Innovation has long been one of the strongest drivers of the U.S. economy. From technology and medicine to engineering and scientific research, highly skilled workers help turn new ideas into products and discoveries. Research suggests that high-skilled immigrants play an especially important role in this process.
Immigrant Inventors Have an Outsized Impact
A study titled The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States, by Shai Bernstein, Rebecca Diamond, Abhisit Jiranaphawiboon, Timothy McQuade, and Beatriz Pousada, provides compelling evidence.
According to the study, immigrants represent about 16% of U.S. inventors but author approximately 23% of patents. The researchers’ model further estimates that immigrants are responsible for about 32% of aggregate U.S. innovation.
These numbers suggest that high-skilled immigrants contribute to innovation at a rate considerably higher than their share of the inventor population.
Their Impact Goes Beyond Patents
The contribution of immigrant inventors is not limited to their own inventions.
The researchers find that immigrant inventors help spread knowledge across international borders. They are more likely to draw on foreign technologies and collaborate across global inventor networks.
This international exchange of knowledge can give American companies and researchers access to ideas and expertise developed elsewhere.
Even more importantly, immigrant inventors can influence the productivity of the people working alongside them. The study finds stronger innovation spillovers from immigrant inventors to their collaborators than from U.S.-born inventors. More than half of the estimated 32% contribution to aggregate innovation comes from human-capital effects on U.S.-born collaborators.
Why High-Skilled Immigration Matters
These findings have important implications for discussions about high-skilled immigration in the United States.
Immigration policy is not simply about filling jobs. When the United States attracts scientists, engineers, researchers, and inventors from around the world, it may also gain new ideas, international connections, and knowledge that benefits other American workers.
This makes high-skilled immigration an important part of the broader conversation about America’s ability to remain competitive in science and technology.
Final Thoughts
The evidence suggests that immigrant inventors do more than create patents themselves. They also help connect the United States to global knowledge and strengthen the productivity of their collaborators.
For a country whose economic future depends heavily on innovation, attracting and retaining talented people from around the world could remain an important competitive advantage.
Hydrogen has spent years at the centre of the global clean-energy conversation. Governments have announced strategies, developers have proposed major projects, and industries from steel and chemicals to aviation and shipping are examining its potential.
Now comes the harder part: turning hydrogen ambition into a commercially viable industry.
That makes Hydrogen Technology World Expo 2026, taking place October 20–22 at Hamburg Messe in Germany, an event worth watching — particularly from Canada.
The exhibition expects more than 20,000 attendees, 1,000 exhibitors and 200 industry speakers, bringing together companies working across hydrogen production, infrastructure, storage, transport, fuel cells, engineering and advanced materials.
For Canada, however, Hamburg represents something bigger: a potential window into one of the country’s most important future hydrogen markets.
Canada Wants to Become a Hydrogen Exporter
Canada has enormous potential to produce low-carbon hydrogen.
Abundant renewable electricity, natural resources, industrial expertise and access to both Atlantic and Pacific trade routes give the country several possible pathways to hydrogen production and export.
Germany presents a particularly interesting opportunity.
Canada and Germany established the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance with the objective of developing a transatlantic hydrogen supply chain. Germany expects to require imported renewable hydrogen as it works to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries, while Canada aims to become a significant producer and exporter of hydrogen and related clean technologies.
That creates a potentially complementary relationship: Canadian production meeting European industrial demand.
Atlantic Canada could play an especially important role because of its renewable-energy resources and geographic position relative to Europe.
Hamburg Could Show What Canada Must Build
Producing hydrogen is only the beginning.
For Canada to become a competitive hydrogen exporter, an entire supply chain will be required.
Electrolysers need affordable electricity, water treatment, power electronics and cooling. Hydrogen may need compression and storage before being transported or converted into derivatives such as ammonia.
Ports and export terminals will need appropriate infrastructure. Ships, pipelines, valves, compressors, sensors and safety systems all become part of the equation.
