WebAssembly (WASM)

WebAssembly (WASM) is a binary instruction format that runs in web browsers at near-native speed—enabling high-performance applications written in C, C++, Rust, Go, and other languages to execute in the browser alongside JavaScript.

WASM has become critical infrastructure for the modern web. It enables applications that were previously impossible in browsers: 3D game engines, video editing, CAD software, AI inference, and scientific computation all run in-browser through WASM. Figma, one of the most successful web applications of the past decade, uses WASM for its high-performance rendering engine. Unity and Unreal Engine both support WASM export, bringing AAA-quality games to the browser.

Beyond browsers, WASM is emerging as a universal runtime for server-side and edge applications. WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) standardizes how WASM modules interact with operating systems, enabling WASM to run anywhere—servers, edge nodes, IoT devices, and embedded systems. Cloudflare Workers, Fastly Compute, and Fermyon use WASM for serverless edge computing. The security model (sandboxed execution with explicit capability grants) makes WASM attractive for running untrusted code safely.

For the agentic web, WASM and WebGPU together provide the performance substrate that makes the browser a viable platform for sophisticated AI applications. WASM handles computation; WebGPU handles graphics and parallel processing. Combined with open web principles—no installation, URL-addressable, cross-platform—they make the case that the web is the composable platform for agentic creation, as Jon Radoff argued in "The Agentic Web."