Clearaudio is arriving at High End Vienna 2026 with one of its most ambitious analog product launches in years, and the headline acts are not exactly shy: a Beatles Revolver Special Edition turntable, a limited Rammstein Artist Series model, a redesigned Elevation turntable platform, a gaming-focused GT compass deck, a new Compact Phono stage, an Ultra Linear Power Supply, and the carbon-fibre reinforced N2 MM cartridge.

Clearaudio is hardly the first turntable company to understand that vinyl culture does not live on specifications alone. Pro-Ject has already gone deep into this territory with Metallica, Peanuts, AC/DC, and The Beatles editions, and many of those tables were more than sticker jobs on entry-level platforms. They were fun, collectible, and often more refined than the base models that inspired them.

But Robert Suchy appears to be pushing the idea further in Erlangen. This is not just “license the artwork, paint the plinth, call the importer.” Clearaudio is using High End Vienna 2026 to show how far it can stretch analogue design without abandoning the engineering focus that made the brand matter in the first place.

That matters because Robert is not just chasing merch-table energy with a tonearm attached. As the son of Clearaudio founder Peter Suchy, he is carrying forward a German analog legacy built on machining, materials, speed stability, resonance control, and the stubborn belief that a turntable is still a mechanical instrument first. Sehr deutsch. Sehr gründlich. And in the case of Rammstein, probably not something your downstairs neighbor asked for.

Clearaudio Elevation 45 and Elevation 55

The new Elevation Series may be the most important long-term product in the entire High End Vienna 2026 lineup, even if it does not arrive with a Beatles LP or industrial lighting effects. Clearaudio is positioning the Elevation 45 and Elevation 55 as turntables designed to evolve with the owner rather than become obsolete the moment the furniture changes.

The core idea is simple but smart: an interchangeable outer frame available in solid hardwood, fine veneer, and contemporary lacquer finishes. That means the owner can change the visual presentation of the turntable over time without replacing the entire deck. In a category where many buyers treat their systems like permanent fixtures, that makes a lot of sense.

Underneath the customizable exterior, this is still very much a Clearaudio design. The Elevation models are belt-driven turntables built around the company’s reference-class engineering standards, including a flywheel-augmented drive system, optical speed monitoring, Clearaudio’s Natural Flow control algorithm, USB-C Power Delivery, and support for both 9-inch and 10-inch tonearms.

The Elevation 45 uses a 45mm platter optimized for speed and detail retrieval, while the Elevation 55 steps up to a heavier 55mm platter for greater dynamic authority. Clearaudio also says users can upgrade between platter configurations, which reinforces the broader concept: buy into the platform, improve it over time, and avoid the endless cycle of selling the old deck at a painful discount because the next shiny object appeared.

Full details are expected closer to market launch in Q4 2026. Guideline pricing is £5,000 / €5,000 / $6,500 for the Elevation 45 and £7,000 / €7,000 / $9,100 for the Elevation 55.

Clearaudio Innovation Revolver Special Edition

The Innovation Revolver Special Edition celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver, and this is where Clearaudio’s music-led strategy starts to feel more substantial than the usual collector bait.

The design borrows from Klaus Voormann’s famous monochrome album artwork, but the more important story is underneath. Clearaudio has created a new plinth structure that sandwiches aluminium with a precision-engineered composite stone. That material choice is aimed at resonance control and playback stability, which is exactly where a tribute turntable either earns its keep or becomes expensive wall art with a spindle.

The package is also properly configured rather than left half-finished for the buyer to sort out. It includes the Clearaudio Tracer tonearm in Black Carbon, Concept MC Signature cartridge, Professional Power 24V power supply, and Innovation Clamp. Clearaudio is also including a heavyweight special edition pressing of Revolver, half-speed mastered on 180g vinyl, with the newly mixed stereo album and restored artwork by Klaus Voormann.

That is the correct way to do a Beatles turntable. Make it collectible, make it visually connected to the album, but do not forget that Beatles fans with money and a system can usually spot a lazy cash grab from across the room. They have been buying the same albums for six decades. They know the drill.

The Innovation Revolver Special Edition is expected in late summer 2026, with suggested retail pricing of £10,500 / €11,900 / $17,900 for the turntable package. The matching monochrome stand will be offered separately at £7,500 / €8,500 / $11,050.

Clearaudio Rammstein Turntable Artist Series No. 1

The Rammstein turntable is the louder, darker, and probably more flammable-looking half of Clearaudio’s music-led High End Vienna reveal. It also launches the company’s new Artist Series, which suggests this will not be a one-off experiment.

