LF Edge 2025 Year in Review and What’s Ahead in 2026
2025 has been a milestone year for edge computing and for the LF Edge community. Market momentum accelerated across every segment, driven by real-time AI needs, device refresh cycles, and the rise of decentralized data processing. At the same time, LF Edge projects saw broad adoption across industrial, energy, manufacturing, retail, and sustainability-focused deployments.
As we close out the year, here’s a look back at what we achieved together and where we’re headed in 2026.
Edge and AI: The Market Shift Defining 2025
Industry data shows a clear story: edge computing is now core to AI deployment strategies.
- Global edge spending is expected to reach $261B in 2025 and $380B by 2028 (IDC).
- AI and AR remain the fastest-growing drivers, especially in retail, finance, manufacturing, and services (McKinsey).
- On-device and near-device inference is becoming the norm, fueled by the growth of AI-capable hardware and lower-latency requirements (Gartner).
- Edge AI revenue is forecasted to hit $157B by 2030, with strong momentum across transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and smart cities (STL Partners).
2024 marked the largest investment year in edge computing ever, with USD 16.7B invested since 2020, underscoring rising demand for local compute and real-time intelligence.
2025 Progress Across LF Edge Projects
This year, LF Edge projects continued to expand their footprint across real-world production environments. You can find the full library of LF Edge user stories here. Here are a few notable deployment highlights:
- EdgeLake deployed across smart heating, tourism, and smart city projects, powering decentralized data lakes and real-time processing.
- Open Horizon supported resilient smart farming implementations and joint deployments with EdgeLake for decentralized AI and IoT management.
- Fledge remained strong in industrial automation, including grid monitoring for RTE France and safety monitoring at UC Davis and Opus One.
- EdgeX Foundry expanded as a common edge platform across Eaton, IBM, Intel, and Scale Computing retail solutions.
- EVE & Alvarium were deployed in the world’s first BioGas plant for secure carbon footprint measurement via DigitalMRV.
Across the ecosystem, open, modular stacks were a key differentiator, helping organizations accelerate deployments while reducing lock-in.
Technology Trends That Defined 2025
A few consistent themes emerged across markets and deployments:
1. Edge AI Became a Business Priority
Organizations moved from experimentation to operational AI on the edge, especially in robotics, automated vehicles, video analytics, predictive maintenance, and observability.
2. 5G and Energy Trends Boosted Edge Deployments
5G-enabled architectures and renewable-powered edge data centers continued to rise, alongside vendor consolidation in the data center edge.
3. AI–Edge Convergence Accelerated
LF Edge projects played a central role in enabling autonomous operations, streamlined data pipelines, and real-time analytics, including Akraino R8/R9, InfiniEdge AI 2.0, and new EdgeLake case studies.
4. Community Momentum Continued to Grow
Our most recent LF Edge webinar brought together 11 speakers from Atym, Emerson, HMS Networks, Schneider Electric, Sony Group, Siemens, and Wind River, highlighting cross-industry collaboration and real-world deployments of Project Ocre.
Looking Ahead: LF Edge Priorities for 2026
As we move into 2026, LF Edge will focus on unifying the ecosystem, expanding community participation, and doubling down on AI-at-the-edge innovation.
1. Grow the LF Edge Community
- Add 2 new Premier Members and at least 5 new General Members.
- Expand developer and user participation across all projects.
2. Refresh Messaging for the New Edge Landscape
We’ll sharpen our positioning around:
- Edge AI
- Data at the Edge
- Device-up and Cloud-down architectures
Messaging and campaigns will be tailored for six key verticals: Industrial, Automotive, Retail, Energy/O&G, Telecom/Cloud and Smart Cities
3. Accelerate Project Ecosystem Growth
- Continue identifying new edge and AI-focused projects.
- Build on the 50% project growth seen in 2024 and 2025.
- Prioritize end-to-end vertical solutions and blueprint-driven collaboration.
4. Strengthen Cross-Foundation Alignment
We’ll continue working with projects and foundations including LFN, Sylva, CNCF, and Margo, exploring blueprint-based integration, shared labs, and cross-stack solutions.
5. Amplify LF Edge’s Position in the Global Ecosystem
LF Edge will continue establishing itself as the open source home for edge and IoT unification, supported by analyst partnerships (such as STL Partners) and market-facing content that highlights real deployments and measurable impact.
2026: The Year Edge AI Goes Mainstream
With AI workloads rapidly shifting toward the edge and industries investing in real-time, data-driven operations, LF Edge is uniquely positioned to lead this next wave of transformation. 2025 showed what our community can achieve, and 2026 will be the year we scale it.
