Spain is committed to connecting Madrid and Barcelona at 350 km/h. And you have already taken the first step to achieve it

Madrid and Barcelona linked by a train capable of reaching 350 km/h. Just when the journey between the two largest Spanish cities has become a Russian roulette if your goal is to arrive on time. And just where the Renfe trains are having the most problems fulfilling what is expected. However, the Government is determined to increase the maximum speed of the line. And you have already taken the first step. At 350 km/h. In November 2025Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, presented one of his star projects: linking Madrid and Barcelona with a train that travels at a maximum of 350 km/h. The final objective is to be able to travel between both cities in less than 120 minutes when it is now necessary to spend at least 182 minutes. As long as everything works correctly, of course. To reduce the trip by one hour two interventions are necessary for which the necessary papers have already begun to be moved. One of them is the construction of two new stations, one in Parla (close to Madrid) and another in El Prat de Llobregat (close to Barcelona). The objective is to decongest the traffic that currently passes through Madrid and offer a variant of exit and entry to Barcelona. The other intervention would be applied to the infrastructure itself and, it seems, will be the first to be carried out. A first step. The Ministry of Transport has confirmed which has already awarded a first supply batch of overhead traverses for the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line. A 112 million euro contract that is key for trains to reach 350 km/h top speed. These first air traverses will be installed in four sections: Mejorada del Campo-Brihuega (232,400 units), Brihuega-Alcolea (143,150 units), Alcolea-Ariza (166,250 units) and Ariza-Calatayud (138,600 units). In addition, some maintenance tasks have been awarded “such as the renewal of the seat plates for sleepers (elements that ensure the fixing of the rail to the sleeper).” Finally, the Ministry of Transport points out that “treatment and improvement actions are being carried out on two viaducts on the Guadalajara-Calatayud section of the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line, Benamira and Río Blanco, both in the province of Soria.” A physical question When the train exceeds 300 km/hthe aerodynamic load on the underside of the trains increases. This load is generated by turbulence under the train car, “gluing” it to the track. The more load, the more energy the train has to use to maintain speed. If the train releases that aerodynamic load a little, it does not need as much energy and it is easier for it to reach the desired top speed. It is the same case as a Formula 1. The car is interested in having a lot of downforce on a circuit with many curves because it will be able to go through them faster. However, it will penalize on the straight because the top speed will be lower. On the contrary, if the circuit has few corners and many long straights, you are interested in low downforce to “fly” as fast as possible. But the car will be more unstable when cornering. Furthermore, the Ministry of Transport explains that the ‘ballast flight’ must be added. This is the vibration of the stones, the ballast, when the train exceeds 300 km/h. At that speed it is critical because the turbulence raises these stones and produces constant collisions against the undercarriage and increases the risk of them being thrown and falling on the tracks and sleepers, generating potholes and vibrations. The air traverses. Since the project was presented, the Ministry of Transport has indicated that the aerocrosses are key to being able to guarantee speeds greater than 300 km/h on the route. But, What are aerocrosses? The aerocrosses are born from an Adif project which has been working on for more than a decade. Its design is very similar to current sleepers at first glance, but it has a rounded design that reduces the turbulence generated under the trains and, with it, the pressures that increase the aerodynamic load and ballast flight. According to his calculations: Reduces the aerodynamic load in the space immediately above the ballast bed by 21%. The design allows increasing the distance between the ballast level and the upper face of the sleeper. It has no higher manufacturing or handling costs (they are still molds). And most importantly: the aerodynamic load generated by a train at 330 km/h on a track with current sleepers is equivalent to that generated by the same train at 370 km/h, but with aero sleepers. In a delicate moment. He Adamuz accident in Córdoba led to the machinists to lift their foot on the line and Adif ended up lifting temporary restrictions of speed that have been happening until today while the line is being reviewed. The result is that Madrid-Barcelona will be played in the promised 182 minutes (25 minutes more than usual) is, right now, taking a chance. This has caused a good part of the passengers who used the train to travel during their work day, with many comings and goings during the day, to move back to the Aerial Bridge. The CNMC calculates that up to half a million passengers may be lost if travel times remain higher than usual. But, in addition, the Madrid-Barcelona line is where Renfe has detected the most problems with its Avrils. The vibrations on this route ended up generating cracks in the Talgo trains, designed to be used on variable gauge trackwhich gives them a competitive advantage in Madrid-Galicia. However, Renfe had to remove them from circulation upon seeing that they broke on this route that is now being renewed. Photo | Pablo Nieto Abad In Xataka | Spain decided to build its social life around the AVE. And now he’s discovering the consequences of failing.