Clearaudio says the Rammstein model was developed as a fully independent turntable rather than a standard Concept with new graphics. That distinction matters. The engineering foundation comes from the proven Concept platform, but the industrial design was created specifically in collaboration with Rammstein.

The chassis uses massive block construction with a rigid MDF core and a metallic lacquer finish, both aimed at resonance control and mechanical stability. Integrated dimmable LED lighting, available in red or white, gives the deck a visual identity tied to the band’s stage aesthetic. Is that necessary for playing records? No. Does it make sense for Rammstein? Absolutely. Leise war gestern.

The turntable comes fitted with Clearaudio’s T1 tonearm and a specially branded MM cartridge. Each unit also ships in a premium wooden crate handcrafted in the Bavarian Forest, designed to be reused for vinyl, merchandise, or collectibles. That is very on-brand: industrial theater on the outside, German storage logic on the back end.

The Rammstein Turntable Artist Series No. 1 will be limited to 1,000 units worldwide and is expected in October 2026. Suggested pricing is £1,990 / €1,990 / $2,600.

Clearaudio GT Compass Gaming Turntable

The GT compass might sound like the oddball of the lineup, but it may also be one of the smarter moves Clearaudio is making. Gaming soundtrack vinyl has become a real category, with titles from Halo, The Witcher 3, Doom, Persona, Minecraft, and other major franchises attracting collectors who care about both the music and the packaging.

Clearaudio is clearly paying attention. The GT compass is based on the company’s Compass platform and is machined in Erlangen with Clearaudio’s handmade-in-Germany standards covering the tonearm, bearing, and core construction. The difference is the design language: a colorful pixel-inspired finish and an optional dimmable LED strip beneath the acrylic platter.

This is not aimed at the traditional grey-haired audiophile polishing a clamp while muttering about azimuth. The GT compass is for gaming fans, soundtrack collectors, desktop audio users, and younger vinyl buyers who may have entered the hobby through limited-edition soundtrack releases rather than Blue Note reissues.

Clearaudio developed the GT compass in cooperation with The Sound of Gaming by konsolenfan.de. At High End Vienna 2026, it will be demonstrated with Black Screen Records in the gaming section of the World of Headphones, with music from titles including Minecraft Alpha, The Witcher 3, Doom: The Dark Ages, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Persona 4 Megamix.

The GT compass is expected to ship this summer with suggested pricing of £1,499 / €1,499 / $1,949.

Clearaudio Compact Phono

The new Compact Phono is less flashy than a Beatles tribute deck or a Rammstein turntable with LEDs, but it may be the product many real-world vinyl users appreciate most. Phono stages are not supposed to be annoying, and Clearaudio appears to have focused on making this one easier to live with.

The biggest practical improvement is front-panel MM/MC switching. Earlier Clearaudio phono stages required users to open the unit and adjust internal jumpers to change cartridge type. That is the kind of thing audiophiles pretend to enjoy until they drop a screw into the carpet and start bargaining with the furniture gods.

The Compact Phono offers 40dB of gain in MM mode and 60dB in MC mode, along with 29dB of headroom in MC operation. It also adds both subsonic and ultrasonic filtering, expanding protection beyond the subsonic-only filtering of earlier models.

Power consumption has also been reduced significantly. Clearaudio says the Compact Phono uses only 0.7 watts in operation, compared with 2.3 to 2.7 watts for predecessor models, and it does not require a standby mode. That makes it lighter, cooler-running, and more efficient.

The Compact Phono is expected to ship later this summer with suggested pricing of £490 / €490 / $639.

Clearaudio Ultra Linear Power Supply

The new Ultra Linear Power Supply, or ULPS, is aimed at one of the least glamorous but most important parts of analog playback: clean, stable power delivery.

Available in 12V and 24V versions, the ULPS has been engineered to provide highly stable, impulse-resistant power for Clearaudio turntables fitted with DC motors. In practical terms, this is about reducing noise and improving consistency in a system where motor behavior directly affects speed stability and playback performance.

The most interesting feature is the integrated USB-C port, which allows the ULPS to run from an external battery pack. That gives users the option to take the AC mains grid out of the signal path entirely. Whether every listener will hear a dramatic difference will depend on the system, setup, and power environment, but the design logic is not nonsense. Turntables are mechanical devices, and stable motor power matters.

The 24V version also includes a front-panel display showing real-time operational data, including power consumption and play time. Again, very German: even the power supply wants documentation.

