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6 SMT007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2026 Welcome to a Strong 2026! We are now into the second quarter of the 21st century, and we may not quite yet have flying cars as we saw in "The Jetsons," but we're close. In fact, be sure to check out the video showcasing an electric VTOL "flying car" flown by my high school classmate, Tim Lum.1 Electronics manufacturing, rather than Spacely Sprockets or Cogsley Cogs as the Jetsons predicted, occupies a noble and criti- cal place in this century. No one disputes that elec- tronics are increasingly at the center of virtually all modern life. Industry watch groups, such as Lincoln Inter- national, project this to be the early years of an EMS supercycle,² which certainly seems like a call to action with respect to investment and strate- gic positioning. But does the reality of the market reflect that same sentiment? According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the global EMS market in 2025 expanded under a few clear, intersecting forces. Projections indicate strong growth as demand rebounds from cycli- cal semiconductor weakness. The forecasts place the 2025 global revenue baseline in hundreds of billions of dollars with less than 10% CAGR expecta- tions throughout the decade.³ That certainly validates the Lincoln International perspective, but what's driving that growth? Demand drivers concentrated in AI/data center infrastructure, automotive electrification, and tele- com build-outs pushed higher-complexity assem- N O L A N ' S N OT E S by N o l a n J o h n so n , I- C o n n ect0 07