Then comes the most important requirement of all: customers willing to sign contracts at prices that make projects economically viable.
This is why a technical event such as Hydrogen Technology World Expo matters.
The next phase of the hydrogen economy will depend less on ambitious announcements and increasingly on engineering, infrastructure, cost reduction and execution.
Canada Already Has a Presence at Hydrogen Technology World Expo 2026
Canada will not simply be observing from a distance.
The 2026 exhibitor lineup includes the Canadian Hydrogen Association, along with a Canada CCUS Pavilion at the co-located Carbon Capture Technology World Expo.
That presence is significant because Canada’s hydrogen opportunity extends beyond renewable hydrogen alone.
Different Canadian regions have different energy advantages. Atlantic Canada has considerable renewable hydrogen potential, while Western Canada has natural gas resources, carbon-management expertise and established energy infrastructure.
That could allow Canada to participate in several parts of the emerging international hydrogen and low-carbon energy market.
Why Germany Matters to Canadian Hydrogen
Germany faces a challenge that Canada may be able to help solve.
Large industrial economies require enormous amounts of energy, yet producing sufficient renewable hydrogen domestically can be difficult because of land, renewable-power and infrastructure constraints.
Imports could therefore become an important part of Germany’s hydrogen strategy.
Canada offers several characteristics international buyers value: substantial energy resources, technical expertise, established trade infrastructure and the potential to produce hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives at scale.
But potential does not guarantee exports.
Canadian projects will have to compete with proposed hydrogen developments in the Middle East, Australia, South America, Africa and elsewhere.
The winners will likely be those capable of delivering reliable low-carbon hydrogen or derivatives at competitive prices.
The Real Hydrogen Race Is About Cost
This may be the biggest lesson Canadian companies should take from Hamburg.
The hydrogen race isn’t simply about who can produce hydrogen.
It is about who can deliver it economically.
Every compressor, storage tank, pipeline, electrolyser, port terminal and conversion process adds cost.
That means some of the most important innovations showcased in Hamburg may not appear revolutionary. A more efficient compressor, longer-lasting electrolyser component or better hydrogen sensor can have a meaningful impact when deployed across large projects.
Canadian engineering companies, equipment manufacturers, technology developers, carbon-management specialists and industrial suppliers could potentially participate in the global hydrogen supply chain itself.
From Hydrogen Ambition to Hydrogen Infrastructure
The hydrogen industry’s next chapter may be less about announcing increasingly large projects and more about making existing projects work.
That means reducing costs, improving efficiency, developing infrastructure, securing customers and building dependable international supply chains.
Hydrogen Technology World Expo 2026 could provide a useful snapshot of that transition.
And for Canada, Hamburg has particular significance.
Germany isn’t simply hosting one of the world’s largest hydrogen technology exhibitions. It represents the type of industrial market Canada hopes could eventually buy Canadian hydrogen.
The question is therefore no longer whether Canada has the resources to become a hydrogen exporter.
The more important question is:
Can Canada build the infrastructure, technology and economics needed to compete for the global hydrogen market?
Most organizations understand that confidential documents should never be posted on the public internet. Yet the AI era introduces a subtler risk: valuable know-how can gradually escape through routine interactions with AI systems.
Every day, employees ask AI to:
Refine proprietary algorithms
Optimize manufacturing processes
Analyze customer behavior
Improve pricing strategies
Draft patent applications
Review source code
Summarize confidential research
Each prompt may reveal only a small piece of information. However, over months or years, these interactions can expose an organization’s unique methods, terminology, workflows, and decision-making patterns.
Even when AI providers state that enterprise customer data is isolated or not used for public model training under specific contracts, organizations must still carefully manage what information they share. Internal deployments, third-party integrations, misconfigured systems, or future changes in data governance policies can all introduce unexpected risks. The safest approach is to treat proprietary know-how as a strategic asset and establish clear governance over how AI systems are used.
