The 16th Annual Meeting of New Champions of World Economic Forum (WEF), or the Summer Davos Forum, released a report on top 10 emerging technologies of 2025 on its opening day in Tianjin on Tuesday.
The featured technologies include structural battery composites, osmotic power systems, advanced nuclear technologies, engineered living therapeutics, GLP-1s for neurogenerative disease, autonomous biochemical sensing, green nitrogen fixation, Nanozymes, collaborative sensing and generative AI watermarking.
These emerging technologies are expected to achieve practical results within three to five years and solve imminent global challenges, according to the report.
Experts at the forum recognized China's strong presence in these emerging fields, especially battery technologies.
"China is currently leading in battery production. This originated initially with small cell phones. It's now moved into vehicles. And now we see the next generation will actually build the batteries into the structures of the vehicles. And we see both the kind of leading players like CATL, BYD, but also a number of new emerging companies that are going to be driving progress on these battery technologies," said Jeremy Jurgens, managing director at World Economic Forum heading the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Centre for Cybersecurity.
The report emphasizes the need for supportive environments in terms of investment, infrastructure and standardization to facilitate large-scale development of these technologies. It calls for collaboration between businesses, governments, and the scientific community to ensure responsible implementation.
Lee Sang-yup, vice president for research at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology from South Korea, praised China's innovation ecosystem which has potential to nurture cutting-edge technologies.
"Young people are eager to be involved in science and technology, which is first good sign. And also, there is ecosystem of not only the scientists but also policymakers and also investors come together very nicely," said Lee.
The three-day event is expected to bring together around 1,800 participants from over 90 countries and regions, focusing on five key areas -- deciphering the world economy, outlook on China, industries disrupted, investing in people and the planet, and new energy and materials.
Forum releases report on top 10 emerging techs
