The past few decades have seen unprecedented levels of innovation, especially in what Peter Thiel calls the world of “bits,” or software, internet, and mobile technology.

According to Thiel, however, there’s a sense that the tech space “could be doing so much more,” especially in what he calls the world of “atoms” or efforts to create things like new forms of energy, medicine, and transport — spaces that tend to be costly and challenging to tackle, but also potentially transformative.

Using the CB Insights emerging technology insights platform, the research company identified high-momentum companies pioneering new ways to solve big problems.

In the report, they looked at 12 categories and 36 companies that could change the world, ranging from quantum cryptography and DNA data marketplaces to speed-of-light computing and next-gen nuclear energy. The Sustainable Shippers category, where Einride is mentioned as one of three actors to look out for, is defined as companies reducing costs and mitigating the environmental impact of heavy-lift logistics.

How the 12 categories were selected: In addition to looking at where high profile investors are placing their bets across the tech space, CB Insights also used CB Insights News Mentions tool, which mines and organizes millions of media articles to quantify media attention to tech trends, to identify game changing tech trends.

How the 36 companies were selected: CB Insights used the tool CB Insights Company Mosaic, which tracks private company health using signals including recency of financing, total raised, and investor quality, to identify high momentum/quickly growing companies within our categories. The company gathered this data via our machine learning technology (dubbed The Cruncher) as well as via several thousand direct submissions from firms and individual professionals using The Editor.