Key Takeaways from the 2026 Annual Meeting

At the end of January, Baker Hughes hosted its Annual Meeting 2026. Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman and CEO welcomed a record 2,500 Baker Hughes customers and partners from 80 countries to Florence, Italy. 

The event brought together leaders from across the energy and industrial landscapes — from oil and gas, power generation, and renewables, to heavy industry, digital infrastructure, data centers, and utility sectors. This year, these leaders were united around one defining challenge: rewriting The Energy Equation™.

What is The Energy Equation™?

The world runs on the dynamic interdependence between industrial outcomes and energy sources. Baker Hughes calls this interdependence “The Energy Equation,” and here’s how it works:

• The world is always aspiring to better things – and as it does, it demands more of industry to make those things possible.
• Industry responds with innovative breakthroughs, scalable processes, and continuous improvements, all in the service of meeting the world’s demands. Baker Hughes calls industry’s results “industrial outcomes.”
• Industrial outcomes aren’t possible without fuel to charge them. That fuel comes from “energy sources” – both traditional and new energy to sources yet to be discovered – constantly supplying just the right molecules at just the right time. 

Energy sources are how the world fuels these industrial outcomes. This requires traditional sources, new energy, and sources yet to be discovered. The cycle is dynamic, rapid, and responsive to demands that are constantly changing.

This interdependence – underpinned with the non-negotiable of sustainability – is what keeps the world in balance. External forces — geopolitics, climate pressure, rising demand, new industrial frontiers, and financing constraints — are coming at a relentless pace. 
 

Baker Hughes is able to bridge industrial outcomes and energy sources thanks to its diverse portfolio strategy.™. This means: the coupling of the pace of change, the demands of the world, and the unique ability of Baker Hughes makes this time right to rewrite The Energy Equation™, and here is how: 

 Delivering radically new industrial outcomes that advance the world: 

• Connect industrial and energy value chains, 
• Forge innovative partnerships, and 
• Make bold moves to accelerate scalable and sustainable industrial progress.

Rethinking how to bring more energy sources to the world: 

• Engage every source of energy and every stakeholder, 
• From producers to consumers, and investors to policymakers 
• To responsibly deliver the historic amounts of additional energy required in this next era – ‘The Demand Decade’. 

Baker Hughes is rewriting The Energy Equation™ through collaboration across industry and energy, through technology innovation and deployment, and through development and execution at scale.

How is Baker Hughes delivering radical new industrial outcomes that advance the world?

Beyond energy, Baker Hughes is transforming essential industries – such as agriculture. For example, the team is working with Wabash Valley Resources to help repurpose a gasification plant into a clean ammonia and fertilizer facility. Read the press release here.

With Hydrostor, Baker Hughes is investing in the infrastructure the energy system requires while providing solutions to advance it. Read the press release here. 

Advancing CCUS innovation with Giammarco Technologies,  Baker Hughes is collaborating to advance and commercialize Hot Potassium Carbonate solutions for post-combustion capture across a range of energy and industrial sectors. Read the LinkedIn post here.

How is Baker Hughes rethinking how to bring more energy sources to the world?

Baker Hughes is helping the world produce and use energy differently - engaging every source of energy and every stakeholder to responsibly deliver the historic amounts of additional energy required in this next era. 

For example, looking at geothermal energy. With Fervo Energy, the leader in next generation geothermal energy, Baker Hughes have partnered to design and deliver five power plants generating 300 megawatts of power to the grid. At the recent Annual Meeting, Tim Latimer, Fervo’s co-founder and CEO, spoke about the role of next-generation geothermal in grid reliabilityhere.

Baker Hughes is also scaling digital impact, enabling energy systems to become smarter, cleaner, faster, and more productive.

• Using AI to rapidly transform energy production – utilizing the full suite of AI-powered digital technologies, including the Kantori™ autonomous well construction solution, which was launched at Annual Meeting 2026 . 
• Expanding Cordant™ industrial analytics software, adding capabilities that deepen insights, optimize asset strategy and health, reduce downtime, and improve reliability across the full energy and industrial value chain. Read the press release here.
• Advancing digital-forward collaboration with Expand Energy, deploying Leucipa™ automated field production solution across U.S. natural gas fields to enhance production optimization and reduce emissions through real-time automation and data intelligence. Read the full press release here.

Trends and conversations from the event

Sessions during the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting 2026 focused on the practical realities shaping the next decade. A few that stood out include:

• The competitive landscape for resources, technology, and industrial capacity is changing rapidly. Governments and companies alike are prioritizing resilience and flexibility in energy systems — not only for security, but also for enabling growth.
• Climate pressures are reshaping infrastructure needs. Extreme weather events are driving demand for reliability and highlight the importance of robustness in grids and industrial operations.
• Across sectors, one theme was unmistakable: demand for energy — particularly electricity — is surging. Electrification, digitalization, advanced manufacturing, and AI-driven infrastructure are expanding demand vectors in ways not seen before.
• As industry scales — from data centers to chemicals, steel to cement — delivering the energy required to power this growth is not a single-path problem. 
• Financing remains a critical enabler. Closing the investment gap will require new capital models, blended finance, risk sharing, and supportive policy frameworks that unlock projects at scale.

Looking Ahead

There are three clear imperatives:

• Scale what works — accelerate proven technologies and industrial approaches that deliver measurable outcomes.
• Connect ecosystems — deepen partnerships across sectors, from producers to policymakers.
• Invest with discipline and urgency — deploy capital where it unlocks impact and enables resilience.

Annual Meeting 2026 represents more than a moment in time – it marks an inflection point for energy, industry, and Baker Hughes’ role on and across both sides of The Energy Equation™. Moving from ambition to execution - delivering dependable, lower carbon energy while advancing industrial growth requires integrated solutions at scale.

Baker Hughes showcased how it continues to thrive and operate with equal depth across subsurface, surface, energy systems, and industrial performance. This is what it takes to truly rewrite The Energy Equation™ - to deliver industrial outcomes with speed, scale, and responsibility.