Know-How: The Intellectual Property That Patents Can’t Fully Protect
When discussing intellectual property, patents often receive the most attention. Yet for many businesses, know-how is even more valuable.
Know-how includes:
Manufacturing techniques
Process optimization
Internal operating procedures
Supplier relationships
Customer engagement strategies
Quality control methods
Engineering experience
Lessons learned over years of experimentation
Unlike patents, know-how frequently derives its value from remaining confidential. Once widely disclosed, much of its competitive advantage may disappear.
Consider the formula for Coca-Cola, semiconductor fabrication techniques, or highly optimized industrial production methods. Their value lies not only in invention but also in the accumulated experience required to reproduce them consistently.
AI creates a new challenge because employees may unknowingly disclose fragments of this institutional knowledge while seeking productivity gains.
Patents provide inventors with exclusive rights for a limited period, but they require public disclosure. In exchange for protection, inventors must explain their invention sufficiently for others skilled in the field to understand it.
This trade-off has worked well for centuries because the patent system encourages innovation while eventually enriching the public domain.
However, many competitive advantages are intentionally never patented.
Companies often choose trade secret protection when:
Reverse engineering is difficult.
The innovation can remain confidential.
The commercial value may outlast the life of a patent.
The competitive edge lies in operational expertise rather than a single invention.
The danger in the AI era is that organizations may inadvertently weaken this trade secret protection by embedding confidential methods, prompts, workflows, or engineering knowledge into AI interactions without fully understanding where that information is stored, processed, or retained.
The Public Domain Effect
Knowledge naturally migrates toward the public domain over time through publications, patents, employee mobility, academic research, and market competition.
AI has the potential to accelerate this process.
As organizations increasingly rely on AI to solve technical problems, summarize internal documents, or generate software, a growing portion of proprietary expertise risks becoming encoded into broader AI-assisted workflows. While enterprise AI providers implement contractual and technical safeguards, the cumulative effect of widespread AI adoption is that unique organizational know-how may become easier to replicate across industries.
This does not necessarily mean that confidential information becomes publicly accessible. Rather, the uniqueness of proprietary expertise may gradually erode as AI systems help disseminate similar best practices, design patterns, and problem-solving approaches across many organizations.
The result is a shift in competitive advantage: companies may need to innovate continuously rather than relying solely on accumulated institutional knowledge.
Governance Is Becoming an Intellectual Property Strategy
Historically, intellectual property strategy focused on deciding whether to patent an invention or keep it as a trade secret.
Today, organizations face a third question:
What should employees be allowed to teach AI?
Answering this requires more than cybersecurity policies. It calls for AI governance frameworks that define:
Which information can be shared with external AI systems.
Which AI platforms are approved for sensitive work.
How prompts and outputs are logged and audited.
When private or on-premises AI models are required.
How trade secrets and know-how are preserved while still enabling AI-driven productivity.
In the AI economy, protecting institutional knowledge may become as important as protecting the inventions themselves.
As the world races toward a cleaner and more sustainable future, one technology is capturing the attention of scientists, investors, and governments alike—nuclear fusion.
Often described as the “holy grail” of clean energy, fusion promises an almost limitless source of electricity without the carbon emissions of fossil fuels or the long-lived radioactive waste associated with traditional nuclear power. With artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and massive data centers driving global electricity demand to record levels, the search for reliable clean energy has never been more urgent.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global fusion energy market could exceed $350 billion by 2050, making it one of the most valuable emerging industries of the coming decades.
What Makes Nuclear Fusion Different?
Unlike conventional nuclear power, which generates electricity by splitting atoms (nuclear fission), nuclear fusion combines light atomic nuclei to form heavier ones, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process—the same reaction that powers the Sun.
Fusion offers several major advantages:
Produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation.
Generates minimal long-term radioactive waste.
Has a much lower risk of catastrophic accidents.
Can provide continuous, weather-independent electricity.
If successfully commercialized, fusion could transform global energy production.
