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Say what you want about the oversized design of Snap's Specs, but the company has shown off one of the most ambitious visions for standalone AR glasses to date. Now, we're finally going to get our first good look at the device and what it can actually do.

Following an initial reveal at Augmented World Expo earlier this year, Snap is about to officially launch the $2,195 device at an event in Los Angeles. Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel has said that Specs are not like the AI glasses Snap's competitors have championed. He's instead presented Specs as a "wearable computer" that can accompany you throughout your day, and maybe make you a little less dependent on your phone.

But while the company detailed some of the hardware and performance upgrades it's been working on for the last few years, there's still a lot we don't know about this version of Specs. A few questions I know are at the top of many minds: what's it like to actually use Specs? Are they comfortable? What kind of third-party app support is there? How does AI fit in? I expect we'll have a better idea of al of it by the time the event wraps.

Snap is hosting a dedicated livestream if you want to follow along. We'll also be watching IRL from Snap's launch event in Los Angeles. Spiegel's keynote is expected to kick off at 4PM PT on September 16, so follow along here for live updates and analysis about it all.

In the meantime, I know just about everyone reading this likely has some strong opinions, whether it's about how Specs look or smart glasses in general. Feel free to sound off in the comments with your questions and reactions.

Live Coverage is Over
85 Updates

• And with that, the keynote is over. Demo time!

• I have been to a lot of product launches and keynotes, but I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that.

• 

  You know that saying where the great ones make everything look easy? I've seen Heap live several times and while she is a great artist everything she does seems horrendously complicated and totally unrepeatable. 

• Now those gestures and head movements she showed us earlier are coming into play. So in addition to moving the AR elements around, she is controlling the effects with her own movements. 

• I'm not really sure how to describe what's happening right now. She's manipulating different AR elements around her and using them to create different sound effects that are all being layered on top of each other. 

• She's showing how she can use hand gestures or move her head around to activate different effects. 

• 

• I know people make fun of how Specs look but Imogen makes them look cool.

• And we're apparently going to close out with Imogen Heap improving some music using Specs.

• 

• Imogen Heap created some "spatial instruments" for Specs that look pretty trippy. (I did not get to try that one yet.) 

• Spiegel is now talking about Snap's "visionary" campaign, those are the black and white celeb portraits of folks wearing Specs. A lot of them also inspired Specs experiences, like a reading companion app or AR dominoes. (I got a chance to play the dominoes game yesterday.)

• Another bit of news: Snap is introducing a dedicated charging and connectivity case, which will help keep the glasses topped up with power and ensure you have a cellular signal so Specs apps work on the go. Verizon is the first in the US, but there are other telecom partners in the UK and France.

• Starting October 1, Specs is opening a "first look" experience here in LA where people can demo Specs for themselves.

• 

• Specs is getting its own Harry Potter experience to go along with the new HBO show coming later this year. It starts with getting a Hogwarts acceptance letter (delivered via AR owl, of course). You can then pick out a wand practice some spells, which trigger different AR effects. Reminds me a bit of Hogwarts Legacy.

• 

• A little cheer from the audience for "Virgo season" as Spiegel shows how Specs can help visualize constellations. (This Virgo appreciates the shoutout.)

• This Apollo visualization, on the other hand, is cool but feels a little more on the "gimmicky" side as AR goes. It's the kind of thing I feel like you might look at once but probably wouldn't revisit.

• Another example of how Specs can help you do something in the "real world" is drawing. Spiegel is tracing an AR alien onto a piece of paper. I'm not sure how much you can learn about art from tracing, but it's a cool example. 

• 

• Now, we're seeing an AR app Snap says built with the NBA and WNBA that can help you practcie your basketball shots with AR guidance. I actually used an earlier version of this with Snap's last gen glasses and I successfully sank a few free throws, for whatever it's worth.

• 

• The enterprise work is never as sexy, but there are lots of businesses where having a contextually aware AR display could be very useful. Spiegel says all this is "just the beginning" of its enterprise work.

• Now, Spiegel is talking about Snap's enterprise partners because every AR platform has to have an enterprise component. Salesforce and AWS are two early partners who are trying the tech. Snap is also working with Nvidia on bringing AI agents to Specs.

• 

• Now Spiegel showed a sauna he was able to put n front of him and see inside of. That demo also (probably unintentionally) gave us an idea of the limits to Specs' field of view since it looked like some of the AR sauna was being cut off.

• Another significant aspect of Specs, Spiegel says, is shopping. He says he think there was a "real opportunity" to make it easier for people to visualize products before they buy them. Snap has partnered with Shopify to make their entire catalog available in AR on Specs.