Anthropic is about to achieve something that seemed impossible for a large AI company: make money

In a data leak published by The Wall Street Journalthe artificial intelligence laboratory founded by the Amodei brothers has informed its investors that it will close the second quarter of 2026 with revenues 130% higher than those of the first quarter of the year. It is a colossal achievement that also achieves something unusual for these companies: they will have an operating profit of 559 million dollars. They earn more than they spend. According to these data, the company will reach $10.9 billion compared to $4.8 billion in the first quarter. Its quarterly growth rate already exceeds Zoom during the pandemic or those that Google and Facebook had before their stock market increases. It is quite a breath of fresh air for an industry accused of being a gigantic bubble. The rivals, fatal. While Anthropic gives the big surprise, the rest of the competitors are still in a good financial situation. For example, OpenAI confessed to its investors that does not expect to see benefits until 2030. It didn’t work out well for xAI either, which carries losses of 6.5 billion due to investments in data centers. How did they achieve it?. To achieve this milestone, Anthropic has differentiated its strategy from the beginning. It has focused mainly on companies that pay for the intensive use of its agentic tools (Claude Code) and its APIs (Claude Opus/Sonnet 4.7). It also uses chips from manufacturers such as Google and Amazon, and has managed to optimize its spending in the cloud. It is therefore more focused and it is more efficient than its rivals, and that has had a clear effect on its balance sheet. Mythos as reputational success. In recent months Anthropic has fought several political and media battles and seems to have emerged victorious from all of them. Have Pentagon attempt rejected By controlling how its AI models were used was a clear boost to that brand image. But also the launch of its Mythos model It has been especially striking because although it is not publicly accessible, it does not stop giving headlines that seem to confirm that what Anthropic said (“it is so good that we better not release it”) was true. But. Although the figures are promising, there are nuances in these estimates. Not being a public company, Anthropic uses accounting methods that benefit it in this forecast. For example, it includes as direct revenue the sales of its models through its partners, such as AWS or Google Cloud, something that OpenAI does not do. In addition, it excludes stock compensation for its employees and these results do not guarantee that this profitability will be maintained throughout the year. We will see more quarters in red. The profit achieved would be extraordinary for many companies, but it is pocket change for Anhtropic. The company recently committed to spending $15 billion in SpaceX computing capacity using Colossus clusters. At the moment everything indicates that these benefits will be temporary and the company will return to red numbers. And yet, its evolution is currently more positive than that of OpenAI, against which it has not stopped winning battles for some time. In Xataka | Nvidia’s financial results are simply dizzying. And it still hasn’t sold a single chip in China

As Europe builds data centers to achieve independence, its power grid enters the hunger games