The ULPS will be available in black and silver from September 2026. Suggested pricing is £1,500 / €1,500 / $1,950 for the 12V version and £3,250 / €3,250 / $4,225 for the 24V version.

Clearaudio N2 MM Cartridge

The N2 is Clearaudio’s new moving magnet cartridge, and while it is the smallest product in the High End Vienna 2026 launch group, it may be one of the most relevant for listeners who want a meaningful analogue upgrade without buying a new turntable.

The key story is the body material. The N2 uses a laser-finished housing made from PETG-CF, a carbon-fibre reinforced polymer manufactured with high-precision 3D printing. Clearaudio says the material offers greater rigidity than conventional plastics, helping reduce unwanted resonance and create a quieter mechanical foundation for playback.

At 8.5g, the N2 is also lighter than the aluminium-bodied N1, while sharing its proven stylus design. Output is rated at 3.3mV, in line with Clearaudio’s Concept V2 MM series, and the snap-fit stylus design makes replacement straightforward.

That makes the N2 a practical cartridge for listeners who want some of Clearaudio’s materials thinking without moving into exotic MC pricing or turning cartridge setup into a weekend engineering seminar.

The N2 is available now with suggested pricing of £250 / €250 / $325.

The Bottom Line

The larger story at High End Vienna 2026 is not just that Clearaudio has created a Beatles turntable, a Rammstein turntable, and a gaming deck. Other companies have already proven that music culture and turntable design can overlap in smart and commercially successful ways.

The difference is that Clearaudio appears to be treating these products as proper analog playback components first and collectible objects second. The Innovation Revolver Special Edition has a new plinth architecture. The Rammstein Artist Series model has its own construction and visual identity. The Elevation platform is built around long-term ownership and upgradeability. The GT compass recognizes that gaming soundtrack vinyl is not a fringe joke anymore. The Compact Phono, ULPS, and N2 cartridge show that Clearaudio is also updating the less glamorous parts of the playback chain.

That is the correct balance. Culture gets people through the door. Engineering keeps them listening.

And in very Clearaudio fashion, the whole thing feels like Robert Suchy trying to broaden the audience for high-end vinyl without sanding off the company’s German DNA. The Beatles bring the history. Rammstein brings the fire. The rest of the lineup brings the mechanical discipline.

Sehr deutsch. Sehr präzise. And not remotely casual.

Related Reading:

As the Oura Ring 5 has just launched, we’re keen to see how the smart ring compares to the 2021 Oura Ring 3.

If you’re still rocking the nearly five year old smart ring, is now the time to upgrade? Or is the Oura Ring 3 still a perfectly solid device for tracking your health and fitness metrics?

Ahead of our official Oura Ring 5 review, we’ve compared its specs to the Oura Ring 3 and highlighted the key differences and upgrades between the two. We’ve also put together a comparison between the Oura Ring 5 vs Oura Ring 4, so you can see how the newest model measures up to the brand’s recent flagship. 

Alternatively, visit our Oura Ring 4 vs Oura Ring 3 guide to see how the two compare. For a broader look at ways to track your health and fitness, we’d recommend visiting our best smart rings and best fitness trackers guides instead.

Specs Comparison Table

	Oura Ring 5	Oura Ring 3
Colours	Silver,Black, Stealth, Brushed Silver, Gold, Deep Rose	Titanium, Black, Gold, Silver, Stealth
IP Rating	IP68	IP57
Size (Dimensions)	6.09 x 2.28 mm	10 x 2.5 mm
UK RRP	From £399	–
US RRP	From $399	–
Waterproof Rating	10ATM	10ATM

Advertisement

Price and Availability

At the time of writing, the Oura Ring 5 is available for pre-order and will launch officially from June 4th. The smart ring comes in a choice of six colours, with the exact price depending on the finish you choose. For example, the Silver and Black Oura Ring 5s will set you back £399 while the inStealth, Brushed Silver, Gold and Deep Rose options start at £499.

SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208548

The Oura Ring 3 is no longer available to buy directly from Oura, however it can still be found on third-party sites such as Amazon and John Lewis. While its price can vary, generally you should expect to spend around £249 for the ring.

Advertisement

Oura Ring 3 comes with a choice between two designs

Although both the Ring 3 and Ring 5 come with various colour options, the Ring 5 is only available as a fully rounded ring. Instead, the Ring 3 can be found in either the Horizon or Heritage versions, with the former being a typical rounded ring and the latter sporting a flat-top edge.

Regardless of whether you opt for Heritage or Horizon, both iterations are made from titanium and sport a PVD coating that promises scratch resistance. Similarly, the Oura Ring 5 is made from titanium.

