Software taketh away faster than hardware giveth: Why C++ programmers keep growing fast despite competition, safety, and AI

C++ and Rust are the fastest-growing major programming languages from 2022 to 2025, driven by computing demand consistently outpacing hardware supply. Power and chips are the two biggest constraints on computing growth, making performance-per-watt efficiency critical. C++ continues evolving with C++26 adding significant security improvements including bounds-checking in the standard library, elimination of undefined behavior from uninitialized variables, and functional safety via contracts. Despite concerns about safety and AI replacing programmers, the global developer population grew 50% to 47 million, with C++ adding roughly as many developers in one year as Rust has total worldwide. AI serves as an accelerator tool rather than replacement, with major tech companies continuing to aggressively hire human programmers.