Luxury innovations that could reshape new markets: lab-grown salmon and humanoid household robot on TIME’s list

By: Trademagazin Date: 2026. 01. 09. 11:04

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For 25 years, TIME magazine has been collecting innovations every year that can revolutionize entire industries in a technological, economic or social sense. The 2025 list also includes two developments that today still fall squarely into the luxury category, but could significantly transform the mass market in the long term: salmon meat produced in laboratory conditions and the humanoid household robot, writes Economyx.

The common characteristic of both technologies is that they currently operate at extremely high initial costs, but according to investor expectations, prices could drop radically as production volumes increase and the technology matures. This could open up new, previously non-existent market segments in the food industry and household services.

Lab-grown salmon: premium gastronomy and a sustainability message in one

In the United States, the salmon meat developed by Wildtype, produced through cell culture, received a commercial distribution license in 2025, making it the world’s first “artificial fish product” to appear in restaurant offerings. The product, called Salmon Roku, is currently available in top gastronomic places, and the price of a single dish is approximately the equivalent of 10,000 forints.

This is a significant decrease compared to the fact that a few years earlier, an experimental sushi snack could cost up to 25,000 forints. The trend is clear: with the scalability of the technology, prices can quickly approach the level of a premium marine fish.

The most important business arguments for cell-cultured salmon:

it contains no mercury, microplastics, antibiotics or pesticide residues,
it does not involve overfishing,
it has a smaller ecological footprint during transportation and production,
it can be consumed raw, as it does not contain biological contaminants,
only the most valuable fillet can be produced, without loss.

It is no coincidence that investors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeff Bezos or Robert Downey Jr. saw it as a fantasy. The model is primarily aimed at premium gastronomy, sustainability-conscious consumers and ethical It could open up a new market for those who avoid animal-based foods.

At the same time, the technology is also facing political and regulatory resistance: several US states – such as Texas and Florida – have already banned the sale of lab-grown meat in order to protect traditional agriculture. This predicts that cell-cultured foods will be the subject of serious legal and market debates in the coming years.

Humanoid robot: from a luxury item to household infrastructure?

The other “luxury invention” is Figure AI’s humanoid robot, the first examples of which will begin to be tested in private homes this year. Figure 03 aims to reduce the cost of mass production to below 6.5 million forints – which is still a luxury, but no longer unattainable for an upper-middle-class household.