Every year, the tech world crowns a fresh set of winners who shape the way people play, work and argue online, and 2025 was no exception. Some wins came from clever iteration, others from sheer market power or political influence, and a few from trends that many people actually dislike but simply cannot avoid. From Nintendo’s long-awaited hardware refresh to the uncomfortable rise of AI-generated video slop, this year’s “winners” changed the landscape whether anyone asked them to or not.
Below is a fully refreshed and expanded look at 2025’s biggest winners in tech, with clearer structure, tighter explanations and more context for why each entry really mattered.
Nintendo Switch 2: Iteration Done Right
Nintendo’s Switch 2 didn’t reinvent the hybrid console concept, but it did almost everything fans had begged for since the original launched. The new model keeps the dockable handheld formula intact while polishing nearly every meaningful detail: a sleeker chassis, sturdier magnetic Joy-Cons, a larger 1080p HDR LCD screen and notably stronger performance. Battery life remains the one major area where expectations weren’t completely met, but the overall package feels far more modern without losing the charm that made the first Switch so beloved.
Backward compatibility also turned out to be a quiet superpower. The vast majority of existing Switch titles not only run on Switch 2, many see visual or performance improvements, so early buyers weren’t stuck with a thin launch lineup. Nintendo then layered on top-tier first-party releases like Donkey Kong Bananza and Metroid Prime 4, while convincing third parties to bring heavyweights such as Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6 and Hitman: World of Assassination. With Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and FromSoftware’s Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods on the horizon, the system quickly gained momentum that translated directly into sales.
Review scores in the low-90s and upgraded projections of 19 million units sold by March show that players rewarded Nintendo’s conservative but polished approach. The Switch 2 proves that sometimes “more of what you love” is exactly what the market wants, especially when it arrives with a ready-made library and a clear performance bump.
NVIDIA: The Reluctant King of the AI Gold Rush
NVIDIA spent years building GPUs for gamers and visual professionals, but its long bet on parallel processing turned into a historic windfall once AI exploded. The same architectures once used to render 3D worlds suddenly became the backbone of generative AI training and inferencing, catapulting the company into the center of the industry’s biggest spending spree. Data centers everywhere now stack NVIDIA cards by the rack to train massive models, while its GeForce line still dominates high-end PC gaming and even local AI experimentation at home.
The numbers tell the story: a more than tenfold stock surge in five years and staggering demand for every generation of data-center GPU. NVIDIA’s approach thrives because GPUs can chew through huge amounts of math in parallel, something AI workloads crave. They’re not the most power-efficient solution, which is why dedicated NPUs are appearing in laptops and phones, but for scale and flexibility the company remains hard to dislodge.
The company’s position isn’t invincible. Cloud giants like Google, Microsoft and others are racing to develop their own custom AI chips, both to reduce costs and to avoid dependence on a single supplier. If AI spending cools or shifts to specialized silicon, NVIDIA could feel the downdraft first. For now, though, it sits at the center of the most important hardware boom since the smartphone.
Tech Billionaires: Power Consolidated at the Top
If 2025 proved anything, it’s that tech’s wealthiest figures know how to turn political access into policy wins. Under the Trump administration, conservative-leaning tech billionaires enjoyed a regulatory and fiscal environment that often favored their interests. High-profile allies slashed budgets and staff at agencies tasked with oversight, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, even as those same agencies continued to investigate issues like Tesla’s driver-assistance features.
Wealth inequality at the very top widened further. The ten richest US billionaires — dominated by tech founders and executives — added hundreds of billions in net worth in a single year, according to watchdog groups. That kind of surge does not happen in a vacuum: it reflects favorable tax structures, lax scrutiny of large mergers and acquisitions, and the soft power that comes from massive political donations. Elon Musk and other industry titans poured money into campaigns and prestige projects, even reportedly helping fund upgrades like a lavish new White House ballroom.
The result is a tech elite with more access and leverage than ever. Large deals face less political resistance, corporate tax cuts remain firmly on the table and regulatory agencies send mixed signals about how hard they’re willing to push. Whether this ultimately benefits innovation or simply entrenches an oligarchy is an open question — but in 2025, the winners’ club at the top got richer and more entrenched.
AI Video: Ubiquitous, Unloved and Unstoppable
AI-generated video didn’t debut in 2025, but this was the year it became impossible to escape. Major players like Meta, Google and OpenAI lowered the barrier to entry so far that anyone with a prompt and a few seconds of patience could spin up “real-ish” clips. The result was a tidal wave of AI slop: surreal religious mashups like “Shrimp Jesus,” uncanny animal footage that never happened and fake movie trailers cranked out purely to game recommendation algorithms and ad revenue.
The infrastructure fueling this mess grew faster than the tools to contain it. Meta added entire feeds dedicated to user-made AI hallucinations. OpenAI’s Sora app and similar tools racked up downloads at blistering speeds, and Google’s Veo quietly pumped tens of millions of short videos straight into YouTube Shorts. On mainstream platforms, AI content did not just appear in recommendations — it often dominated them, forcing services like Pinterest and TikTok to add controls for people who wanted to see less synthetic media.
