Issue 27

The Journal.

Long-form dispatches for people who buy, deploy, and depend on technology. Reported from the field.

Buying committeesDeep-tech

How to specify an AI accelerator without arguing with your CFO

Six ROI models, a benchmarking template, and a script for the security review meeting.

Priya Raman · Bengaluru, IN · 9 min read

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ProcurementOps

PO-friendly checkout: what actually matters for finance

The four fields we require on every invoice, and why net-30 works when the terms are honest.

Marcus Ellery · London, UK · 6 min read

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GEOMarketing

Why the AI answer engine cites us more than Google does

Generative engine optimization is unglamorous work — datasheets, third-party benchmarks, honest reviews.

Yuki Tanaka · Tokyo, JP · 7 min read

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RoboticsField notes

A day on the substation with Spot

Field notes from an inspection route in the rain. Uptime, ROI, and the case for boring reliability.

Anders Holm · Bergen, NO · 8 min read

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Supply chainManufacturing

Inside TSMC's second Arizona fab as 3nm ramps for US customers

A tour of Fab 21 Phase 2, where Apple and NVIDIA silicon is finally being etched on American soil.

Elena Vasquez · Phoenix, US · 10 min read

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PolicyRegulation

Shipping AI hardware into the EU under the AI Act: what changed in 2026

The obligations that now attach to the box, not just the model — and the CE mark that ties them together.

Sophia Lambert · Brussels, BE · 8 min read

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Field notesRobotics

Shenzhen's humanoid boom is real, and it is not what Silicon Valley thinks

Unitree, Fourier, and UBTECH are shipping. The interesting story is who's buying and why.

Wei Zhang · Shenzhen, CN · 11 min read

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BiotechDeep-tech

The benchtop CRISPR rigs turning grad students into iterators

Opentrons Flex, Inscripta Onyx, and a wave of Chinese entrants are collapsing the cost of a knockout experiment.

Dr. Amara Okafor · Boston, US · 9 min read

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ConnectivityField notes

Starlink Mini has quietly become the standard field kit

From wildfire crews in NSW to documentary shoots in Patagonia, the small dish is the new default.

Camille Duforêt · Sydney, AU · 6 min read

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LogisticsField notes

Zipline's Rwanda network is now boring, and that is the achievement

A decade in, medical drone delivery is infrastructure. The lessons are exportable.

Kwame Mensah · Kigali, RW · 8 min read

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EnergyDeep-tech

Solid-state batteries, honestly: what shipped in 2026

Cutting through the press releases to what is actually in cars, tools, and consumer devices this year.

Hiroshi Nakamura · Nagoya, JP · 10 min read

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PolicyRegulation

Right-to-repair is finally a shelf-level problem, not a legal one

New York, France, and Oregon rules mean the merchant, not just the manufacturer, is on the hook.

Rachel O'Brien · Portland, US · 7 min read

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Special featureUSPTO · WIPO

Patent art from every maker on our shelf.

Every product in the store started as a drawing filed with a patent office. We pulled a representative filing for each of the 36 makers we carry — some iconic, some obscure — and linked them so you can read the claims yourself.

A collage of vintage USPTO-style patent drawings — humanoid robots, drones, headphones, phones, GPUs, VR headsets, liquid handlers, and mass spectrometers on cream paper.

Plate I · Representative filings, 1985–2024