The 2 next big things from long-established companies for 2026

Innovation can be challenging, even for companies with a clean slate. Those who have an established track record of 15 or more years of business must navigate history, culture, product lines, and other entrenched forces that can be both assets and inhibitors. Our honorees have shown that past success doesn’t preclude tomorrow’s progress by leveraging robot fleets for construction and extending real-time intelligence to billions of devices. DeWalt and August RoboticsFor getting fleets of robots to drill down into construction efficiencyGargantuan data centers do not spring up overnight. Their many construction complexities include holes for structural support as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. To streamline what can be a particularly labor-intensive process, DeWalt and August Robotics developed robots that can be operated together as a fleet to handle physically demanding tasks such as concrete drilling while supporting a collaborative human-machine model. In July, August Robotics reported that its drilling robot delivers up to 10x faster drilling speeds versus traditional methods, reducing construction times by 190 weeks across 26 major projects. SynapticsFor…