Europe finds itself at a crossroads. If you listen to the CEO of Mistral, you should start investing big to stop being the technological vassal of the United States. That implies investing and part of that investment is in data centers. But American Big Tech is also moving and, if in the US they find frontal opposition to the construction of data centersthey move and there are countries like Spain that are favorite destinations. But there’s a huge problem: it’s not so much about money as it is about energy. And European macroplans are colliding with the reality of the electricity grid. Full speed ahead. The United States has the most brutal data centers on the planetbut Europe has a plan to arm itself and achieve that technological sovereignty. The plan goes through energy thanks to geothermal energy and, above all, renewables. Europe is a power in this and Spain has already shown its plumage to attract European and Big Tech data centers. esteem that there are 5,400 in the US and 3,400 in Europe, and Europe wants to close the gap. There is a very small problem: renewables are not enough to satisfy the voracity of data centers. We are constantly seeing it: data centers need constant power, but when they enter intense computing phases, the expense is so high that they need energy spikes that renewables cannot satisfy. That’s where they come into play. nuclear, gas and even coaland a Europe that cannot play that due to environmental policies is where it has its weak point. Spain. There are several points to analyze. As we say, Spain is one of the countries that is presenting itself as one of the best assets to host data centers. Aragon, specifically, is a community that is pushing hard in this direction and serves as an example. AWS is going to put some gigantic data centers in the community, adding more than 10,800 GWh of energy per year. To contextualize, it is more than all the current electricity consumption of the community. But it is not only happening in Aragon and the fear is that the saturated Spanish electricity grid will now have to deal with those data centers that they can collapse the network. He blackout ghost it’s still there and it’s already been warned in the Official State Gazette that an increase in installations that are not capable of withstanding voltage dips pose a very high risk for the network. the hunger games. Because first the principles of agreement came and, now, the different EU countries are realizing that, perhaps, it is not such a good idea. One of the most recent cases is that of Energinet, the state operator of Denmark’s electricity grid, which, in March, suspended all new large-scale connection agreements by receiving requests that would reach 60 GW, with 14 GW of them being for data centers. As in the case of Aragon, it must be put in context and, according to According to CNBC, the country’s maximum demand is 7 GW, so that total of 60 GW exceeds the country’s consumption almost nine times. It is not about canceling plans, but about an extension until we discuss what to do with that demand, but there are already those who point out that the extension cannot be ruled out because, simply, the country’s network may not be prepared. Estimation of increased energy demand for data centers FLAP-D. But they are not the only ones. Amsterdam, London or Dublin can no longer absorb the brutal energy consumption of artificial intelligence and the technology industry has set his eyes on the northern countries (in which wind energy is the protagonist) and in those in the south (with solar as a guest star). They are three important names because they are part of the FLAP-D, the conglomerate of Flankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin that, historically, have been the dominators of the data center sector. Because these facilities have existed before the arrival of AI, but with the conversion to computing centers for AI is when their consumption has decreased. shot and when these metropolitan areas cannot meet demand. Those needs are so exaggerated It is estimated that data centers accounted for almost 80% of Dublin’s electricity consumption, forcing Ireland to impose a de facto moratorium on new data centers in its capital until 2028. braking. The situation, of course, is not the most promising for those who are building the AI ​​infrastructure at the moment. The boss of SMIC, one of the Chinese companies that is leading the country’s technological transformation, pointed out a few weeks ago that the AI ​​Big Tech companies are building all the infrastructure they will need over the next decade. in just one or two yearswhat is generating that plug in stock components worldwide. But then there is the energy plug which, as we see, is not small. And, obviously, it also generates delays in supply. According to the calculationsa decade to connect the new facilities to the electrical grid. If Microsoft, or whoever, builds a data center by 2027, but can’t pull the plug until 2037, something is clearly wrong. What is clear is that regulators are going to look at these projects with a magnifying glass because there is a physical limit that is that energy and connection requests. In fact, it is already recommended that before coming with a monstrous data center and then looking to see if there is a plug, construction plans take into account consumption and connection planning to national networks from the beginning. But there’s another problem: You can build a data center today that consumes x energy, but when you upgrade to more powerful platforms, those calculations may blow up. Either that… or self-powered data centers, as already stated made in Dublin. In Xataka | Data centers are real “heaters”. And they are settling in regions as hot as Aragón

