Theory summary

This is the write-up of the summary talk on theory activities in the heavy-ion community as presented at Quark Matter 2025. It contains a (biased) selection of results from the parallel program of the conference. The progress is reported for three different areas: Bulk dynamics and initial state; jets, heavy flavor and electromagnetic probes and QCD phase diagram and observables. The idea is to convey the major achievements in the field and give a perspective for future directions.