Advertisement

Oura Ring 5 is thinner and smaller

While the Oura Ring 4 and Oura Ring 3 look pretty much similar, Oura has switched things up with the Oura Ring 5. If you found the Oura Ring 4 or 3 too large and bulky, then this change will likely appeal to you. 

Depending on whether you opt for Horizon or Heritage, the Ring 3 weighs from 4 to 6g and is 2.5mm thick. In comparison, the Ring 5 starts from just 2g and is 2.28mm thick. While that certainly sounds a lot smaller than its alternative, we should disclaim that we never found the Ring 3 to feel thick or heavy.

Advertisement

Even so, the fact the Ring 5 is considerably lighter and thinner should mean it will feel more natural during wear – and you’ll likely not even notice you’re wearing a ring.

Oura Ring 5 promises better scratch resistance

Although it was fitted with PVD, we found that the Ring 3 was annoyingly susceptible to scratches. Sure, scratches are a natural result of daily wear and tear and they don’t necessarily ruin the look of the ring, it’s still a shame that they appear quite so easily. However, in our experience we found that the scratches don’t harm the Ring 3, and the device remains durable and can withstand submersion in water up to 100m too.

Advertisement

Oura promises that the Ring 5 is the brand’s “most scratch resistant ring yet” thanks to a new “extra-strong” PVD coating. We’re hopeful, but we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on the ring to see how scratch resistant it really is.

Oura Ring 5 promises to be more accurate

Oura explains that the Ring 5 is fitted with new signal architecture that combines “precison-engineered low-profile sensor domes for better skin contact”, more powerful LEDs for “clearer, more consistent readings” and a total of twelve stronger signal pathways for greater accuracy across more finger types and skin tones.

Perhaps most notably, Oura promises that the new signal architecture provides “more accurate activity detection” than previous generations, which is a promising update considering we sometimes struggled with recording workouts accurately with the Ring 3. 

Advertisement

We’ll have to wait and see how accurate the Ring 5 is, but considering the Ring 3 reliably tracked the likes of our heart rate, skin temperature and the like, it’s fair to say we have high expectations.

Both require a subscription to unlock more features

Make sure you keep in mind that both the Ring 5 and Ring 3 require an Oura membership to unlock all the features. This membership will set you back £5.99/$5.99 and gives you access to the iOS and Android smartphone app.

Advertisement

From the app, you’ll have access to all your data from your Sleep, Readiness and Activity scores, plus heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen sensing, stress levels and the ability to set personalised activity goals too. In addition, there’s a plethora of women’s health tools including cycle insights and predictions too. Plus, the Oura Ring 5 supports Natural Cycles, an FDA-cleared birth control app that allows you to track your fertile windows and monitor pregnancy too. Garmin has also recently introduced its own Natural Cycles integration too.

Early Verdict

The Oura Ring 5 seems like a promising upgrade over the Oura Ring 3, thanks to its upgraded signal architecture that claims more accurate tracking, stronger scratch resistance and a promise of up to a week’s worth of battery on a single charge. Plus, as it’s thinner and lighter, it seems like a great choice for those who aren’t used to wearing rings.

Advertisement

Having said that, the Oura Ring 3 still offers many of the same tracking features as the Ring 5 – so if you’re already sporting the older model then there’s perhaps less of a need to upgrade.

We’ll be sure to update this versus once we review the Oura Ring 5.

To be an educator and a writer is to inhabit a rollercoaster world of hope; at times, you are filled with the excitement and power of possibilities, and at others, you are terrified of losing it.

During the Voices of Change fellowship, I not only grew as a writer but was also inspired by educators who gave me the gift of “freedom dreaming.” I’ve since sought opportunities to practice freedom dreaming daily in the classroom. Embedding joy and equity into the curriculum and building authentic relationships with students are my north stars. I refer to my students as family, and to highlight that, I have a banner with a quote by Gwendolyn Brooks on my door. It reads, “We are each other’s magnitude and bond.” I’ve placed photos of the students in my classes all around the banner.

I’ve also begun teaching world history. This class energizes me and makes me want to revolutionize and freedom-dream the way history is taught and explore people and stories that matter.” Facing History and Ourselves” and the “Remedial Herstory Project” have been instrumental in helping me find my way and voice as a history teacher.

Despite teaching a new subject that gives me joy, this particular school year has been one of the most emotionally exhausting and difficult for me. I live in Minneapolis, where our 2025-26 school year began with the mass shooting at Annunciation School, a community with close ties to my school. Then, in December, the havoc of ICE removing neighbors and family members from our communities began and culminated in the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. On the hardest days, I held back tears as I tried to instruct my classes. The students and I were scared; our mental health was tested and we were often distracted by everything outside of our school.

