The @babel/plugin-transform-exponentiation-operator Babel plugin transforms the ES2016 exponentiation operator (**) into equivalent ES5-compatible code. This plugin enables developers to use the concise ** operator for raising a base to a power while maintaining compatibility with older JavaScript environments that don't natively support it. By leveraging this plugin, code employing the exponentiation operator will run seamlessly in browsers and Node.js versions without native support.