Altermagnetism: A Moonshot Discovery That Can Save or Doom Us

We live in a hyper-connected information age where technology shapes how we live and interact. Yet this revolution comes at a cost: global data centers now consume more energy than many medium-sized nations, and the rise of AI is accelerating this demand exponentially.

Information technology relies on the electrons of atoms—using their charge for computing and their magnetic spin for storing data. The digital era was enabled by ferromagnets in hard drives, but these materials are limited to gigahertz speeds, preventing them from connecting efficiently to the much faster THz optical communication network and the Internet of Things. Antiferromagnets, though a thousand times faster, produce signals too weak to detect.

This changed in 2022 with the discovery of a third fundamental form of magnetism—altermagnetism—that unites the strengths of both. Altermagnets combine terahertz-speed with robust spin-polarized signals, providing a new foundation for information technologies.

We have, for the first time, a physical path to storing information in the most efficient and fastest way allowed by nature. It can save the environment and accelerate AI and its connectivity to unprecedented speeds. There lies our salvation, but also our possible doom.