The new exact exchange algorithm implemented in FHI-aims and the highly optimized ELPA library enables simulations of large system sizes at moderate runtimes. On the one hand, these implementations allow one to increase statistical sampling to address the huge configuration space that comes with the large system sizes. On the other hand, the accuracy of hybrid DFT simulations is sufficient for many applications. We believe that with the aid of future exa-scale resources in combination with sophisticated data-driven models, hybrid functionals will be established as default method for DFT simulations of materials. In general, exploiting sparsity is key to low-scaling electronic structure methods for large scale simulations. Real-space algorithms using localized wavefunctions are especially well suited. Nevertheless, the data distribution and communication pattern may need architecture-specific optimizations that complicates software design and code maintenance.