To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan

In the midst of the Cold War, several Western engineers they were surprised upon discovering that some of the most reliable small electronic components on the world market came from an island that barely made the big geopolitical headlines. Decades later, that silent specialization in manufacturing tiny and apparently invisible parts would end up becoming one of the industrial capabilities most coveted on the planet. The war that changed an industry. For decades, Taiwan was known primarily for making chipselectronic components and invisible parts that ended up inside telephones, computers or servers spread all over the planet, but modern wars are beginning to push that industrial capacity towards another, much more explosive terrain. The Guardian said that what is happening between Ukraine and Taiwan reflects a quiet change that barely existed a few years ago: the creation of a new technological alliance born directly from drone warfrom Chinese pressure and the desperate need to produce millions of cheap, autonomous and combat-ready systems. Ukraine wants to break its dependence on China. The war forced Ukraine to build at full speed a gigantic industry of drones capable of feeding a front that consumes absurd quantities of devices every month. The problem is that much of the global supply chain remains dominated by China: Motors, batteries, navigation systems, electronic components and rare earths continue to depend heavily on Chinese manufacturers. As we said, kyiv began to consider this dependence as a strategic risk When suspicions grew about indirect support from Beijing to Russia and fears grew of possible export restrictions. There Taiwan began to appear as an alternative unexpectedly important. His huge experience in semiconductors, microelectronics, electronic integration and advanced technological production made it one of the few places capable of supplying critical parts without being completely dependent on the West or trapped under direct Chinese control. For Ukraine, finding industrial partners outside of China stopped being a commercial issue and became literally a matter of survival. And Taiwan found Ukraine. While Ukraine seeks to produce millions of drones, gradually moving away from China, Taiwan observes the conflict with another concern: the possibility of one day confronting Beijing on its own territory. That coincidence of threats is creating a relationship ever deeper between both worlds. In fact, The New York Times said what Taiwanese engineers They send drones to Ukraine to be tested directly in combat, American companies transfer designs born on the Ukrainian front to Taiwanese production and former Taiwanese soldiers who today fight in Ukraine return home telling how modern war really works. Many Taiwanese militaries are beginning to discover that traditional doctrines are completely outweighed by swarms of FPV drones, unmanned maritime systems or cheap ground robots capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles. Ukraine is thus becoming a kind of university improvised military for Taiwan, one where the lessons do not come from simulations but from a real front where every mistake costs lives. The new military industry no longer resembles the old one. One of the most profound changes of this war is that military production no longer depends solely on gigantic state factories or large traditional contractors. Ukraine has developed more than one hundreds of local manufacturers of components while constantly adapting its systems to specific front-line needs. Ukrainian companies modify drones, software and guidance systems at a much higher speed to the Western classical industry. Taiwan fits perfectly in that transformation because it has exactly what Ukraine needs to accelerate that production: advanced electronics, specialized chips and flexible industrial capacity. Several Taiwanese companies already operate from Poland or Lithuania to indirectly supply kyiv, while Taiwanese drone exports to Europe have skyrocketed massively. In parallel, American companies are using Ukraine and Taiwan like two extremes of the same industrial chain: Ukraine provides combat experience and accelerated development, and Taiwan provides technological capacity and scalable manufacturing. The obsession with building drones outside of China. Both Ukraine and Taiwan share another priority that is becoming almost an industrial doctrine: building supply chains at the expense of Beijing. The problem is much more complicated than it seems because even many components manufactured outside China still use materials, batteries or magnets that depend from Chinese suppliers. Even so, both territories try gradually reduce that exhibition. Taiwan wants to build a drone industry completely disengaged from China by 2027 and increase its own production of rare earth magnets, while Ukraine continues to shift production within its borders. There is no doubt, the challenge is gigantic because Chinese products continue to be much cheaper and more abundant, but strategic logic is beginning to outweigh the economic cost. In the middle of a war, the priority shifts from buying the cheapest to ensuring the supply chain continues to function when the next crisis hits. Building something bigger than drones. If you also want, the most important thing in this relationship may not only be the production of drones, but the emergence of a new technological and military axis informal between two territories that live under permanent threat from much larger neighbors. Ukraine contributes real experience of war, proven tactics and a brutal speed of innovation under extreme pressure. Taiwan contributes industrial capacitysemiconductors and access to critical technologies that the West does not produce quickly enough. The result is beginning to look like something much more ambitious: an entire international network of distributed military production where private companies, engineers, volunteers and manufacturers work beyond official diplomatic limitations. Even the Ukrainian government recognize as drone factories based on Ukrainian designs are popping up outside its borders, including one in Taiwan. One more thing. Ultimately, what the war is accelerating is an idea that a few years ago would have seemed improbable: that to build the largest drone industry on the planet outside chinaUkraine has ended up finding one of its most valuable and strategic allies in Taiwan. Image | x, Trydence In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely … Read more

NASA wants to head to Mars in December 2028. To achieve this, it is going to use something: nuclear reactors

Virtually all major space companies They agree that the future of space exploration involves feeding ships with nuclear energy. For this reason, NASA has already set a date for its first interplanetary trip with nuclear-electric propulsion. It will be possible thanks to Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom, which will be launched in December 2028 heading to Mars. Destination: the red planet. NASA has long shown interest in carrying out this launch in 2028. Now, the company has assured that everything is going at a good pace and that, if it continues like this, the date could be closed around the last month of this year. In order to meet deadlines, technologies previously tested by NASA are being used. Some, for example, come from the Lunar Gateway Station, whose development is currently paralyzed. With these technologies, together with a new nuclear reactor system, a trio of helicopters similar to Ingenuity, baptized as Skyfall, will be taken to Mars. The classic and the new. The SR-1 actually runs on a closed Brayton system, which is very common for power. Normally, in these types of systems A combustion reaction takes place, which produces energy in the form of heat. This is used to heat a gas, which expands and drives a turbine. The result is mechanical energy that can be used, for example, to obtain electricity. Then, when the gas cools, a new cycle begins, which is why it is said to be a closed cycle. In the case of the SR-1, everything is almost identical. The only difference is that, instead of a fuel, a nuclear fission reaction is used to obtain the heat. Thus it is not necessary to transport large quantities of fuel into space. Just a chain reaction like those used in nuclear power plants. electric motors. The electricity obtained in this closed cycle is used to power electric motors in a process that is activated 48 hours after launch. Afterwards, you can stay active during the entire year of the trip to Mars. On the other hand, this same electricity can also be used for other purposes, such as communications with Earth. Also on the Moon. The main application of nuclear energy in space will be in very long-distance travel, where the ships are so far from the Sun that solar panels are no longer useful. However, it can also be useful at much shorter distances. If this trip to Mars goes well, NASA plans to be able to use these technologies at a lunar base installed in Shackleton Crater. Strategically it is a good locationbut it has the disadvantage of being continually in shadow, so solar energy cannot be used. Nuclear fission could be much more useful. 60 years of research. In reality, the SR-1 is the result of 60 years of research, with an investment of 20 billion dollars. Although it may seem like something new, there is a lot of work behind it. Still, if NASA’s projects go as planned, they will be time and money well spent. Image | POT In Xataka | The West stopped building nuclear power plants because they were too expensive: China is teaching it a lesson

