ANN ARBOR — The U.S. dollar’s steep decline in 2025—its worst annual performance in nearly a decade—is quietly reshaping the outlook for Michigan businesses as they head into 2026. While the softer dollar is improving global competitiveness for some industries, it is also raising costs and complicating planning for others in a state deeply tied
NEW YORK - More than 50 years before ChatGPT could tell you what to cook for dinner, a 1968 science fiction film was shaping how we think about machines that talk to us. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a Jupiter-bound spacecraft is controlled by HAL, a computer that thinks for itself and has its own agenda. As
LANSING — Michigan business owners are entering 2026 facing a new and largely unavoidable cost increase: sharply higher health insurance premiums tied to the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. The federal premium tax credits — expanded during the pandemic and extended through 2025 — lowered monthly insurance costs for hundreds of thousands of
ANN ARBOR - A dramatic new test-flight video released by a California aviation startup has reignited one of technology’s oldest promises: the flying car. The footage shows a compact electric vehicle lifting vertically from the ground, hovering smoothly, and settling back down under full control—a small flight by aviation standards, but a major psychological milestone
LANSING — Michigan’s clean-energy economy is entering a more fragmented phase after the state lost roughly $540 million in federal climate-related grants, triggering a pullback in several high-profile renewable and green-manufacturing projects while other energy investments continue to move forward. The funding losses follow a shift in federal priorities in 2025 that froze or terminated
LANSING — Michigan’s cannabis industry is heading into 2026 facing a new cost layer that operators say will further squeeze margins in an already oversupplied market. Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the state will implement a wholesale cannabis tax on transfers between growers and retailers — a structural shift that moves part of Michigan’s cannabis tax
ANN ARBOR - Artificial intelligence wasn’t just the biggest tech story of the year — it reshaped infrastructure, energy demand, labor markets, and regulation, making it the dominant force behind nearly every other major trend. 1. Artificial Intelligence Dominated the Narrative Across virtually all major year-end recaps, AI was the #1 theme of 2025: Key
ANN ARBOR - For decades, solar power has followed a familiar formula: rigid, flat panels mounted on rooftops or spread across open fields. Those panels have helped Michigan steadily expand its solar footprint — even in a state better known for cloud cover than desert sun. Now, researchers are developing a new class of photovoltaic
ANN ARBOR - Michigan’s electric grid was not built for artificial intelligence. It was designed to serve households, factories, and offices — not clusters of hyperscale data centers running AI models around the clock. But that mismatch is now reshaping utility planning, economic development, and infrastructure policy across the state. The AI Power Surge Traditional
ANN ARBOR - Michigan is stepping into the fast-moving world of hyperscale data centers just as the industry’s biggest constraint becomes impossible to ignore: power. Across the United States, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital services is driving a surge in demand for data centers—massive facilities that can consume as much