From Government Megaprojects to Startup Innovation
For decades, fusion research was dominated by massive publicly funded projects like ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor being built in southern France.
Supported by 35 countries, including members of the European Union, the United States, China, Russia, and others, ITER represents one of the largest scientific collaborations ever attempted.
However, the project has faced significant delays and soaring costs since construction began in 2007, with operations now expected sometime between 2034 and 2036.
Meanwhile, a new generation of private companies is taking a faster, more entrepreneurial approach to fusion development.
Today, around 77 private fusion companies are working worldwide to commercialize the technology.
Germany’s Four Fusion Startups
Germany has become one of Europe’s most active fusion hubs, with four ambitious startups entering the global race:
1. Focused Energy
Founded in 2021, Focused Energy specializes in laser-driven fusion, inspired by breakthroughs achieved at the U.S. National Ignition Facility.
The company recently secured an additional €60 million investment from energy giant RWE, which plans to host a prototype fusion plant at its former nuclear site in Biblis.
Focused Energy aims to build a commercial reactor prototype by 2037, with the first commercial power plant expected in the early 2040s.
2. Marvel Fusion
Marvel Fusion has attracted some of the largest private investments among European fusion startups.
Like Focused Energy, it focuses on laser-based fusion technology and continues expanding its partnerships with industrial and research organizations.
3. Proxima Fusion
Proxima Fusion is pursuing advanced magnetic confinement technologies and aims to develop highly efficient fusion reactors designed for commercial electricity generation.
The startup has quickly become one of Europe’s most closely watched fusion companies.
4. Gauss Fusion
Gauss Fusion is working on integrating advanced reactor technologies while collaborating with industrial partners across Europe.
Its goal is to accelerate the commercialization of large-scale fusion power systems.
Billions Are Flowing Into Fusion
Fusion is one of the most capital-intensive technologies ever developed.
By the end of 2025, nearly €13 billion in private investment had been committed worldwide, with funding increasing by roughly 30% during 2025 alone.
Investment distribution shows where the global leaders currently stand:
53% invested in U.S. companies
Around one-third invested in Chinese firms
Just over €700 million invested across European fusion startups
Among European companies, Germany’s Marvel Fusion and Focused Energy have attracted the largest share of funding.
The U.S. and China Still Lead
Although Germany’s ecosystem is growing rapidly, the United States and China currently dominate the fusion landscape.
China benefits from substantial government investment, while American companies receive strong backing from major technology firms and private investors.
Examples include:
Google investing in TAE Technologies and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
Microsoft signing future electricity purchase agreements with Helion Energy.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backing Helion Energy through private investment.
This combination of public funding and private capital has allowed U.S. companies to move aggressively toward commercialization.
Germany’s Competitive Advantage
Despite the funding gap, German researchers remain optimistic.
Professor Markus Roth, co-founder of Focused Energy, believes Germany possesses a unique innovation ecosystem combining world-class universities, industrial manufacturers, and cutting-edge research institutes.
Germany also holds a major advantage in precision optics—a critical technology for laser-based fusion.
According to Roth, the next challenge is manufacturing laser systems at industrial scale, much like Germany’s world-renowned automotive industry produces vehicles with exceptional precision.
If successful, the optics industry could become another cornerstone of Germany’s future economy.
Government Support Is Growing
Recognizing fusion’s strategic importance, the German government included nuclear fusion among the country’s six key future technologies in its High-Tech Agenda.
More than €2 billion in public funding has been pledged during the current legislative term to accelerate research and commercialization.
However, building commercial fusion plants will require far greater investment.
Focused Energy estimates it currently needs between €150 million and €200 million annually, while the first pilot commercial plant could ultimately cost several billion euros.
Looking Ahead
Commercial fusion power remains a long-term challenge, but progress is accelerating faster than many experts expected just a few years ago.
If current development timelines hold, the world’s first commercial fusion reactors could begin supplying electricity in the early 2040s.