China needs to manufacture cutting-edge chips to challenge the US for global supremacy. To achieve this it has two “Manhattan projects”

China is putting everything on the table. You have no choice. Either it develops its own cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing technology or it will lose its fight for world supremacy with the US. Without 100% Chinese advanced chips its military capacity, the development of its models of artificial intelligence (AI) and the competitiveness of its technology companies will suffer in the medium term. Huawei and SMIC are making advanced integrated circuits, but they use machines from the Dutch company ASML and a technology known as multiple patterning that compromises its competitiveness. This scenario has caused the Chinese Government support with very juicy subsidies to companies that have the capacity to develop cutting-edge photolithography equipment, such as YesCarrierShanghai Yuliangsheng, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), Huawei or SMIC. However, its most compelling commitment has taken the form of two extraordinarily ambitious projects that seek to put the capacity to produce cutting-edge semiconductors in China’s hands before the end of the current decade. Shenzhen Hybrid SVU Machine Exactly one year ago, in March 2025, it was leaked that Huawei was testing the first extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography equipment designed and manufactured entirely in China. Over the last twelve months information about this machine has been arriving very slowly, but currently we know enough to take this project very seriously. Its purpose is to place in the hands of Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers the possibility of producing highly integrated chips without using ASML equipment. However, unlike the EUV machines of this company from the Netherlands, the prototype of the project led by Huawei It uses an LDP (laser induced discharge) type ultraviolet light source, and not an LPP (laser generated plasma) class. On paper the LDP source is capable of generating UVE light with a wavelength of 13.5 nmso this Chinese prototype should be able to compete head-to-head with ASML’s UVE photolithography machines. The LDP radiation source is less powerful and simpler to implement than an LPP source, although it has been leaked that the Harbin Institute of Technology, which is located in northeastern China, is testing a 100 watt LPP source. The Changchun Institute of Optics, Mechanics and Physics appears to be able to manufacture the mirrors required for an EUV machine using atomic polishing techniques The most interesting thing about this project is that, if we stick to what we know, it seems to have shaped a hybrid photolithography machine which combines solutions developed by China by reverse engineering ASML’s deep ultraviolet photolithography (UVP) equipment in its possession and innovations devised by Chinese research centers. The Changchun Institute of Optics, Mechanics and Physics appears to be able to manufacture the mirrors required for an EUV machine using atomic polishing techniques with performance close to that of the mirrors produced by ZEISS for ASML. On the other hand, Tsinghua University has recently presented advances in polyteluoxane photoresists designed specifically for interact with the wavelength of 13.5 nm. Furthermore, Xuzhou B&C Chemical, which is one of the leading photoresist materials manufacturers in China, anticipates that in at most five years will have the capacity to produce large-scale advanced KrF photoresists (Krypton Fluoride) and ArF (Argon Fluoride). Be that as it may, the leaks maintain that the first test integrated circuits will be produced by this machine in 2028so that large-scale manufacturing will begin no later than 2030. Tsinghua University’s SSMB-UVE project continues to advance Each of ASML’s UVE machines incorporates its own ultraviolet light source, but Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences seek to generate this radiation, which is so important for produce advanced chips using a synchrotronwhich is nothing more than a circular particle accelerator that is used to analyze the properties of matter at the atomic level, such as various types of materials, or even proteins. It’s called HEPS (High Energy Photon Source o High Energy Photon Source). China’s plan is to place several semiconductor manufacturing plants around the particle accelerator to which the synchrotron will deliver the SVU light. SSMB-UVEwhich is the name of this project, comes from the English name Steady-State Micro-Bunching-UVEwhich we can translate as Microclustering in steady state for the generation of UVE radiation. A priori we may think that a particle accelerator has nothing to do with the manufacturing of integrated circuits, but we would be overlooking something very important: the HEPS synchrotron has the capacity to produce high power UVE light. In fact, it is a source designed to generate a large amount of radiation. China’s plan is to place several semiconductor manufacturing plants around the particle accelerator to which the synchrotron will deliver EUV light in the same way a power plant delivers electricity to its customers. The leaks ensure that this project has already completed the verification phases of the particle beams, although in principle nothing seems to indicate that this synchrotron will be able to be used to produce large-scale integrated circuits in the short term. Presumably the Shenzhen hybrid EUV machine will be ready before the SSMB-UVE project, but the path of the latter, if it finally comes to fruition, it will be much longer because it aspires to put a next-generation UVE radiation source in China’s hands. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | TSMC acknowledges that it has considered taking its factories out of Taiwan. It’s impossible for a good reason. In Xataka | The looming bottleneck in AI is neither RAM nor gas: it’s that TSMC’s N3 node is absolutely saturated