• Spiegel is browsing YouTube via his Specs. Something with the demo seems to not be working, some search results appeared but it seemed like he wasn't able to select a video. It worked on the second try, though, and he's not playing a YouTube video and showing how you can move and resize the window.

• Now Spiegel is calling Snapchat cofounder Bobby Murphy on his glasses. We can see video of the call, which naturally is filled with Snapchat AR effects. 

• 

• Spiegel is walking us through the basics of Specs' interface, including the main menu which you access from your plam. He also showed how you can send a pic on Snapchat by opening the camera and snapping your fingers – an advantage of hand-tracking controls.

• Okay, onto the live demo portion (it's good to see an old-fashioned live demo isn't it?). Spiegel notes that there's nothing on his wrist (another subtle dig at Meta which used a wristband controller for its display glasses). 

• Spiegel says Specs Intelligence is what helps make Specs powerful.There's a waitlist where people can sign up for early access.

• 

• We haven't heard the word "agent" yet, but what's being described certainly sounds like an AI agent.

• Specs Intelligence is Snap's AI assistant that can provide reminders, contextual info an other timely info. It's part of Specs but also has its own standalone desktop and mobile apps.

• 

• Okay this is interesting, our first new detail about Specs is Specs Intelligence. "Specs aren't just AR glasses... Specs are part of an intelligent system called Specs Intelligence," Spiegel says.

• 

• Spiegel is talking about the Specs reveal at AWE and jokes about all the memes it inspired. (There were a lottt of jokes that week.)

• Spiegel says that shared experiences are foundational to Specs. So are experiences that help you learn to do things in the real world.

• 

• Spiegel says Specs relies on what the company calls "instinctual computing" because it's meant to be intuitive.

• 

• He's certainly saying all the right things...

• Spiegel says that computers should "make us more important, not less." He also used the same line he's used before about virtual worlds replacing the real one, which I think is a reference to Meta's metaverse (which they haven't talked about much lately).

• Okay, that's thankfully over and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is onstage in his typical "uniform" of jeans and a black tee. He says today will be mostly live demos.

• I feel like we accidentally walked into a cult meeting ngl.

• And we're starting! Opening with a video in classic tech keynote style. This one is a bit woo, if I can call it that. A disembodied robotic voice talking about "human incarnation" .. "your soul remains perfectly safe." Okay then.

• Well this is a weird opening...

• I sure hope it's over before 10PM ET! The stream is now saying we've got a minute and a half to go. Strap in, folks!

• An hour tops, I'd say. I believe the entire event is due to run until 10PM ET, but there are activations following the formal presentation so I expect most of the time is allotted for that.

• Karissa how long are we expecting the keynote to run? Do you think I will have an on-time or late dinner, I guess?

• Oddly enough the stream says there's about 8 minutes to go.

• Yep, we just got a "the show will begin soon" announcement here in the theatre.

• T-minus one minute till the keynote is supposed to start, so grab a drink and a quick toilet break!

• I do my best work listening to house music! Definitely so much to look forward to now that we are well into fall event/product launch season again. It's hard to believe we're only halfway through September, I feel like there's already so much happening. 

• The EDM/house music playing on this stream is perfect background sound for my fevered writing at the moment. I can't tell you what I'm writing yet, but I can tease and say you should come back to Engadget soon?

• People are still filing in, but the seats are filling up and the music has changed. It seems like we're getting close to things getting going here.

• That's right. I don't know that we have heard anything yet about prescription lens support, but I know that the previous developer versions of AR glasses supported prescription inserts. I shudder to think how much that might add to the $2,195 price.

• I fear we have confused our dear readers, perhaps. Commenter Sabahow asked "I wear Rx glasses. Does Pixy work with Rx lenses"

  Pixy is an old, possibly now-defunct drone that Snap was rumored to be acquiring a few years ago! Today we're going to learn more about Specs AR glasses!

• That's basically a Dolby theater, not even IMAX. (That's me trying to get some sort of search juice there, really).

• 

  Here's a view of the theatre, there's also an upper level. 

• The event space itself is a kind of performing arts center with a big theatre. I'm not at my seat yet so it's hard to judge the capacity but it's definitely busy, well over 100 people in the area I'm in.

• How big is the space? I guess I mean, how many people is Snap expecting to accommodate, you think?

• We're all just milling about just outside the theatre where the keynote will be. Champagne and mocktails are being passed around. (Another sign we're not in Silicon Valley.) 

• Can Siri, Gemini or Alexa tell me who that statue is of? Or one of our readers, I guess?