I can’t help but feel that one of the first steps to legitimizing the brutal and dehumanizing treatment of Brown and Black people and those protesting against ICE was creating a narrative that DEI is antithetical to academic learning. However, as a Spanish and history teacher, I know that DEI pumps life into the themes and lessons I teach. I believe it is necessary to center women’s voices and Indigenous histories and to honor Black and Afrolatine lives in our curriculum, creating dynamic lessons with more complex, richer perspectives.

Most inspiring to me has been watching neighbors and friends rise up to protect the safety, integrity and heartbeat of our city as we experience the violence and injustice of ICE. Seeing the strength of my community motivates me to eliminate the idea that hope is lost and inspires me to do my part in the classroom.

The students and I work to banish the hate and inequity infiltrating our lives, and freedom dreaming has pushed me to channel the world I want to live in into the curriculum. For example, I built a lesson for my Spanish class entitled “In Times of Crisis, Humanitarian Help.” We learned about the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa in many Caribbean countries, but focused on World Central Kitchen and humanitarian José Andrés’s work to restore people’s dignity and ability to live after natural disasters by preparing meals for them.

In world history, we spent longer than necessary on the Mauryan Empire and Ashoka’s legacy in Buddhism, highlighting principles of peace, nonviolence, and respect for all creation. One student told me this lesson made her strongly consider converting to Buddhism. For me, it is crucial for students to know that even though politics and society seem rife with conflict, it is possible to lead with peace, love and fierce empathy.

My life as a writer and educator has continued to evolve. After the fellowship, I earned a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry in 2024. Receiving the Voices of Change fellowship and then the poetry honor gave me the confidence to apply for and receive a summer writers’ residency this year. I’m excited by the opportunity to continue exploring the part of me that wants to write about my experiences in and out of the classroom, no matter how challenging they may be.

Yet, after over 20 years of teaching, what’s remained constant is creating moments of joy, humor and connection in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, we still build competencies — not just for school, but for life.

My goal is for each school day to be permeated by the unwritten hope of freedom dreaming, so that the students and I — and, by extension, our wider community — believe in the barrier-breaking power of unity and a world thriving on dignity and respect for all.

The public markets have been asked whether they believe in AI, and they have answered with $85 billion. Alphabet’s record-shattering equity offering, which priced on 2 June, is not just the largest stock sale in tech history. It is the largest equity offering of any kind, in any industry, ever.

The company had initially planned to sell $40 billion in a first tranche of shares and depositary instruments. Demand was so strong that the offering was oversubscribed and upsized to $45 billion, CEO Sundar Pichai said on X. Add a second $40 billion tranche planned for next quarter, and the total comes to roughly $84.75 billion.

Among the buyers: Berkshire Hathaway, not typically associated with AI exuberance, committed $10 billion in a private placement split evenly between Class A and Class C stock.

The numbers behind the number

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Advertisement

The previous record for an equity offering was held by Brazilian oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro, which raised $70 billion in 2010, according to Bloomberg. Alphabet beat it by more than $14 billion.

This is not a speculative bet on a loss-making startup. Alphabet reported $109.9 billion in revenue for Q1 2026, up 22% year on year, with Google Cloud growing 63% to $20 billion. The company is already the second most valuable in the world by market capitalisation, closing in on Nvidia.

The money raised is earmarked for AI infrastructure. Pichai described it as “part of our multi-year investment strategy to meet the AI opportunity ahead.” At Google I/O last month, he said Alphabet expects to spend between $180 billion and $190 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, up from an already staggering guidance of $175 billion to $185 billion issued in February. The vast majority is going to data centres and AI compute.

What it means for the AI IPO pipeline

The timing is not coincidental. Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC on 1 June, one day before Alphabet priced its offering. The AI company, last valued at $965 billion, is targeting a public listing that could value it above $1 trillion. OpenAI is reportedly preparing its own filing.

For both companies, Alphabet’s successful raise is validation that institutional investors are willing to absorb enormous AI-linked offerings. If public appetite falters, the entire AI IPO thesis collapses. So far, the appetite looks insatiable.

The obvious comparison is the dot-com era, and it is not entirely unfair. The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio for tech stocks sits at 38, with market concentration exceeding 2000 levels. The critical difference, as analysts have noted, is that today’s AI companies are actually profitable. Alphabet’s operating margins are healthy. It is raising equity not because it needs to, but because it believes the return on AI infrastructure spending will justify the dilution.