The global race is no longer confined to government laboratories. Startups, venture capital, industrial giants, and national governments are now competing to unlock one of humanity’s most transformative energy technologies.
Whether Germany’s emerging fusion companies can compete with the financial powerhouses of the United States and China remains uncertain. But one thing is clear: the race to harness the power of the stars has truly begun—and its outcome could reshape the future of global energy.
# The G7 Just Pledged to Break China’s Rare Earth Grip — There’s a Lot of Work to Do
For decades, the world’s advanced economies have enjoyed the benefits of globalization while quietly allowing a critical vulnerability to emerge: dependence on China for rare earth minerals and permanent magnets.
Now, the Group of Seven (G7) nations are finally attempting to confront that reality. At their recent summit in Evian, France, G7 leaders agreed on an ambitious goal: by 2030, no single country should account for more than 60% of their imports of rare earth elements and permanent magnets. Beyond that, they hope to reduce reliance further, targeting a 50% threshold as soon as possible.
The message is clear. The world’s leading democracies have concluded that China’s dominance over critical minerals has become both an economic and national security risk.
The challenge? Breaking that dependence may take far longer than the politicians would like.
## Why Rare Earths Matter
Rare earths are a group of 17 metallic elements that play an essential role in modern technology. On their own, these materials may seem obscure. But when processed into permanent magnets—particularly neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets—they become indispensable.
These magnets are found in:
* Electric vehicles
* Wind turbines
* Smartphones
* Industrial robotics
* Military drones
* Precision-guided missiles
* Radar systems
* Advanced defense technologies
Their unique properties allow manufacturers to build lighter, stronger, and more energy-efficient motors and electronic systems. In other words, rare earth magnets have become one of the foundational technologies of the 21st century.
## China’s Dominance Is Overwhelming
China’s position in this market is difficult to overstate. The country currently accounts for roughly:
* 70% of global rare earth production
* Around 70% of critical mineral refining capacity
* Approximately 95% of rare earth permanent magnet manufacturing
This dominance wasn’t built overnight. For years, China invested heavily in mining, refining, processing expertise, and manufacturing infrastructure while many Western nations outsourced these activities due to environmental concerns, lower costs, and regulatory hurdles. The result is a supply chain where much of the world depends on China not merely for raw materials but for the highly specialized processing required to make those materials usable.That processing stage has become the true strategic bottleneck.
## Why the G7 Is Acting Now
The urgency stems from recent geopolitical tensions.
Over the past several years, Beijing has increasingly used export controls on critical minerals as a policy tool. Since 2020, China has imposed multiple restrictions on key materials used in defense and clean energy technologies.
Last year, China introduced sweeping export controls on rare earths and other critical minerals, raising fears that manufacturing lines across North America, Europe, and Asia could face severe disruptions.
The issue became even more visible during escalating trade disputes with the United States and amid growing tensions surrounding Taiwan.
Officials across the G7 have come to a sobering realization:
If China chose to significantly restrict exports, major sectors of the global economy could be affected almost immediately. The International Energy Agency has warned that trillions of dollars of economic activity outside China could be exposed to supply disruptions if export controls were fully implemented.
For military planners, the concern is even more immediate. Rare earth magnets are embedded in everything from fighter aircraft and missile guidance systems to surveillance drones. Dependence on a geopolitical rival for these materials creates a strategic vulnerability few governments are comfortable accepting.
## Lessons From Japan
The G7 is not the first group to recognize this problem. Japan learned the lesson more than a decade ago. In 2010, following a maritime dispute with China, Japanese companies suddenly found themselves facing restrictions on rare earth exports. Tokyo responded with a long-term strategy to diversify suppliers, invest in overseas mining projects, and build stockpiles. Yet even after more than 15 years of effort, Japan still sources roughly 75% of its rare earth imports from China.
That reality offers a sobering perspective on the G7’s latest pledge.
Diversification is possible. Rapid diversification is much harder.
