This comment originates from TPC26 (https://tpc26.org), a gathering of leading researchers from academia, national laboratories, and industry aimed at reshaping materials‑science discovery. The meeting highlighted how AI‑driven reasoning, autonomous agents, self‑driving laboratories, high‑performance computing, and fault‑tolerant quantum processors can synergistically amplify their impact on material discovery. As these technologies mature in parallel, researchers sense that chemical science is at a tipping point—marked by transformative breakthroughs and productive disruption. The article surveys the latest advances, explains the pivotal roles of these tools in accelerating candidate screening, predicting novel compound properties, and closing experimental loops, and looks ahead to the co‑evolution of future laboratories.
Review