The $8 trillion question

Goldman Sachs estimates that between $4 trillion and $8 trillion in total capital investment will flow into AI infrastructure over the next five years. That money has to come from somewhere: company revenues, debt markets (Alphabet has already tapped yen and euro bond markets this year), and equity sales like this one.

The question McKinsey’s latest research raises is whether the productivity payoff from all this spending will materialise at sufficient scale. If it does, the $85 billion Alphabet just raised will look like shrewd timing. If it does not, the record-breaking offering will mark the moment public markets went all in on a promise that had not yet been kept.

For now, investors are voting with their chequebooks. Warren Buffett, who once famously avoided tech stocks, just wrote a $10 billion cheque for Google’s AI future. That alone is worth paying attention to.

New graduates’ careers are unfolding in an era when AI is not optional. The most successful engineers treat artificial intelligence as leverage, not competition.

Here are seven tips to help keep young professionals in demand no matter how quickly the field’s tools evolve.

1. Master the fundamentals first. AI tools can help you code, but you still need strong fundamentals in:

AI can autocomplete syntax, but if you don’t understand how things work under the hood, you’re likely to struggle to debug or optimize.

2. Learn how to work with AI, not against it. The best engineers will not try to out-code AI. Instead, they will learn to:

• Write clear prompts to generate better code snippets.
• Review and debug AI-generated code for accuracy, performance, and security.
• Use AI for productivity boosts while still exercising judgment.

Think of AI as a teammate. The real skill is knowing when to trust it and when not to.

3. Build projects that showcase end-to-end thinking. Employers increasingly look for engineers who can design and build systems, not just solve problems. Create projects that show you can:

• Define requirements clearly.
• Use AI tools responsibly within the workflow.
• Deliver a product that scales and is maintainable.

4. Sharpen your system design skills early. Even junior engineers are now asked questions about basic system design with AI. Expect to explain to prospective employers:

• How you would responsibly integrate AI into a system.
• How to design fallbacks when AI fails.
• How to ensure scalability and reliability.

5. Develop strong communication skills. Today’s engineers don’t just code in isolation. You will be expected to:

• Explain design choices to teammates and stakeholders.
• Document decisions clearly.
• Collaborate effectively in cross-functional teams.

This is one area where AI cannot replace you. Clear communication is a career accelerant.

6. Stay curious and keep learning. The tech industry moves fast, and AI is accelerating that pace. Cultivate habits such as:

Employers value engineers who keep themselves sharp and relevant.

7. Think beyond coding. AI will increasingly handle routine coding tasks. The differentiators for you will be:

• Problem-framing: Can you take a vague idea and turn it into a solution?
• Architectural judgment: Can you design systems that scale and last?
• Ethical awareness: Can you spot risks in AI use and address them responsibly?

For more career advice, subscribe to the IEEE Spectrum Career Alert Newsletter. The biweekly newsletter features the latest information on jobs, education, management, and the engineering workplace.

The rapid buildout of data centers across the US to meet the increasing needs of AI tools has become a controversial topic, with state laws popping up to limit their construction, and cities and individuals weighing in to stop them.

As tech giants rush to build out these massive AI data centers, critics have questioned the land, water and power being guzzled, including the protesters staking out the Microsoft Build software conference focusing on AI in San Francisco this week.

One of the people positioned at the entrance to the Fort Mason event center, handing out leaflets detailing the effects of data centers being built, was Amy Herman. I spoke to her about her concerns.

“I would say it’s more of an opposing viewpoint,” she clarified when I asked about the protest. “It’s not that we’re against technology, or against any sort of monetization of innovation.”

She said it’s more a challenge of balancing limited natural resources with big tech companies that don’t want to be held accountable for managing climate change while chasing technological advancement.

“What we’re doing on our planet and all the impacts that are happening, not just here in San Francisco but across the United States,” said Herman, adding that “the ripple effects of that are going to be felt.”

Advertisement

During the Microsoft Build keynote on Tuesday morning, CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft would seek community permission to build data centers in the future. 

It’s aiming to get approval from local residents by improving the cooling systems and reducing water use by data centers; ensuring data centers don’t increase electricity prices for locals; adding to “the tax base that funds local hospitals, schools, parks and libraries,” and investing in AI training and non-profits in those areas.

Nadella called the rapid buildout of data centers “extraordinary” during a live podcast on Tuesday with Sarah Guo and Elad Gil of No Priors and Swyx of Latent Space.

