On June 9, The Boston Globe released its 2026 “Tech Power Players” list, recognizing 50 influential local leaders in technology and business across Massachusetts. The list includes eight MIT affiliates: President Sally Kornbluth, Prof. Daniela Rus (director of CSAIL), Prof. Regina Barzilay, Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, Prof. Max Tegmark, Ana Bakshi (executive director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship), Katie Rae (CEO and Managing Partner of Engine Ventures), and Senior Lecturer Brian Halligan, along with numerous MIT alumni.
The Power Players coverage highlights MIT’s research labs, its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, industry connections, new AI initiatives, and the Institute’s commitment to maintaining Massachusetts’ technological leadership. “Massachusetts can absolutely lead in this next wave,” says President Kornbluth, pointing to opportunities in manufacturing, life and health sciences, quantum technologies, and energy that can serve Americans nationwide.
MIT is “working to drive artificial intelligence forward in sectors where the region is strongest, from biotechnology and robotics to defense and clean energy. It’s also trying to broaden entrepreneurship through a ‘dorm-to-startup’ push, creating a pipeline of support services—from hack-a-thons to venture funding—to help students start companies between classes,” writes Robert Weisman for The Globe. President Kornbluth is reinvigorating the school’s support of the local innovation ecosystem, unveiling new online AI classes—with free entry-level courses for anyone—and encouraging more on-campus entrepreneurship.
MIT is carving out a specialty in applied AI, sometimes called “AI+X,” deploying the technology to help businesses, hospitals, and research institutions supercharge productivity, innovation, and scientific breakthroughs. Aman Narang ’04, CEO of Toast, notes: “The superpower has always been the university system. The best thing Boston can do is keep these people around.”
MIT startups are a key driver of the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. To maintain Boston as a hub for innovators, MIT is building on its existing entrepreneurship resources, including more than 150 courses and 85 centers and programs. President Kornbluth and Provost Anantha Chandrakasan recently formed the Committee on Accelerating Translation and Entrepreneurship (CATE) to explore how the Institute can better support and accelerate the movement of ideas from research into new ventures.
Applications for The Martin Trust Center’s startup accelerator program have doubled from last year, and nearly one-fifth of MIT undergraduates—about 800 students—attended a recent startup career fair.
The Globe also highlights MIT startup Liquid AI, which develops AI models inspired by the brain structure of a simple worm. These models require far less electricity to operate than large language models, saving energy and water. Liquid AI recently signed a deal with Mercedes-Benz to incorporate its technology into onboard systems of cars sold in North America.
Researchers are also focusing on energy innovation. Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang’s lab is developing batteries that store more electricity over longer periods, creating more opportunities for wind, solar, and other clean energy sources. Chiang’s lab and other MIT research centers work on microchips, critical minerals, fusion technology, and defense tech—examples of “tough tech” that combine science and engineering, which Chiang says “are in the sweet spot of the Boston ecosystem.”
Soon, 80 MIT students will work as summer interns at GE Vernova, thanks to the MIT-GE Vernova Climate and Energy Alliance, a collaboration aimed at accelerating the global energy transition. GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik dedicated $50 million over five years to fund internships and research projects.
When asked about the most promising thing about the Greater Boston tech scene, Prof. Rus answers: “talent. Boston has the best AI researchers in the world, and they’re producing genuinely new ideas, not incremental ones.” Bob Mumgaard SM ’15, co-founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, says the region’s expertise in engineering, designing, and manufacturing hardware and access to university researchers made it possible to build the company only in Massachusetts. “The ecosystem has the building blocks… Massachusetts is the strongest in the nation in innovation in energy.”
President Kornbluth points to quantum: “There isn’t a more important technological field right now than quantum science and technology, and the Boston area has the greatest concentration of quantum talent anywhere in the world.”