• 

  I've made it in and we have our first sighting of Specs! Snap has dressed up some statues on the way into the theatre. 

• 

  Karissa sent me this picture of the check-in desk at the Specs event, because I clearly don't go to enough events and am living vicariously through her.

• I have just arrived at the check-in area, but they aren't quite ready to let us in yet. Everyone in line is dressed way nicer than a standard tech launch (Snap did suggest an attire of "daytime cocktail"). 

• Karissa what's the vibe like at the event? Is it crowded? Are more than five people excited for this?

• Wow I completely forgot the name of that thing. Pixy indeed. It's funny how trends come and go. I remember when camera drones were everywhere, kind of like how smart glasses are at the moment. And here we are, six or seven years later, with just a few major players in the space (and the biggest one banned from selling new products in the US).

• Yes, Pixy! There was an adorable yellow drone that I believe was eventually recalled due to fire risk. RIP. 

• Since we're on the topic, do you all remember every hardware product Snap ever made? I think mainly they have been the Spectacles, but I'm pretty sure there were fervent rumors that Snap was going to acquire a drone maker a few years ago.

• Hello, hello! Confirming I'm in Beverly Hills for the Specs event. We still have a little bit to go but I just saw this post on X from AR developer Brielle Garcia and I think it's a good reminder of the evolution of Snap's glasses. These are the second-gen Spectacles (the camera glasses that shot round videos) and the first two AR-enabled glasses that Snap only ever made available to developers.

  Congrats Snap on the launch of SPECS today! It's been a fun ride over the years and one that I know is just getting started! Hope to try the new ones sometime. pic.twitter.com/GdIv3rN4OQ

  — Brielle Garcia (@tacolamp) September 16, 2026

• I'm not really sure what people think of Snap these days. All I know is that younger people seem to care a lot about their Snap streaks, and Reddit frequently has stories about people who, through Snap, discovered their partners were cheating or their best friends were ignoring them. Not sure what this means for the company's hardware ambitions, though. 

• I tell you what, Bob in the comments is asking some good questions:

  "Wait, Snap is still a thing? Its CEO is still alive? And they're still making pervert glasses nobody asked for? LOL, why?

  Wow, Endgaget sent someone to this event? LOLOLOL"

  We did, Bob, we did. You'll see!

• We're a little over two hours away from the big event. We already know a lot about the new Specs, but we're hoping to hear more from the company about why exactly someone might want to drop $2,195 on a pair.

• 

  As a reminder, here's what the fifth (and current) generation of Snap Specs looks like. They were much larger than competing glasses at the time but they were also more capable, and didn't have a separate processing or battery puck. The fifth-gen device was announced almost exactly two years ago, targeted at developers. 

• I don't really get the sense that people care very much for AR glasses, and while I did enjoy my time with a Ray Ban Display and Google Glass in the past, I'm not convinced I would wear spectacles for the privilege of using  a small heads up display.

• I'm feeling some deja vu, because I know Spiegel already did one keynote talking up the new Specs. And he's already been the subject of some online teasing over them, right? Spoiler: I'm right and we did liveblog the Snap keynote at AWE earlier this year. 

• Hello everyone and welcome to our liveblog of the Snap Specs launch today. The presentation by CEO Evan Spiegel kicks off quite late in the day, at 4PM PT (7PM ET), but that doesn't mean we can't start talking to you all about all things AR glasses. Our senior reporter Karissa is already in LA and is making her way to the event. We'll hear from her very soon, I'm sure. 

A planned 10-year stay in Shenzhen ended after just one year, with Guadalajara, Fort Worth, Cancun and Riyadh all taking turns since. Crowds have often been disappointing.

"The WTA has always owned the WTA Finals, but now we are going to operate it, too," said WTA chair Valerie Camillo.

"We are not going to do everything ourselves, but we are taking control of this event, of the creation of the revenue and the controlling of the expenses. And that allows us to control our own destiny."

This year's Finals will be held in Indian Wells, California, before the tournament moves to Charlotte from 2027.

Prize money is yet to be announced, but the pot for this year's Finals will be $10m (£7.4m) - which is $5.5m (£4.1m) less than the sum put up by Saudi Arabia last year.

"2026 is a year of transition for the WTA," Camillo said.

"We are doing the normal belt tightening you would expect of any business while also absorbing the unexpected cost of relocating the WTA Finals to Indian Wells.

"What is most important to know is that we have a clear path to deliver consistent, sustainable financial performance in 2027 and beyond, supported by strong revenue and audience growth."

Riyadh had been due to stage the Finals for a third time in November, but the arrangement finished one year early.