“At this point, it’s clear that … we as an industry are very principled about ensuring that the benefits of all the stuff we’re talking about are felt in real ways at the community level,” Nadella said. “It has to be real, where people are saying, ‘It’s not changing the prices of energy for me, in fact, if anything, it’s bringing down the prices because long term there’s going to be a better grid, there’s going to be more energy … water is being replenished.’”

He emphasized the importance of getting communities to buy into AI technologies and the data centers that drive them.

“All this has to be real. And if that is the case, then we’ll have permission,” he said. “If it is not, you won’t have permission; it’s as simple as that.”

He added that Microsoft is seeking to add jobs during and after construction of these massive data centers — but he said people are right to question it all.

“We have to take it as an industry very seriously,” Nadella said. “I think it’s good for communities to be skeptical, ask the hard questions.”

Some of the people asking those questions were on hand outside Microsoft Build alongside Herman, with colorful imagery depicting scenes of corporate greed, pollution and poverty, eager to speak with conference-goers.

Herman said one of the major issues is that electricity prices in rural areas are much higher than they were before data centers were constructed in those communities, with people forced to choose between paying for medical support or their electricity bills.

Microsoft has more than 500 data centers in 80 regions, with the tech giant adding more data center capacity in the past 18 months than it did in the first decade of its Azure cloud services. And they’re not only in the US, but across the rest of the globe — Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America.

Speaking during the keynote about the Fairwater data center — “our first AI super factory” — Nadella broke down the three major workflows of such factories into AI training, inference and agent runtime.

“The entire system was designed from the ground up for AI,” Nadella said. “And we’re rethinking even the power delivery … how do we deliver hundreds of kilowatts per row while minimizing … the conversion loss that happens from the grid to the silicon?”

Fairwater went live ahead of schedule in April, with Nadella calling it “the world’s most powerful AI data center” in a post on social media site X.

He says there was a new approach to water use in the Fairwater AI data center’s cooling system, which is filled only once and then can operate “with zero water consumption” thereafter.

“The daily water usage over the course of an entire year is roughly equivalent to what a single restaurant would use,” Nadella said on Tuesday.

Some data centers that are currently under construction “will use more energy than large cities,” according to Harvard Law School‘s Ari Peskoe.

Microsoft says Fairwater has “cost-efficient, reliable power,” with usage of around 140kW per rack, 1,360kW per row, as well as software and hardware solutions for reducing power during off-peak times and using “an on-site energy storage solution to further mask power fluctuations without utilizing excess power.” For comparison, the energy usage of a typical US residential utility customer is around 1.2kW.

During the keynote on Tuesday morning, Nadella said Microsoft’s new principles for building out data centers involve ensuring they “do not increase the electricity prices, making sure that we are replenishing all our water use, creating jobs in the local communities for the local residents, adding to the tax base, making sure we’re strengthening the communities by investing in local training and the nonprofits in the area.

“Only when we live up to these principles, do the hard work around it, is when we earn the permission to go ahead and innovate and build,” the CEO said.

When I asked Herman about Microsoft’s promises to give back to local communities after seeking their permission to build data centers there, she expressed doubtful hope.

“If they’re actually that invested, I’d love to see them develop a more cooperative business development model that incorporates democratic values at the core of their operational agendas,” she said. “I haven’t seen that demonstrated in practice internally as a business, so why would I trust it at a local governance level?”

Summer travel season brings crowded planes, trains, and walkways in Italy, France, and Spain. The same crowds that create unforgettable experiences at tourist attractions and markets also allow quick-handed thieves to target distracted visitors. A typical daypack exposes wallets, phones, passports, and cameras in ways that professional pickpockets use every day. The Travelon Anti-Theft Classic Backpack, priced at $49 (was $104), addresses this issue with practical barriers.

It measures 12 inches wide, 16 inches high, and 6 inches deep, and has a capacity of 11 liters, which is manageable given its weight of only 1.2 pounds. The padded laptop sleeve inside is designed to handle a 13-inch laptop, and the overall size is compact enough to carry all day in the city without feeling weighed down on your shoulders or back.

Sale

Travelon Anti-Theft Classic Backpack

• ADVANCED 4-POINT ANTI-THEFT PROTECTION — Travelon’s patented security system creates a powerful, invisible shield between you and the unexpected…
• SMART ORGANIZATION RESTORES ORDER — Life is chaotic, your bag shouldn’t add to it. Purposeful organization creates calm, keeping essentials where…
• ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT + ERGONOMIC COMFORT — Classic bags are designed to carry more with less effort. Built from feather-light yet durable materials…

Three layers of protection work together to keep your gear safe and secure. The shoulder straps are strengthened with steel cables to keep pickpockets from cutting them, and the body panels are composed of extremely robust slash-resistant mesh that will withstand rough handling in crowded areas. Instead of just closing, the zippers clip securely to built-in rings, and any attempt to force them open results in a good hard tug on the user. To protect against electronic card readers, RFID-blocking material is used in the front and interior slots.