Microsoft wants Copilot to do more complex tasks. To achieve this, it has turned to Anthropic AI

For a long time, when we talked about artificial intelligence at Microsoft, there was one name that came up again and again: OpenAI. The relationship between both companies was decisive for the takeoff of ChatGPT and also for the launch of Copilot. But the AI ​​board is moving quickly. New models, new players and increasingly intense competition are pushing large technology companies to diversify their bets. In that context, Microsoft’s latest move is understood. The advertisement. Microsoft has decided to integrate Anthropic technology within Copilot, the assistant that is already part of tools such as Outlook, Teams or Excel within Microsoft 365. Among the new features is coworka tool based on Anthropic technology aimed at facilitating tasks within the work environment. But that’s not all: Claude’s models will also be available within the Copilot chatbot alongside the more advanced OpenAI models, thus expanding the capabilities of the assistant without depending on a single artificial intelligence provider. From asking for something to delegating work. Microsoft explains that Cowork is designed to go a step beyond the classic model of an assistant who answers questions or writes texts. The idea is that Copilot can take care of entire tasks within Microsoft 365. When the user makes a request, the system converts it into a work plan that runs in the background. To do this, it uses data from Outlook, Teams or Excel. From there, in theory, you propose actions, ask for clarification if needed, and allow the user to review or approve each step before the changes are applied. Some examples. Let’s imagine, for example, that we ask Copilot to review our agenda in Outlook. The system could analyze the calendar, detect conflicts between meetings and identify lower priority meetings. From there I would propose different adjustments, such as rescheduling some appointments or reserving blocks of time to focus on more important tasks. Once those suggestions are reviewed and approved, the system itself could apply the changes automatically, accepting, rejecting or rescheduling meetings and reserving blocks of time to focus on other tasks. The strategy. As we noted above, the move also reflects how Microsoft’s AI strategy is changing. The company has maintained a very close relationship with OpenAI for years and continues to be one of its largest shareholders, with a stake close to 27% after investments of around $13 billion since 2019. However, the rise of new models and the rapid evolution of the sector are pushing large technology companies to not depend on a single technology. Incorporating Anthropic tools within Copilot points precisely in that direction: building an ecosystem capable of relying on different models depending on the task. Platforms before models. What we are seeing with decisions like this is that the race for AI is not limited to developing increasingly advanced models. It’s also about deciding where those capabilities are going to live. In the case of Microsoft, the answer seems quite broad: The company has been integrating Copilot into more and more products and services in its ecosystem (and also external ones). For some users, this constant presence can be very useful; For others it can be somewhat invasive. But beyond these perceptions, the movement clearly shows Microsoft’s strategy. On the whole. So this is not just about adding another technology within Copilot, but rather reinforcing the idea that Microsoft wants to turn this assistant into a meeting point for different AI capabilities within its software. Incorporating Anthropic models alongside those of OpenAI points precisely to that scenario. Rather than relying on a single technology, the company appears to be laying the groundwork for a Copilot capable of combining different solutions as the AI ​​market continues to evolve. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | The best and worst of the Internet we know has been built on anonymity. AI brings bad news