This was partly because of the instability caused by the conflict between the United States and Iran, but also reflected the waning interest of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The country's sovereign wealth fund has recently stopped bankrolling LIV Golf, while the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters was another casualty earlier this year.

The Finals, which involve the best eight singles players and doubles teams of the year, will be staged at the Spectrum Centre where the Charlotte Hornets play their home NBA games.

The basketball season will be in full swing next November and, because of the frequency of home games, the Finals will be reduced from eight days to five, which is likely to affect revenue.

Camillo says the WTA has already started exploring alternative formats with the players, but if the round-robin element of the tournament survives, the finalists would need to play every day.

The WTA will also move its global headquarters from St Petersburg in Florida to Charlotte as part of the agreement. %!s()

Threads head Connor Hayes teased the social platform was working on a way for people to share transcripts from their shows in August, and the feature is now one of several ways you can promote a podcast episode with Meta's tools. Threads posts sharing episode links can display video clips (if the show offers a video component), show a written transcript of a portion of the show or highlight the featured guest if they're tagged. Tapping an episode link can also play an audio preview, and Meta has added a new "save it for later" button that lets potential subscribers return to episodes that sounded interesting.

Meta

On the less audience-facing side of things, Threads can now send nudges to remind you to share episodes after they premiere, and display podcast insights that let you track things like how many people have clicked on or saved an episode. Interestingly, the platform's approach to podcast analytics is different from the rest of its in-app analytics, where clicking on links to outside platforms is typically de-emphasized.

As a still-growing platform, hopping on the podcast bandwagon makes sense for Threads. Video podcasts have become a natural content source for social platforms because of how easily they can be chopped up for short-form video apps, promoted on text-oriented apps like Threads and X and used as filler for streaming services like YouTube and Netflix. By making them easier to share on Threads, Meta is ideally securing its platform's place as the default way to point new eyes and ears to shows. %!s()

For Mike Finelli, chief technology and innovation officer and chief North America officer at Syensqo, that convergence is transforming what advanced materials can enable. “AI is now, from a material standpoint, really pushing semiconductors and the data centers to their physical limits,” he says.

As requirements accumulate, including high temperature, purity, electrical performance, chemical resistance, plasma resistance, and long-term stability, materials move toward what Finelli calls the “top of the pyramid.” Beyond supporting AI innovation, he contends that advanced materials are “actually increasingly defining what's going to be possible.”

That challenge is playing out across the infrastructure powering the AI surge. Syensqo is developing materials for high-voltage data center architectures, advanced sealing materials for semiconductor manufacturing, and thermal-management solutions including fluids for direct immersion cooling. Some of those innovations can also cross industry boundaries. Materials developed for electric vehicles, for example, can help address the higher voltage and energy-density demands that are emerging in data centers.

The definition of performance is also changing. More customers are expecting materials to meet technical requirements while reducing environmental impact. “Our goal is to remove the trade-off between performance and sustainability,” Finelli says. That means considering sustainability at the beginning of the research process instead of treating it as an additional requirement once a material has been developed.

AI is changing how those materials are discovered, too. Syensqo is using AI agents to digitally synthesize millions of potential molecular combinations, predict their performance and sustainability characteristics, and narrow them to a much smaller group for laboratory testing. The result, Finelli says, is the ability to go “broader, deeper, and faster” while giving scientists more time to solve complex engineering problems.

Looking to the future, Finelli sees the possibility of a reinforcing cycle: AI helps develop materials that improve AI infrastructure, which in turn enables better AI to accelerate materials discovery. That feedback loop could create a cycle of innovation and expand what future technologies can achieve.

“You end up in this accelerated materials, innovative cycle of materials innovation,” says Finelli. “That really excites me, and it gives us the opportunity to continue enabling technologies that will shape the future.”

This episode of Business Lab is produced in partnership with Syensqo.

Full Transcript:

Megan Tatum: From MIT Technology Review, I'm Megan Tatum, and this is Business Lab, the show that helps business leaders make sense of new technologies coming out of the lab and into the marketplace.

This episode is produced in partnership with Syensqo.

Now asked to name the key enablers to AI advancement, many of us might list algorithms, data centers, or even computing power, but just as critical to the performance are the advanced materials that underpin each layer of that innovation. As AI continues to evolve, it's pushing the likes of semiconductors and data centers to new physical limits, putting new pressure on the advanced material sector to keep pace. But the relationship goes both ways. As the sector rises to this challenge, AI is also emerging as a powerful tool for accelerating materials discovery and development, significantly shortening development timelines for new solutions.

Two words for you: materials innovation.