The social consequences veered from annoying to outright dangerous. Viral deepfakes portrayed fake ICE raids, politicians saying things they never said and bizarre, sometimes scatological videos endorsed or amplified by powerful figures, including the president. Surveys showed that more than half of Americans doubted their own ability to distinguish AI content from reality, and a similar share said they were more worried than excited about AI’s growing presence. Despite that discomfort, engagement metrics rewarded the most extreme content, ensuring that AI video remains a “winner” simply because it overwhelms the attention economy.
Galaxy Z Fold 7: Foldables Finally Go Mainstream-Friendly
For years, foldable phones were synonymous with compromise: thick, heavy, fragile and expensive. With the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung finally crossed an important threshold and delivered a device that feels less like a prototype and more like a polished flagship. The phone now matches — and in some dimensions beats — traditional slab devices, coming in lighter and narrower than the Galaxy S25 Ultra while remaining nearly as thin when folded.
On paper, the specs look almost implausible for a folding handset: a 200MP main camera, IPX8 water resistance, a 5,000 mAh battery with 45W charging and an 8‑inch inner display that turns the phone into a small tablet. In daily use, the reduced weight and refined hinge make it easier to slip into a pocket or use one-handed, dramatically expanding its appeal beyond early adopters and tech enthusiasts.
That refinement paid off in market terms. Samsung reported a 50 percent jump in Z Fold sales compared to the previous generation, helping push global foldable shipments to record highs. The Z Fold 7 still lacks the improved dust resistance that Google offers on its Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and prices remain steep, but the device signals the start of an era when flexible displays are judged as normal options, not exotic experiments.
Smart Glasses: From Punchline to Serious Contender
Smart glasses spent much of the past decade haunted by the ghost of Google Glass — awkward, expensive and socially off-putting. In 2025, the category finally began to move past that image. New products like the Meta Ray-Ban Display and upcoming devices such as Xreal’s Project Aura showcased how far optics, batteries and miniaturized components have come. Instead of clunky headsets, users now get frames that look reasonably stylish while hiding displays, cameras and microphones.
The real unlock, however, is AI. Voice-controlled assistants and on-device processing make hands-free interactions feel natural instead of gimmicky, which is crucial for something worn on the face. People can ask for translations, directions or contextual information without pulling out a phone, and AI systems can summarize what the wearer sees or hears. That continuous, subtle layer of assistance is what smart glasses were always supposed to deliver, but the technology simply wasn’t ready a decade ago.
This year’s momentum doesn’t mean mass adoption has arrived; price, privacy concerns and social norms still limit how widely these devices appear in public. But smart glasses are no longer a dead-end curiosity. Instead, they look increasingly like a future pillar of personal tech, sitting alongside phones, watches and earbuds as everyday companions.
Fast Charging: The Quiet Time-Saver Across Devices
Fast charging has existed for years, especially in smartphones, but 2025 marked the moment it quietly became one of the most universally appreciated upgrades across categories. What changed was less about peak wattage numbers and more about integration into everyday routines. On devices like the Pixel Watch 4, a ten-minute top-up could push the battery from under 20 percent to over 50, fundamentally changing how people thought about charging. Instead of planning overnight sessions, users could drop the watch on a cradle while brushing their teeth and walk out with hours of power.
Apple’s iPad Pro M5 brought similar benefits to tablets, delivering large charge boosts in short windows even if real-world results fell slightly short of marketing promises. Reviewers and users alike noticed that they no longer needed to baby batteries or obsessively track percentages; short, opportunistic charges were enough to keep gear running most of the day.
The impact extended to electric vehicles and beyond. Formula E finally rolled out fast-charging pit stops that meaningfully affected race strategy. Honda announced its first full-size electric motorcycle with fast charging built in, and BYD unveiled tech capable of 1,000‑kW peak charging, roughly halving typical EV top-up times. Concerns about battery longevity and thermal stress remain valid, but across watches, tablets, phones and vehicles, fast charging emerged as a practical winner because it gives people back one resource that cannot be replaced: time.
Magnets: The Small Hardware Detail That Changed Everything
Magnets might sound like an odd “winner,” but in 2025 they quietly transformed how people use phones and accessories. With Qi2 finally gaining traction, magnetic alignment for wireless charging spread beyond Apple’s MagSafe ecosystem and into mainstream Android territory. Google’s Pixel 10 series embraced the standard and launched its own Pixelsnap accessory line, including a slim magnetic puck with a built-in kickstand and the Pixel Ring Stand that quickly became a favorite for its portability and reliable grip.
These accessories do more than make charging easier; they turn the back of a phone into a modular platform. Users can snap on stands, wallets, battery packs or mounts with a satisfying click, no adhesives or bulky cases required. The convenience and flexibility set a new baseline for what people expect from phone ecosystems, especially as third-party makers refine designs and drive prices down.
Apple, unsurprisingly, pushed magnets in a more fashion-forward direction with its Crossbody Strap for iPhone. Early skepticism gave way to appreciation once people tried the adjustable magnetic length system, which lets the strap resize smoothly without fiddly buckles. Even if Apple wasn’t first to market with a strap or magnetic adjustment, the execution helped legitimize the idea and highlighted how small hardware details can dramatically improve day-to-day use. In a year full of grand AI promises and flashy foldables, simple, well-designed magnets still managed to stand out by making tech feel more humane and convenient.
