data
Published: September 17, 2026
By: Daisy Hawker
The 4GW project in New Mexico is making it easy for the public see how the new data center campus affects the environment by building a dashboard citizens can monitor and track.
From National Review
Your Data Center Life
Published: September 17, 2026
By: Charles C.W. Cook
When one really stops and things about the number of times a day our lives touch data centers, we begin to appreciate how intertwined this infrastructure is with our lives. For Cook, it brings another revelation: “In 2026, data centers are such an inextricable part of American life that to discuss whether they are welcome is the equivalent of agonizing over what we think of this newfangled “television” thing.”
From Wired
It’s Donald Trump vs. MAGA on Data Centers
Published: September 20, 2026
By: Molly Taft
How deep far is MAGA willing to go with Trump, on AI, on Iran, on Epstein? We’re about to find out.
Soon to Be Released
Co-existence: The Next Phase of AI
By: Ethan Mollick
Publishing October 20, 2026
We are entering a new era. AI systems can already outperform humans in some domains while failing spectacularly in others. They can act as tutors, collaborators, researchers, strategists, and creators…yet they can also produce falsehoods, generate convincing nonsense, and fail unpredictably. The challenge is no longer simply adopting new technology. It is learning how to think, work, and live in a world where machines are sometimes smarter than us.
In Co-Existence, Ethan Mollick—a Wharton professor and author of the widely read One Useful Thing newsletter—argues that the future of AI will not be defined by replacement, but by interaction.
Report
From McKinsey
McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2026
Published September 2026
The technology story of 2026 has moved off the screen and into the physical world. Innovation is accelerating in the power grids and chips that underpin the data center boom; in the intelligent robots that embody AI; in the agentic systems discovering new chemical compounds; and in the launch pads sending thousands of satellites into orbit.
AI needs energy to scale. That’s one reason energy technologies alone drew nearly $200 billion in investment in 2025, among the highest capital influx in any technology domain. And spending on AI infrastructure doubled in a single year. These developments show that the defining questions today are not only about what technology can do. They are also about who can build the hardware and assemble the skilled workforce to deploy AI in the real world. At the same time, huge leaps were made in cybersecurity and software development—illustrating that AI is accelerating the digital frontier, too.
McKinsey’s Technology Trends Outlook 2026 examines 14 technology trends that define 2026, expanding our coverage from last year to include two new fast-emerging domains: agentic software development and AI for scientific discovery and engineering. For easier navigation, we group the trends into three broader categories: AI revolution, compute and connectivity frontiers, and cutting-edge engineering. The lines between these domains are blurring, and much of the innovation is happening in the gaps.