My guest today is Mike Finelli, chief technology and innovation officer and chief North America officer at Syensqo.

Welcome, Mike.

Mike Finelli: Thank you, Megan. Nice to be here.

Megan: Thank you so much for joining us. Mike, can I start by asking you to tell us a little bit more about Syensqo and the role it plays in developing advanced materials?

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Syensqo is a global leader in specialty materials. Our job is to help customers solve their toughest technology challenges. We serve a lot of different markets, but the way I like to say it simply is if it flies, we're on it. If it drives, we're in it. In healthcare, our products literally are saving lives every day. And if you like your mobile devices, if you like AI, it's our products that are actually enabling the advanced semiconductor chips that are required to produce all of this. Our role is to enable innovation through advanced chemistry. We develop materials that deliver higher performances, greater reliability, and increasingly more sustainable solutions. The way I would say this, it's at the heart of our business. Actually, it's in our name, Syensqo. And to put some numbers around it, 20% of our annual revenues come from new products and applications that we've launched in the last five years, which is really evidence of a really strong innovation engine.

Megan: Yeah, absolutely. And as you sort of described there, you're in all sorts of different industries with an emphasis perhaps on electronics and semiconductors. Can you talk a bit more about that work and where those industries are headed perhaps?

Mike: Sure. So look, electronics and semiconductors have been strategic markets for Syensqo for literally decades. I don't want to date myself, but 33 years ago when I started in the company, semiconductors were one of the first industries that I worked in. And we've supported successive waves of innovation from enabling smaller, more powerful mobile devices, helping the industry get to the smaller and smaller profiles and the chips. We've helped to advance hyperconnectivity, supporting increasingly sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing. And today we're helping to advance the AI era.

We have one of the industry's broadest portfolios of high performance polymers and advanced materials. We support applications across the entire electronics value chain from semiconductor fabrication, electronic components, to smart devices and telecommunications, even hyperconnectivity. And our materials are helping customers solve increasingly demanding challenges around miniaturization, thermal management, electrical performance, chemical resistance, higher and higher purities, and long-term reliability and sustainability. And today we work with leading semiconductor manufacturers and electronics companies all around the world.

Megan: Fantastic. And as you alluded to there in the last 30 years, we've seen huge evolutions in those sectors.

Mike: Oh my God, yes.

Megan: And now AI is putting these new demands on semiconductors and data centers. What does that mean for the materials they're built from and to what extent will AI innovation be constrained or enabled by materials science finding a solution?

Mike: Yeah, so I mean, you're absolutely right. But AI is now, from a material standpoint, really pushing semiconductors and the data centers to their physical limits, and materials are becoming a key enabler of that continued progress.

The way I try to describe it, think of a pyramid, I call it the performance pyramid. You have commodity materials at the bottom of the pyramid and you have high performing specialty materials at the top of the pyramid. At Syensqo, all we do is we operate at the top of the pyramid and we're continually trying to raise the top of that pyramid by bringing newer and newer and more higher performing materials out.

Now you might say, okay, but why doesn't a data center or a semiconductor manufacturing fab need a specialty versus something in the commodity space? Well, I call it the and, and, and principle. If you just need a polymer or a material that can sit at the table at room temperature and stay there for 10 years and not change, well, there's a lot of commodity materials that will do that and you don't have a problem. The minute you start adding requirements, and I call it the and, and, and so if you need a polymer that can handle high temperature and have to have high purity and electrical performance and chemical resistance and plasma resistance and it's got to have long-term stability, all of these ands, you start moving to the top of the pyramid.

Now what AI is doing with semiconductors, because of the speed at which it's advancing, it's requiring semiconductor chips and data centers, the number of requirements are increasing the number of ands which is pushing the limits of the materials. That's where we come in. And I really believe that advanced materials, they're no longer just supporting AI innovation, we're actually increasingly defining what's going to be possible.

Megan: Right. That's fascinating. And in terms of rising to that challenge of focusing on that top of the pyramid and that and, and, and principle you're talking about, could you talk us through perhaps an example or two of those top of the pyramid solutions you've created or that you're working on at the moment?

Mike: Like I said, our focus is enabling higher performance, but it's also without compromising on reliability or safety. We develop advanced polymers, elastomers, specialty fluids, fluids meaning lubricants and heat transfer fluids, and they're used throughout the semiconductor manufacturing process and also increasingly in AI data center infrastructure. One example of our work on specialty materials for next generation AI data centers is the work we're doing around high voltage architectures. Data centers are moving towards high voltage architectures because they can enable greater computing power while also improving energy efficiency. We know that's a big issue for that segment of the industry, and these high voltage architectures will help them reduce and improve energy efficiency because it reduces energy losses and they can ultimately help lower the environmental footprint of the data centers. And we're developing new materials that can help them get there.