Navantia has just received a key piece to achieve it

If one looks at the evolution of conventional submarines, there is one constant that repeats itself: the race to stay underwater as long as possible. It is not just about speed or weapons, but about autonomy in immersion, a factor that directly determines the discretion of the platform and its patrol capacity. When a submarine has to interrupt that cycle to ventilate, manage gases or refuel, its operating margin is reduced. For this reason, much of the engineering behind the new submarines focuses precisely on solving that problem. And that is where the technology that Spain is integrating comes into play. in the S-80 program. The jump of the S-80 submarine. Amper, through its engineering subsidiary Proes-OSL Iberia, delivered to Navantia the carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂) catalytic reactors for the submarines S-83 “Cosme García” and S-84 “Mateo García de los Reyes”. These devices are part of the atmosphere revitalization system, integrated into the AIP compartment. According to the company itself, the project started in 2022 and the equipment has already received official certification from Navantia after completing the corresponding technical verifications. A key piece. The delivery announced by Amper has to do with a very specific element of the submarine’s technical ecosystem, the system responsible for maintaining the interior atmosphere within safe parameters during operation. Revitalization of the atmosphere in the submarine. The reactors developed by the company allow the controlled elimination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the compartment where the AIP system is integrated. The technology uses a catalytic combustion process that purifies these gases and helps maintain breathable air on board. In detail. The S-80 incorporates an AIP system developed by Navantia called BEST (Bio-Ethanol Stealth Technology). This system produces hydrogen on board using a reformer that uses bioethanol stored on the submarine. This hydrogen is then combined with oxygen in a fuel cell that generates electricity to power the ship’s systems during the dive, an architecture designed to extend operational autonomy without depending exclusively on batteries. What it means to stay underwater for weeks. Navantia explains that the BEST AIP system is designed to allow conventional submarines to remain submerged for prolonged periods in different environmental conditions. In that scenario, the unit reduces the need to interrupt its immersion cycle to manage power or interior atmosphere. Navantia links this greater autonomy with an expanded patrol area and with a “zero Indiscretion Coefficient”, a term it uses to describe a decrease in the probability of being detected during the mission. modern submarine. The design of the S-80 responds to the idea of ​​a modern ocean submarine capable of operating on long missions. Navantia describes the platform as a highly automated system that can be operated by a crew of 32 sailors, with eight additional spaces for on-board personnel. The ship is approximately 80 meters long, about 7 meters in diameter and has a submerged displacement of close to 3,000 tons. In addition, it can exceed 19 knots underwater speed and reach depths greater than 300 meters during operation. Apparently it is just one more component in the long list of equipment that makes up a submarine. However, systems like these are part of a much broader logic within the S-80 design. Each of them contributes to sustaining the operation of the submarine for longer periods without the need to modify its diving profile. As subsequent units in the series integrate these developments from their initial configuration, the S-80 program will show the extent to which these technologies can translate into greater operational autonomy underwater. Images | NAVANTIA In Xataka | The war in Iran is about to begin a suicidal combat: there are missiles, drones and kamikaze ships in the most fearsome point on the planet

what do you need to achieve sovereignty

The policy of vetoes, tariffs and sanctions applied by the United States to China regarding chips It has been a real catalyst for the Asian giant, which is transforming its semiconductor industry in record time with one goal: achieving technological sovereignty. And with China there is a shocking paradox: despite being the largest producer in terms of number of chips manufactured with 484,000 million units in 2024, it continues to depend technologically on the outside for the most strategic ones. The context. Semiconductors need no introduction: they are essential for most industrial activities, including some as strategic as AI. Any country that wants to compete in technological leadership and national security knows that it must have sufficient and sufficiently advanced chips to develop all these areas. The United States has designed export controls precisely to maintain that advantage, subjecting other countries to dependence and also so that China does not catch up. But with China it has had the opposite effect: it is no longer just that it has created a solid and growing national fabric, it is that with DeepSeek it has shown that it is capable of innovating even with hardware inferior to the competition. Because It’s important. Beyond a history of brilliant industrialization, the relevance lies in what it would mean if China achieved technological sovereignty in chips: the balance of power in the global supply chain would change, both at the state and business levels. Today it depends on players like TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix and ASML, but sooner or later they will lose their strategic advantage against Chinese competitors. And not only that: they will also lose the China market. Some astronomical figures. What China is doing with its industry is technologically brutal and best of all, it is doing it against the clock: The milestones that have been achieved. In addition to confirming how the industry is evolving quantitatively, there are also qualitative advances resulting from strong state investment, its great internal demand and external geopolitical pressure: They are moving away from depending on a single foreign supplier to build their own ecosystem, with Huawei in processors, Biren and Moore Threads in AI chips. Moore Threads, the “Chinese NVIDIA”, presented its Huashan AI chip at the end of 2024. According to the firmhas superior performance to NVIDIA’s Hopper architecture and is close to the Blackwell family. Changxin Memory Technology (CXMT) presented in November 2024 its advanced DDR5 DRAM memory, with speeds of up to 8,000 megabits per second and capacity of up to 24 gigabits per die, placing it on par with Samsung, SK Hynix or Micron. Yes, but. All of the above is not enough: China still has bottlenecks and pending issues: Without a lithography machine to have your own EUVthere is no capacity to produce chips below seven nanometers in an efficient and scalable way. ASML remains irreplaceable in the short term. The Chinese EUV prototype is in the oven in a high-security laboratory in Shenzhen. It has been developed by a team of former engineers from the Dutch semiconductor company using reverse engineering. We will have to wait until 2028 (in the most optimistic scenario) to see it. While CXMT is going to start mass production of HBM3 high bandwidth memory this year, SK Hynix is ​​already going for the next generationHBM4. China is running, but its rivals are not standing still either. Not only machines are needed, but an entire ecosystem: chip design software, specialized materials, ultra-precision optics and engineering talent. Closing that gap is more difficult and slower than setting up a factory. What’s coming now?. China does not step on the brakes: its 15th Five Year Plan for the period 2026-2030 explicitly calls for the adoption of “extraordinary” measures to encourage advances throughout the supply chain, including integrated circuits and high-end equipment, with the aim of achieving “decisive advances.” And it is doing so with an unprecedented economic injection and promoting supplier diversification. In Xataka | Just four years ago, China was a marginal player in the chip industry. It now has three manufacturers in the top 20 In Xataka | The biggest obstacle preventing China from winning the chip race is called ASML. So they’re trying to copy it Cover | YesCarrier and Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra

Marc Murtra has been at the helm of Telefónica for a year and has done something that his predecessor did not achieve in a decade: slimming down the company

Marc Murtra wears just over a year at the head of Telefónica and the 2025 numbers begin to validate its thesis: concentrate on four markets (Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom) and avoid the rest. Group income have grown by 1.5%, up to 35,120 million eurosand the adjusted profit reaches 2,122 million. On paper, it works. Why is it important. Telefónica has done in two years what it was not able to do in a decade: get rid of Latin American ballasts (Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador…) and redraw its perimeter. The result is a smaller, but more predictable company. And in Spain, where it has not grown since 2008, it has once again shown signs of life: +1.7% in revenue, up to 13,012 million. The backdrop. The Álvarez-Pallete stage cut the debt of the Alierta stage by halfbut it was still a brutal debt and the company had a geographical dispersion that consumed a lot of management energy without a return that was far from proportional. Murtra has opted for surgery: sell assets, continue reducing debt (337 million less in 2025, it is already at 26,824 million) and bet on markets where Telefónica has real muscle. The logic is clear. And the execution, reasonably clean. Between the lines. Brazil is now the financial heart of the group, and that has implications that go beyond quarterly results. Vivo, Telefónica’s local brand in the country, has earned more than 1,000 million euros net in 2025, 11.2% morewith an Ebitda of 41.7% that would make any European telecom company blush. Its 5G network already covers two-thirds of the Brazilian population and leads the market by number of customers. Brazil should no longer be considered an emerging market with potential: right now it is the most mature and profitable asset that Telefónica has. There is also a background reading that the results do not make explicit but that the context does suggest: the demand for data in Latin America is accelerating precisely now due to the pull of AI: more consumption in the cloud, more traffic, more need for infrastructure. Telefónica has sold its Latin American subsidiaries just when that market may be entering a new phase of growth. It is the big question that presumably no one at Telefónica wants to answer openly. Main winner? Brazil, without a doubt, but also Spain. The domestic business has broken a curse of almost two decades and is beginning to generate cash in a stable manner. That debt goes down, albeit slowly, while income goes up, is the combination that the market has been waiting for for years. Main loser? The United Kingdom. Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the joint venture in which Telefónica has 50%, has registered net losses of 1,852 million euros in 2025 (up from £19m the previous year) following a goodwill impairment charge of more than £1bn. Its income has fallen 5.3%. And by 2026, the company itself expects service revenue to drop between 3% and 5% more, dragged down by integration with Daisy Group in May 2025. The British telecommunications market is in a price war that has no easy winners, and VMO2 has been sailing against the tide for some time. The big question. Murtra has shown the ability to clean up the balance and simplify the map. What has not yet been demonstrated is that Telefónica can grow organically and sustainably in its four key markets. Spain and Brazil are making progress, but Germany continues to be a story of pending consolidation and the United Kingdom is getting complicated. The plan is well designed. Now it’s time to execute it. In Xataka | We need more and more data centers. And Telefónica is building them in its old telephone exchanges Featured image | Telephone

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