## Building a Western Supply Chain
Despite the challenges, efforts are underway to create alternative supply chains. In the United States, several companies are positioning themselves as key players in what policymakers increasingly call a “mine-to-magnet” strategy.
### MP Materials
MP Materials operates Mountain Pass in California, the only commercial-scale rare earth mine in the United States.
The company has also expanded processing and magnet manufacturing capabilities in Texas and recently received significant support from the U.S. Department of Defense to strengthen domestic separation and refining capacity.
Its goal is straightforward: reduce reliance on Chinese processing and create a fully integrated American supply chain.
### USA Rare Earth
Another emerging player is USA Rare Earth. The company is developing mining, processing, and magnet manufacturing operations designed to produce rare earth permanent magnets domestically. Backed by federal incentives through the CHIPS and Science Act, the company aims to establish large-scale production capabilities and become a cornerstone of a Western rare earth ecosystem. These efforts represent important progress. But they are only the beginning.
## The Hard Part: Heavy Rare Earths
One major complication is that not all rare earths are equal. Many Western projects focus primarily on so-called “light” rare earth elements.
China, however, remains especially dominant in the production and processing of “heavy” rare earths—materials that are crucial for many advanced defense and high-performance industrial applications. Without secure access to these heavier elements, building a truly independent magnet supply chain remains difficult. Industry experts caution that current Western investments, while encouraging, do not yet solve this deeper problem.
## Obstacles Ahead
The G7’s target may be politically appealing, but achieving it will require overcoming significant obstacles.
### Capital Requirements
Mining and refining projects require billions of dollars in investment before they produce meaningful output.
### Regulatory Challenges
Permitting new mines can take years, particularly in North America and Europe.
### Environmental Concerns
Rare earth extraction and refining are energy-intensive and can create substantial environmental impacts if not carefully managed.
### Community Opposition
Many proposed mining projects face local resistance regardless of their strategic importance.
### Technical Expertise
China’s advantage isn’t just geological.
It also possesses decades of accumulated processing knowledge, engineering expertise, and industrial capacity that cannot be replicated overnight.
## More Than Mining
Recognizing these realities, G7 leaders are discussing additional measures beyond simply opening new mines.
These include:
* Expanding recycling of rare earth materials
* Developing strategic stockpiles
* Supporting refining and processing facilities
* Creating industrial procurement quotas
* Coordinating investments across allied nations
Defense manufacturing may become a particular focus, with governments potentially requiring portions of critical materials to come from non-Chinese sources. Such policies could help create the guaranteed demand necessary for new projects to attract financing.
## The Bottom Line
The G7’s commitment marks one of the strongest collective efforts yet to reduce dependence on China for critical minerals. The goal is ambitious, and perhaps necessarily so. Without clear targets, governments and industries often fail to act. But ambition alone will not be enough.
China’s dominance in rare earths was built over decades through sustained investment, industrial policy, and strategic planning. Reversing that dominance will require the same level of long-term commitment from the United States, Europe, Japan, and their allies.
The good news is that the process has begun. The difficult reality is that diversification is not a five-year project—it may be a generation-long effort.
The G7 has taken an important first step.
Now comes the hard part: turning a political pledge into a functioning supply chain.
German chemical giant opens US$10 billion Zhanjiang complex, its largest overseas investment, as Beijing courts foreign capital.
Germany’s chemical giant BASF has launched operations at its China production base – its largest overseas investment to date – with a total outlay of €8.7 billion (US$10 billion), and the country’s first wholly foreign-owned large-scale Verbund site.
The company on Thursday inaugurated the world-scale complex in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, designed to run entirely on renewable electricity.
A Verbund site is an integrated chemical complex where plants, energy use and materials are interconnected to maximise efficiency and minimise waste.
The site has brought 18 plants and 32 production lines into operation, producing more than 70 types of products spanning basic chemicals, intermediates and specialty chemicals for industries including transport, consumer goods, electronics, home care and personal care.