Another example is our high performing sealing materials found inside semiconductor fabs and wafer tools. If you can picture, many people have seen what a semiconductor looks like during processing. It's a big, big silicon disc that's then later diced into the tiny little chips that go into the computer. But that wafer is put inside a giant chamber where it has a very extreme environment, aggressive plasmas, reactive chemicals, and they need higher and higher performing materials. And all of the seals that are around that chamber to keep those gases in the environment inside have to be able to withstand that environment. And that's what we're developing and we're pushing the limits. They're asking for higher temperatures, more aggressive environment with lower out gassing and purity. And that's what we're developing for this industry to allow that next chip to be developed and produced industrial.

Megan: It's so fascinating that people wouldn't give much though necessarily to the seal in something like that. As you're outlining, it's just absolutely critical in terms of performance. And in developing those solutions, I understand you also looked across different markets to see what may be applicable perhaps in more than one space, and that includes an overlap between the automotive sector and data centers, I understand. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Mike: As I mentioned just previously, the data centers are shifting to higher voltage architectures. This is the next generation data center, which can be more energy efficient, but it's got a higher energy density. The power density increases, which increases temperatures. And many of the material challenges that we will be facing there, we've already developed for the automotive industry in electric vehicles. I'll give you an example of an application. I mean, think about an electric vehicle. The powerhouse in electric vehicle is no longer the motor, it's the battery. That's where all the energy sits. And when you're putting a hundred kilowatts of energy, driving that to the electric motor through wires and through what they call bus bars, you got to get that car up to 60 miles an hour pretty quick. You're driving massive amounts of energy that's increasing temperatures dramatically.

And all the electrical connections are in these bus bars that there's a polymer that's an insulating polymer with copper in between for all the connections. That's got to withstand that temperature increase, which could come pretty rapidly. We've developed new materials there and those materials will be translatable over to these data centers where they're going to have the higher voltages with a higher energy density.

Another thing we've been doing in automotive, we have a lot of knowledge in both automotive and semiconductor around fluid circulation and how to use dielectric materials to do direct immersion cooling. That's something that will be very valuable for data centers and server farms. Using air to cool semiconductors is really inefficient and energy intensive. If you could submerse them in a liquid, you have direct immersion cooling, that's extremely efficient, so that's another thing we're working on.

Another thing we developed in automotive that will be translated over is battery energy storage systems. Inside the battery, we've developed a binder. It's the highest performing binder on the market, which is using the cathode of a lithium ion battery, and it keeps all the ingredients doing its job working together so that battery can actually last for 10 years and perform. Now that's moving over to the data centers because they're moving more towards renewables and they need to have these energy storage systems to smooth the peak loads and provide resilient backup power. That's one of the things that we're doing. By transferring our knowledge across the markets, we can accelerate new power and new thermal management solutions while supporting reliability required by next generation AI infrastructure.

Megan: Fantastic. So many transferable applications there that necessarily wouldn't have sprung to mind. And it isn't only technical advancements that you need to contend with, of course. Companies today are also demanding the materials are developed and manufactured more responsibly too. So how is sustainability shaping your innovation process?

Mike: Yeah, you're absolutely right. I will say performance is still the entry ticket. Our customers want performance. Now what's changing is that definition of performance is now broader and it is including sustainability targets and requirements. Our customers expect materials that deliver outstanding technical performance while also being developed and manufactured more responsibly.

At Syensqo, we believe that operating as a responsible company means we're providing true sustainable business solutions to our customers. And this is why we developed what we call the Sustainable Portfolio Management tool, SPM. It's a matrix, and it defines what a sustainable solution is. For us, it's a product that in a given application improves our product's social and environmental performance while also demonstrating a lower environmental impact in its production, creating values for our customers. In short, we want to develop products, and this is where it starts. Every one of our research projects before we even start them is assessed on whether it's going to be a sustainable product or not.

And 88% of our portfolio now is a sustainable product. We're developing materials that are better for the environment, lower environmental footprint when we produce it, but also they contribute to improvements for our customers as well so they could operate with a lower carbon footprint or they can operate in a safer way or less water consumption. There's a lot of different lists in there.

Another example is our longer-term development of next generation heat transfer fluids. Semiconductor manufacturing and data centers have become more powerful. I mentioned before the heat that they're generating, especially when they move to the higher voltage architectures. Managing that heat is increasingly important. And again, I talked about direct immersion cooling. We're developing those solutions because today there are fluids out there that will work, but they got high global warming. That's not good for the environment. We're developing the next generation heat transferred fluids that will reduce the potential environmental impact compared to the fluids today. In the end, our goal is to remove the trade-off between performance and sustainability. You notice that's another and, we can be performing and sustainable.

