Elena Costa

Writes on regenerative business models, exponential technologies, and the economics of abundance, covering how companies and individuals can generate radical positive impact by leveraging technological disruption.

Articles by Elena Costa

May 25, 2026Innovation & Disruption

Codex Is OpenAI's Bet to Prove It Can Make Money

There is a pattern that repeats itself in the history of tech companies looking to open up to capital markets: the moment when the narrative of massive users is no longer enough and they need to show something more concrete. OpenAI is there. And the tool it chose to make that argument is not ChatGPT, but Codex, its software development assistance product, which in the last two months has received updates at a frequency no competitor has matched.

Elena Costa8 min

May 21, 2026Sustainability

Nestlé recycles in Kedah, but what it's building is something else entirely

There's a number Nestlé Malaysia doesn't publicize in its official press release, but it says everything about its real strategy: 15,000 tonnes of solid waste diverted from landfills in a single year. That's not a public relations program. That's collection infrastructure operating at scale, covering 260,000 households across nine cities with a target of 300,000 before the end of 2026.

Elena Costa7 min

May 15, 2026Exponential Technologies

Neutral Atoms and the Race to Build Quantum Computing That Actually Works

Quantum computing has spent more than a decade promising to reshape medicine, materials, and artificial intelligence. During that time, most capital flowed toward the superconducting circuits of IBM and Google, platforms requiring cooling to temperatures near absolute zero, costly infrastructure, and constant calibration. But beneath that dominant narrative, a different bet was taking shape: using neutral atoms as qubits, trapping them with lasers, operating them at room temperature, and scaling them into arrays of hundreds or thousands of units.

Elena Costa9 min

May 12, 2026Sustainability

Five Trillion Dollars and an Energy Transition Nobody Expected to Lead This Cycle

The dominant narrative of the past two years placed data centers and language models at the center of the largest investment story of the modern era. That reading is not wrong, but it is incomplete. What is happening in global capital markets is broader, deeper, and more structural than the debate over artificial intelligence allows us to see from the surface.

Elena Costa9 min

May 7, 2026Innovation & Disruption

Why 91% of Companies Are Adopting AI Without Knowing What Data They're Handing Over

Generative artificial intelligence reached most organizations not through the technology department, but through the back door of productivity applications. Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini, and assistants integrated into collaboration platforms were activated in corporate environments where employees were already working — and with that began a silent experiment whose terms nobody had fully negotiated. The problem is not with the language models. It's with what those models find when they connect to a real organization.

Elena Costa8 min

May 2, 2026Sustainability

India Burns More Coal While Promising Clean Energy

The world has grown accustomed to the contradictions of major emerging powers, but the one India presents deserves special executive attention. The country has one of the most ambitious renewable energy programs on the planet: 500 gigawatts of non-fossil capacity by 2030, with renewables already surpassing 50% of total installed capacity. At the same time, coal generates around 75% of the electricity consumed by 1.4 billion people.

Elena Costa6 min

April 22, 2026Innovation & Disruption

Recycling Polyester at Industrial Scale Is No Longer Just a Promise

Europe generates more than five million tonnes of textile waste every year. Most of it ends up in landfills or incinerators. Not because the technology to process it is lacking, but because turning it into useful raw material at a commercially viable cost had proven impossible to demonstrate beyond the laboratory. Until now.

Elena Costa6 min

April 19, 2026Innovation & Disruption

The AI That the Pentagon Rejected and Washington Cannot Ignore

On March 5, 2026, the United States Department of Defense placed Anthropic on a list it typically reserves for foreign adversaries: the supply chain risk category. The move was direct and severe. If sustained, it could cut the company's access to federal contracts worth billions of dollars.

Elena Costa6 min

April 15, 2026Exponential Technologies

Amazon Acquires the Sky and Ignoring It Isn't an Option

An acquisition of $11.57 billion doesn't just buy satellites; it buys the right to define who controls planet connectivity when fiber ends. The orbital monopoly is running out of time.

Elena Costa6 min

April 15, 2026Sustainability

$226 Billion in Climate Action While the World Looked Away

As major pension funds eased their climate commitments under political pressure, La Caisse increased its climate action portfolio by $68 billion in just one year.

Elena Costa7 min

April 13, 2026Exponential Technologies

The Antibody Administered Only Four Times a Year Threatens Monthly Biological Business

Spyre Therapeutics is not competing in the inflammatory bowel disease market. It is redesigning dosing frequency as a structural competitive advantage, transforming the entire sector.

Elena Costa7 min

April 13, 2026Sustainability

The Insulator Born from a Coffee Landfill

Each year, billions of kilos of coffee grounds are discarded, while the construction industry pays a fortune for petroleum-based insulators. A team in China aims to change that.

Elena Costa7 min

April 12, 2026Exponential Technologies

The Lock That Lives Inside the Cell

Synthetic biology is projected to create an $8 trillion market by 2035, and protection relies on physical security. Georgia Tech is changing that from within.

Elena Costa7 min

April 11, 2026Sustainability

The SEC's New Rules That Require Boards to Govern Transparently

The SEC has redefined accountability for climate and cybersecurity risks within companies, shifting oversight responsibilities to corporate boards.

Elena Costa7 min

April 10, 2026Exponential Technologies

Alibaba Bets $290 Million on the Future of AI Beyond Text

Alibaba Cloud invests heavily to build a general world model for AI, focusing on physical interactions instead of just text processing.

Elena Costa7 min

April 9, 2026Exponential Technologies

When Your AI Agent Loses Money by Hallucinating

AI agents are now managing real money, and hallucinating 41% of the time isn't just a minor technical flaw; it's a ticking time bomb on the balance sheet.

Elena Costa7 min

April 8, 2026Sustainability

Simplifying REACH Does Not Solve Europe's Chemical Crisis

Europe has spent decades regulating 30,000 chemicals while the industry advocates for less oversight amidst a chemical crisis.

Elena Costa7 min

April 7, 2026Exponential Technologies

Netflix Releases Cutting-Edge Post-Production Tool for Free, But Is Anyone Discussing the Implications?

Netflix has unveiled a free tool that could drastically change post-production in the film industry. But who really loses when a competitive edge becomes public infrastructure?

Elena Costa7 min

April 6, 2026Artificial Intelligence

When the Supplier Becomes the Weakest Link

Meta indefinitely paused its relationship with Mercor after a breach exposed 4 terabytes of critical data, highlighting the risk architecture of AI.

Elena Costa7 min

April 6, 2026Sustainability

When Conserving Nature Becomes a Territorial Conflict

Oxygen Conservation is building one of the UK's most ambitious natural capital portfolios. Yet their rapid land acquisition is straining community relations.

Elena Costa7 min