They’ve also paid close attention to how this design is organized. The front compartment puts your passport, cards, and small items right where you need them while keeping them safe from prying eyes, and a tethered key clip prevents your house keys from vanishing in a quick grab. The main compartment includes a laptop sleeve as well as some zippered and drop pockets for segregating wires, chargers, and documents, which is a very useful feature for keeping things organized. You also have a side pocket for a water bottle or umbrella, as well as a little tuck pocket on the other side to put anything that you want to keep out of sight but easily accessible.

Travelers who have tested this product in Europe have all reported the same thing: the locking zippers eliminate the possibility of a silent unzip, which crooks enjoy employing in crowded trains or shoulder-to-shoulder situations. The cut-resistant straps and panels are a great way to keep someone from simply slashing the bag and running. Plus, RFID protection adds another layer of security against contactless card theft.

According to data and insurance analysis, Italy has the highest pickpocketing rate in Europe, with tens of thousands of cases reported in Rome alone each year, including the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon. France isn’t far behind, thanks to all of the bustle surrounding Paris landmarks, and Spain is also seeing its fair share of problems in areas such as Barcelona’s Las Ramblas and key plazas, as it’s not surprise that the same busy destinations receive so much attention year after year.

For years, one question in Microsoft’s internal employee survey served as a reliable pressure gauge. It asked whether staff felt they were getting a “good deal at Microsoft,” defined as “a reasonable balance between what I contribute to Microsoft and what I get in return.” When the scores dropped low enough, the company responded with significant pay rises.

When Microsoft released the results of its latest employee sentiment surveys, that question was nowhere to be found in the main report. Nor, employees noted, was a question about confidence in company leadership. Workers took to an internal message board to ask why, according to Business Insider, which viewed copies of the comments.

“Can you please provide clarity on whether or not the question has been removed and why,” one employee wrote in a post that attracted more than 200 thumbs-up reactions. Another replied with a meme from A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth!”

The official explanation

A Microsoft employee whose title is “Head of Employee Listening” responded on the internal forum that the questions had not been removed. They were simply being asked in different surveys, sent to subsets of employees, “so we can cover more topics without increasing survey length,” according to the response confirmed by Microsoft.

The explanation did not land well. The “good deal” question had historically been reported as a headline metric. Burying it in a subset survey, regardless of the methodological rationale, removes the one number that the entire company could point to when compensation felt inadequate.

That number has a track record. In 2022, after low and declining scores on the question, Microsoft announced company-wide pay rises and increased stock awards. By 2023, the mood had shifted: the company froze salaries, cut 10,000 jobs, and redirected resources toward AI.

A survey that doesn’t match the room

The broader survey results, drawn from 71% of employees and roughly 265,000 comments, painted a mostly positive picture. Employees reported feeling included in their teams, energised about their work, and aligned with Microsoft’s culture. The strongest-scoring item, at 88, was “I prioritise addressing security challenges in my role,” according to HR Grapevine.

But some employees said the results did not match what they were seeing elsewhere inside the company. “It seems like employees essentially have zero concerns about the company,” one wrote in a comment with more than 70 thumbs-up reactions, “but in every single public forum, AMA, petition, etc., thousands of employees are raising concerns about Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military, ICE, US military, and so on.”

The disconnect between survey data and lived experience is not unique to Microsoft. But at a company that has spent the past year offering voluntary retirement to 7% of its US workforce, tightening performance expectations, and pouring tens of billions into AI infrastructure, the gap feels especially pointed.

The compensation question Microsoft would rather not answer

Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has committed more than $80 billion to AI data centres and compute capacity. It spent $37.5 billion in capital expenditure in a single quarter. Nadella has described the company’s 220,000-plus headcount as a “massive disadvantage” in the AI race.

That framing tells employees something specific about where they sit in the company’s priorities. When the one survey question designed to measure whether workers feel fairly compensated is no longer reported to the full company, the message is hard to misread.

Across the tech industry, the pattern is the same: record revenues, record AI spending, and a workforce being asked to do more with less certainty about what it gets in return. Microsoft may still be asking the “good deal” question somewhere, in some survey, to some subset of employees. But by removing it from the results everyone sees, it has answered it.