Megan: That's so important, isn't it though, to think about sustainability in terms of performance? As you say, when we're thinking about commercially scaling up these solutions, it's such an important part of it. And as I talked about in the introduction, AI isn't only a challenge, but it's also an opportunity within the advanced material space. I'd love to explore how you're using AI tools at Syensqo to inform and accelerate the development of solutions as well.

Mike: Absolutely. We embarked on this journey about two years ago, where we're using AI in our research and development, and we've partnered with Microsoft and their Microsoft discovery tool, and it's helping us to rapidly identify and evaluate promising molecular candidates.

Now, in the normal research approach, historically, you would design your experiment and you'd look at all the potential combinations of materials and chemicals that you could make all these different molecules. And the combinations of potential and molecules that you could develop to solve a problem could be in the millions, but it's impossible to develop a million molecules or tens of millions of molecules in your laboratory and actually physically do that. But you have to select a small area based on your expertise and knowledge, based on the literature searches, based on the state of the art that's out there and looking at patents, et cetera. And you pick a small area and you go through the process, you develop the materials, you test them, you learn something, you go back to the drawing board, you start again. Eventually you find something that works, but it doesn't mean you found the best possible combination that's out there.

But what we're doing with AI is we have developed AI agents with Microsoft that are literally digitally synthesizing the entire millions and millions of combinations of potential molecules. And we have another AI agents that are using physics-based simulation to look at all those molecules and predict the performance of them, and not just performance on physical chemical properties, but also on toxicity, on sustainability, et cetera. Then we have another agent that takes all that information and ranks them all. In the end, we have explored all of the potential molecules out there. We understand roughly what the performance should be, and we end up with a priority list of maybe a hundred, instead of millions and millions, a hundred that we actually synthesize in the lab.

And at the end, you end up getting the solution faster, much, much faster. You've explored the entire space. I basically say it allows us to go broader, deeper, and faster. And the important thing is it's not replacing our scientists, it's not replacing our scientific expertise. In a way, it's giving them superpowers. It's allowing them to spend less time searching and more time solving the industry's toughest engineering challenges.

Megan: Amazing. It sounds like it's genuinely a really transformative tool by what you're explaining.

Mike: Completely, completely.

Megan: I mean, just to finish, Mike, it'd be great to take a look ahead if we could, because there's so much activity in both AI and the advanced material space. I wonder what is coming down the pipeline that you are most excited about next?

Mike: I've talked a lot about AI and how we're using AI to develop new materials. I think to me, what's really exciting, and I'm starting to see it actually happen, I'm just curious how fast this is going to go, is that we're using AI to develop new materials that will enable AI to get better, and then that AI will use the new AI to develop new materials to get AI to go better. I see this loop of developing for AI, for AI to improve, and then we use that AI to improve ourselves. You end up in this accelerated materials, innovative cycle of materials innovation. That really excites me, and it gives us the opportunity to continue enabling technologies that will shape the future. That's what we do at Syensqo.

Megan: Fantastic. Yeah, real sort of virtuous circle of innovation, it sounds like that. Amazing. Thank you so much, Mike.

Mike: Thank you.

Megan: Thank you so much. That was Mike Finelli, chief technology and innovation officer and chief North America officer at Syensqo, whom I spoke with from Brighton in England.

That's it for this episode of Business Lab. I'm your host, Megan Tatum. I'm a contributing editor and host for Insights, the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. We were founded in 1899 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and you can find us in print on the web and at events each year around the world. For more information about us and the show, please check out our website at technologyreview.com.

This show is available wherever you get your podcasts, and if you enjoyed it, we hope you'll take a moment to rate and review us. Business Lab is a production of MIT Technology Review, and this episode was produced by Giro Studios. Thanks so much for listening. Goodbye.

This content was produced by Insights, MIT Technology Review’s custom content arm, not its editorial staff. It was researched and written by humans, with any AI tools that may have been used limited to production processes under human oversight. %!s()

In the documentary, Tuchel sits alongside former England international and Sky Sports pundit Daniel Sturridge to look back on England's campaign, which ultimately saw the team finish third, having lost in the semi-finals to Argentina.

England's standout performance of the tournament came in the last-16 win over Mexico in Mexico City, where they played for over 35 minutes with 10 men but prevailed 3-2.

