This week, the powder industry saw three transformation trends: technical routes, business models, and downstream applications. Powder recycling moved from concept to industrial validation. WorldPM2026 in Montreal concluded with Pometon TER-EIGA achieving industrial-grade conversion of waste powder to high-purity spherical powder; Continuum M247 recycled nickel-based powder outperformed virgin stainless steel in powder bed performance. Valland's waste aluminum-to-LPBF-grade powder reduced carbon footprint by 73%; SDU explored direct printing of scrap metal without chemical cleaning. Recycling technology now has systematic data support. Equipment manufacturers are transitioning to capacity service providers. Velo3D launched a 288,000 sq ft superfactory in California with 40+ large metal printers, tripling capacity, driven by $21.3M in defense contracts, with Q1 revenue of $13.8M (+48% YoY). The shift from selling equipment to selling capacity is accelerating. Downstream applications expanded from defense to AI and semiconductors. Huagong Tech's copper powder LPBF micro-channel heat sinks have become essential for AI chips, with batch deliveries in Suzhou; domestic PDR spherical tantalum powder with purity ≥99.95% broke the monopoly of the US, Japan, and Germany. The powder market is shifting from single-driver defense/aerospace to dual-drivers of AI computing and semiconductor self-sufficiency.