"I texted a friend after the match and I just wrote, 'I regret that I didn't eat some grass after the match to keep something from this in my body forever'," said Tuchel.

On the unity his players showed in that match, Tuchel pointed to their reaction to Jordan Henderson falling and breaking his arm in the post-match celebrations.

"If you needed any proof, any proof for what it meant to these players and how they were with each other, it was the moment when Jordan fell over and broke his arm," said Tuchel.

"Within a second, the players were there, every single player was there, stopping the celebrations, building a shield, protecting Jordan and not going nowhere in full empathy. It was just so special."

The film will be released on Wednesday September 16 exclusively on the England app.

• England news and analysis | Follow our England blog
• Some England players bemused by semi-final substitutions
• Neville: I have a big problem with Tuchel's DNA comments
• England tournament player ratings: Who impressed and who struggled?

The build-up to the Mexico game had been dominated by talk of the altitude of the Azteca stadium but also the potential for weather delays, which proved founded with kick-off pushed back.

But Tuchel says a calm came over the group when they trained together in Mexico before the match and meditation and manifestation helped them to achieve the victory.

"In the middle of Mexico City and we arrived and it's an oasis, it's so peaceful, it's an unbelievable pitch and it is so calm, it is so peaceful that it did something to the players," said Tuchel.

"They came out from the gym straight out on the pitch, they were having phone calls, walking around, it was such a peaceful energy.

"So we came up with this line of 'silence is powerful', that we enjoy the silence, we're in a home country, we will play against the whole nation, the whole nation will be against us, the stadium, it's almost impossible to win in the stadium, no one has ever done it before in a World Cup match.

"So let's enjoy the silence, the power of the silence. We even had five minutes on the match day of meditation and manifestation of the last whistle."

The FA are currently undergoing a review of England's World Cup campaign but Tuchel says the experience has bonded him and the group together and he is "excited" about what comes next.

England face world champions Spain in the Nations League in the upcoming international break with the 2028 Euros the next major tournament. Tuchel reckons preparing for that tournament will be easier than the planning which was required for the 2026 World Cup.

"It created a huge bond to these players, it feels like they are my players now. This is the beauty of it," said Tuchel.

"When you have a manager and then you have success and you have painful moments together, but you have so much time together and then you create a natural bond.

England's upcoming fixtures

• England vs Spain - Nations League, September 26
• Czech Republic vs England - Nations League, September 29
• Croatia vs England - Nations League, October 3
• England vs Czech Republic - Nations League, October 6

"I'm happy to see them, I'm happy to challenge them, happy to push them and very proud to be a part of them.

"I'm very excited. I'm excited to work with these players. I'm excited to have new, young players that we can bring into camp and that they can learn.

"We've got another step closer and I think we're there.

"It's very difficult to prepare a World Cup in the US, but it's possible to prepare for a Euros and be prepared in Nations League tier one.

"The target is to have another 10 matches. We had 10 matches in the US, eight wins, one draw, one painful loss, but that is something to build on.

"We have all the right to hold our heads high and go with courage and positivity into the next challenges.

"We have four matches in the Nations League coming up and that's where the focus is."

Tuchel on Harry Kane going to another level

"Just so easy. He's always there, he's always in training, he always wants to train. The level to which he got himself now, since he's at Bayern Munich.

"The level of commitment and training, how he arrived in prep camp, how he arrived in the qualification matches, the speech after the October camp, and he straight away stood up in the dressing room and said, 'guys, we will keep on going in November, this is what we do'.

"He found another level in his game, but also as a personality, and how he shows up for training, how he drives training standards is one of a kind. The finishing is out of control good."

On Jude Bellingham living up to his full potential

"He was one of the players of the tournament, not only for us, but of the whole tournament.

"He lived up to his full potential, you could just see what a competitor, what a machine he is, and he just thrives on the pressure. He just loves these moments, he loves these stages, it brings out the very best.

"He came with an amazing mindset into camp, with the best physical preparation. He came fresh, he came hungry, hungry for football, hungry for minutes into camp. He took his place and decided every single match for us."

On the England fans and their 'special' connection with the team

"They lived up to the high expectations.

"Everyone told me, 'wait until the tournament starts, we will have the best fans, we will be right on top, it will be amazing, the amount of people…' and it was just like that from the first moment.

"They just felt this team. I believe that fans have a sense, maybe they cannot name it, someone will say, 'yeah, they give everything, they're sweating, after the whistle goes, they have to sit down because they're so tired'. For everyone it's maybe different, they feel it, they could sense it, that this team is together and this team means it.

"That's what made the connection so strong. That was not artificial. That was very special." %!s()